Overall, this new album has received some favorable reviews and received some not so favorable. Here's my review below.
If you're looking for John Mayer to completely eclipse his latest release of Continuum, look somewhere else, because you're not going to find it here.
If you're looking for a compilation of well-crafted songs which mix a bit of country, folk, blues R&B and rock all into one, then Battle Studies is as good and strong as any other John Mayer release.
In my opinion, very few artists can describe the intricacies of relationships as well as Mayer can, and his breakup with Jennifer Aniston has provided him plenty of material to work with.
In "Assassin", Mayer is at his most interesting both lyrically and sonically as the song opens with mallet instruments as a constant murmuring backdrop while Mayer adeptly provides his own whisper backup vocals describing the inner fight between his impulse to seduce the girl in the night and leave: "you never leave a trace or show your face/ you get gone" and be seduced by a longer-term loving commitment which is nicely supported by a lovely major chorus of Mayer overdubbing himself. "suddenly I'm in over my head / and I can hardly breathe." Apparently this inner debate is all irrelevant anyway as this "girl" has more tricks up her sleeve than he realizes, John turns up the dial on his fender strat (I'm guessing here) electric guitar to eleven - cue the shredding:
"I was a killer, was the best they'd ever seen /An artist or musician's work should reflect the life he's experienced during that period. Battle Studies gives no indication as to who broke the relationship off, but it appears that John met his match in Jennifer.
I'd steal your heart before you ever heard a thing /
I'm an assassin and I had a job to do /
Little did I know, that girl was an assassin too."
Key tracks: Half of My Heart (w/Taylor Swift), Assassin, Edge of Desire
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