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John Mayer needs to stop whining. He is a talented musician; he’s extremely handsome and has dated celebrity hotties like Jennifer Aniston and Jessica Simpson. He’s got it made. But on his latest album “Battle Studies,” all he does is mope about breakups. Go cry to someone else.

“Heartbreak Warfare,” “All We Ever Do Is Say Goodbye,” “Half of My Heart” and “Perfectly Lonely” are just some of the overly sappy titles gracing his album. This is a sad return to the John Mayer that wooed crowds of screaming girls with “Room for Squares” and “Heavier Things.” These albums might represent the Mayer that most people love, but he’s doing little to push the creative envelope.

“Continuum” was a blues album with a pop disguise. It had some of the greatest modern blues ballads, showcasing Mayer’s true skill with the six-string. His voice is great, but Mayer is best when he is hammering it out over the 12-bar blues with legends like Eric Clapton. Aside from “Waiting on the World to Change,” “Continuum” was an immaculate record — he even covered Hendrix.

“Battle Studies” should have continued along this path of great blues-based songwriting. Instead he went back into his pop music comfort zone, squandering his real talent. Not to mention he has Taylor Swift sing on a track. Yuck.

The album has few good moments scattered throughout, proving the good John Mayer is still hidden somewhere in there. He sings, “Who says I can’t get stoned / turn off the lights and the telephone,” a throwback to the goofy Mayer that audiences first fell in love with. Some songs, like “Assassin,” have some unique instrumentation that can be admired, but it does little to salvage the record as a whole.

He doesn’t seem to be shy about turning up the overdrive and playing a few fuzzed-out riffs, but just as you think he will rock out, he turns wimpy again. However, he does bust out some great solos that can’t be denied. He still likes to flaunt that.

The one standout is clearly out of place on the album. A cover of blues god Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads” is the best song by lightyears. It’s a natural choice, being such a blues standard, but he does it with class. It ends after just two and a half minutes though, making fans wait until the live show for the extended vamping section full of the solos it deserves.

It is not so much that Mayer made an album full of sappy breakup songs that makes “Battle Studies” fail; it’s that he just wrote bad material. Blues music is about being sad and lonely, so why write pop music? The songs on “Continuum” were not the most lyrically profound, but he was able to showcase his beautiful, raspy voice over great instrumentation and song structure. The latest work relies on simply constructed pieces that pleased his record company.

John Mayer fans will most likely fall in love with this album, especially if they favor his first two CDs. It just would have been nice to hear him break up with some of his old ways rather than his slew of bombshell celebrity girlfriends.

Grade: C-

• John Mayer leaves Portland breathless (December 5, 2002)
• CD review (September 21, 2006)
• CD review (November 6, 2003)
• CD review: LCD Soundsystem Review (April 5, 2007)
• CD review (October 21, 2004)

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009, 1:17 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.