First things first - What the hell was John Mayer thinking when he decided to put a cover of Robert Johnson's "Crossroads" on his new album?!?

For some reason I was upset when he covered Hendrix on "Continuum". I'm not one of those people that thinks it sacrilege but it's such a major call to take one of your hero's works & then stuff it into the middle of your own album. Thankfully, it was a good version, but it still should have been a b-side & not part of the main record.

John's version of Crossroads confounds me. It sounds like a homemade recording rather than being finely polished in the amazing studio setup he blogged about throughout the making of Battle Studies. The drums have no soul which caught me offguard as Steve Jordan has one of the most eccentric styles around. Then you get to the fuzz of the guitar, which just doesn't work & then you get the recording of the solo over the main riff done through a loop pedal! Why, oh... why?

The worst thing about this, is one of his YouTube posts has him jamming with Steve in the studio with this very tune & it is phenomenal. (I think it's called "sidetracked" under his YouTube page). The tone, the solos & the drums are all completely seamless. It's the kind of playing from John which I could listen to endlessly. He has abilities in which I'm happy to admit my jealousy, which then begs the question at the top of this post.



Anyway, I'm still working my way through the rest of Battle Studies & at this stage I won't comment. I'm hoping some of it starts to grow on me soon because although it's early days, it's not looking too good!