John Mayer is releasing his 9th album called Battle Studies. To some folks out there, the lyrics and musical approach to his new album is a little bit controversial them. To those who question my moral or musical tastes I say to them, hey I’m just there to listen to the guitar!
I got a sneak listen to some of the tunes on Battle Studies the other day and what I heard I liked or thought it was just plain amusing.
The song titled Heartbreak Warfare has a U2 feel to it. The song starts off with a classical orchestra tuning up for a piece that is followed up by the unmistakable guitar intro influence of the Edge. In All We Ever Do Is Say Goodbye, John falls back on his trademark acoustic progressions with a hint of Beatles chords thrown in for good measure.
Half of my Heart has that country flare with a bit of classic John Cougar Mellencamp feel in it at the beginning of this one. It takes a bit of listening to to get use to it. Who Says is just a funny little piece. Just simple guitar, drums using a brush on the snare and some simple melodic bass phrasing to keep your feet tapping to it! The lyrics seem to be from another time that is long gone for today’s political correctness era.
Perfectly Lonely sound like the old guitar player from an old buddy of mines band called Needy Fingers. The raw guitar sound it fabulous with just the correct amount of vibrato to add a beautiful colour to it.
Crossroads is the one song the his new album that I like the most. It’s an old Cream standby cover tune that is precise, nice and crisp sounding. The funky sound that he adds to this classic keeps me interested and wanting to hear more of it!
I’m sure I’ll get the album at a later date and I will then have a better understanding of it to comment further. Has anyone else heard about his new album?
Here are my favorite John Mayer albums in order!
Keep on Jammin’
I haven’t given his new album a listen yet but I guess I’ll have to now 😀 John Mayer is definitely a character, odd and def amusing.
I’m going to meet a couple of friends from elementary school that I haven’t seen in around 20 yrs at his show in Toronto Nov. 22nd!
As for him being a character, well I guess so. I just love the guitar for his guitar playing!
Keep on Jammin’ Tanja!
I just watched him playing Crossroads on Australian morning TV. He certainly adds a different quality to the old song. I guess he couldn’t resist using the Cream riff.
I don’t blame John for adding his own style to this classic tune Ricky. The man is a monster on guitar!
The best thing about his approach to playing guitar is when he uses his fingers instead of a pick. This adds such a warm sound to it that most guitarists today either ignore to don’t want to try!
Great comment Ricky and I love your site!
Huge Mayer fan, I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves as a song writer or guitarist.
The man is a monster when it comes to both of those fields that you are talking about Anton. I wish that I could go camping with this guy with only him and a couple of acoustics, that’s all! Imagine what I could learn?