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MojoAs with its predecessor, 2006's Continuum, not a note, not a breadth, is wasted--and the playing, from a crack team including Pino Palladino, Steve Jordan and Ian McLagan, is unfussily superb throughout. [Jan 2010, p. 90]
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While the artist has raised some eyebrows by asking, "Who says I can't get stoned?" (on the album's first single, 'Who Says'), the rest of the collection certainly has the goods to eclipse that overblown controversy.
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Even when the proceedings threaten to get turgid, the intimacy of Mayer’s expression never wavers, and in many ways that’s the album’s greatest victory.
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Battle Studies, by comparison is relaxed and laid back, it’s feet in the air and stripped of extravagance with Mayer simply doing his thang with ease and pazazz.
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Here, Mayer is effortlessly seductive and somewhat irresistible, and it’s easy to see why the ladies love cool John.
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Love as a battlefield.
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Battle Studies is, for the most part, status quo Mayeromics — an expertly calibrated study in soft-pedal confessions, searching lyricism, and mildly groovy guitar licks.
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That deficit [of passion] leaves many of the songs strangely uninvolving, despite the beauty of his melodies and empathetic production he and drummer Steve Jordan have given them.
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Mayer’s albums were maturing one after the other, combining electric blues and clever songwriting, but he takes a few steps back with the lovelorn Battle Studies, a superficial meditation on the jagged down-slope of a relationship—the romantic blitzkrieg that recalls, among other genres, his early acoustic sound on "Room for Squares."
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 56 out of 76
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Mixed: 14 out of 76
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Negative: 6 out of 76
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KaiRNov 30, 2009
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LisaBNov 30, 2009
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RichardMNov 29, 2009