November 24, 2009 — Patrick Zimmerman

John Mayer: Just Half of My Heart

Seven-time Grammy Award winning musician John Mayer’s new album Battle Studies was released on Tuesday. And if Mayer has ever been successful at putting all of his pessimism about romance into a single album, then Battle Studies is the one. “It’s one record about one thing,” Mayer said. The underlying emotional tone that runs throughout the songs in the album is one of discomfort with close relationships and a relatively pervasive dark, dysphoric mood. Most of the songs in his album convey a sense of skepticism about love, lovers and anyone looking and passing judgment from the outside in.

Mayer was interviewed by Steven Daley this week in Details Magazine:

Daley wrote, “From the opening track, the U2-redolent Heartbreak Warfare, it’s clear that the musician who ingratiated his way into the nation’s heart with soft-serve hits like Your Body Is a Wonderland and Daughters has entered a new phase. The record revives the spirit of that most maligned of 20th-century art forms, adult-oriented rock, channeling the likes of Peter Gabriel, Sting, and Dire Straits, and reflects how assured Mayer has become. Battle Studies may well force some of his detractors to admit that the man they used to view as Dave Matthews’ cocky little nephew has grown up some.”

Mayer described his own thoughts about having to cope with his public face as a celebrity and with his detractors in the media, as opposed to Mayer the musician: “What do you think is stronger: a dozen press articles that say I’m this guy, or a record with 10 songs on it that you enjoy? Which has greater staying power? At the end of the day, all I owe the world in exchange for my dumb face being in their lives are the 10 songs every couple years that are hopefully of greater magnitude than somebody’s press story about me.”

John Mayer: Who Says (Battle Studies)

John Mayer: Heartbreak Warfare (Battle Studies), The Beacon Theatre, NYC

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