John Mayer's third album leaves fans unsure

As a long time fan of John Mayer's music, to admit that the follow-up to his award-winning album Continuum is a failure is an impossible pill to swallow. This seems to be the sentiment of many long-time fans who have followed Mayer from his early years as the acoustic-wielding crooner, to his proclamation to blues music with the live John Mayer Trio experiment album Try!. This go-round, Mayer took a chance and approached the new album with a specific aim: he gave the 11-track record a sort of tunnel vision that has turned a lot of listeners, even longtime fans, away. But the about-face has not, and should not be long-lived. Mayer's astounding electric guitar skills and clever, heartfelt lyricism are evident on tracks such as "Edge of Desire." He sings, "Wired/And I'm tired/Think I'll sleep in my clothes on the floor/Maybe this mattress will spin on its axis/And find me on yours." This album, which he appropriately titled Battle Studies, serves to channel broken hearts and lessons in fighting, mending and often times losing to a broken heart.

Only don't be fooled. The album doesn't function as a sappy, one-sided war on love specific to only a few. John is still evident, still powerful and potent, and though it takes a few listens to find him there, Battle Studies was made with Mayer's heart in mind: his fans. In a recent interview he said: "Every time you put a record out, you're trying to follow up the story in this series of novels- or whatever. Then you have to, sort of, put that hero in a new place, in a new category, in a new environment. And if you want to stay a musician that people care about, I think you just have to keep coming back to the diary and going, 'this is happening in my life'- and at least when you get back to playing music, it's in that framework that people identify with. So I'm really excited about putting music out, and having people identify with it again. Because the experience of living is universal."

Battle Studies is just a continuation of the serial that composes Mayer's life and career: an entry and study into the battle of heartache- just as Continuum was an entry into his discovery of growth and age. Just as Try! was an explosion of creativity and innovation while Heavier Things was a search for something within self, life and relation. Just as Room for Squares, the As/Is series and Inside Wants Out were the breakthroughs that catapulted the hero to where he is right now. If a true listener understands this, a listener understands Battle Studies. This was an album that is strictly fan-specific, and fans are just going to have to trust him on this one. Download "Friends, Lovers or Nothing", "Assassin" and "All We Ever Do Is Say Goodbye."