I have an English and Journalism teacher from high school who I still keep in touch with. We seemed to agree about a lot of things or have similar passions, but I remember a particular day in 2003 when he looked at me disappointed as I was telling someone how excited and impressed I was by John Mayer’s new album, Heavier Things. On November 17th, Mayer’s new album, Battle Studies, was released alongside this Facebook status from said teacher: “New John Mayer album out today! -shudder- Just wanted to remind you to turn the radio off, avoid the record stores, and stay away from that desktop iTunes icon. You’ll thank me later.”

This upset me and I did not heed his advice. But, as I continue to learn, maybe we should all listen to our teachers. Granted, I don’t have hate for Battle Studies like Mr. Friedline might — not that I’m sure he hates it, or would, but I don’t think I dislike it as much as Mayer-haters would. I still love most everything Mayer has done. Since 2003, Heavier Things hasn’t stopped getting play on my iPod, computer, or CD player. And 2006’s Continuum is impressive too, as Mayer made a decidedly more adult album and showed he was not afraid to get away from lyrics about lunch boxes and acoustic high school ramblings. If anything, it took me a while to adjust to Continuum for this reason, but it has come to impress me, as Mayer himself does from his Batman-like identity as an artist. What, Batman? Yeah, Batman. John Mayer is one part lighthearted playboy, a simpleton to some who rakes in cash on stuff like “Your Body Is A Wonderland,” but at night, under the cowl, Mayer loses his Bruce Wayne and takes on the cape of a heroic guitarist — a blues-loving and playing Batman whose lyrics even take on a new tone.

I have come to love either Mayer. And before you write me off because I said so or because I’ve drawn comparisons to Batman, let me say that I think I’m pretty fair musically. I will, and do, listen to everything. My library doesn’t end at Ryan Seacrest and pop radio, and I’m almost embarrassed to say I don’t know much of what’s out there nowadays because I stick to The Temptations, U2 or other acts on my iPod, at least recently. And I’m not the only one to have such respect for Mayer. Besides the girls that love his boyish side, there’s the rock heavy-hitters that have joined the Mayer cause, including his band-mates in side-project The John Mayer Trio, bassist Pino Palladino, who also plays for The Who, and drummer Steve Jordan, who’s been not only an acclaimed performer backing up the likes of Clapton and Keith Richards but a producer as well. There’s also the Rolling Stone cover that called Mayer one of the new rock gods. Although some would mock his Jim Carrey-ish facial gymnastics during a guitar solo, I would argue it’s those solos that cement Mayer’s credibility and those strains of facial muscles to exemplify his passion for the work. He may have written about lunch boxes, but he appreciates the classics, and I’ve come to appreciate how between “Wonderlands” and “Come Back To Beds,” he’s in blues albums or tracks, like Hendrix’s “Bold As Love” on Continuum. I see it as Mayer trying to educate some of his audience.

But I should have listened to Mr. Friedline. Battle Studies swings too far back in the direction of old, simple, Bruce Wayne Mayer, after the bold step forward that was Continuum. It seems to me that Studies is Mayer’s 808s & Heartbreak, last year’s Kanye album that took him away from what he does best and left him talking about his feelings through auto-tune. Mayer is stuck in the same rut, here seemingly calling us, his audience, to talk through a bad break-up. I’m not saying an artist can’t do this; in fact, the honesty can be appreciated and raise the work, and this is the stuff blues is made of. But the the blues is all but absent on Studies. And for the studying, there will be little to learn.

Mayer does cover the Clapton classic “Crossroads,” but he turns it into some short (two-and-a-half minutes) electronic thing. It is robot rock. Rock is about emotion. Everyone knows robots don’t know how to love. I don’t know if Studies is about Jennifer Aniston or Jessica Simpson, and I know the tabloids are another reason a lot of people hate Mayer, but I know in Studies, Mayer doesn’t do much to argue against those critics.

Studies is too short too…although I guess this is an album I wouldn’t have wanted to hear more of. Mayer was quoted as saying, on Twitter back in October, the following: “Track listing on Battle Studies is complete! Very interesting order…11 songs. 45 minutes. Hit ‘em hard and get out.”

But Studies doesn’t hit hard at all. It plays almost like the quiet “nothing matters” ramblings of a depressive. In a way, I do feel bad for Mayer. Yes, I feel bad for a multi-millionaire shacking up with beautiful women, because whatever heartbreak he’s suffered is now breaking his art and the things 2003 made me love so much about the guy.

Maybe the album will grow on me. I wouldn’t even be surprised if I included a track or two from the album on some homemade “Best of Mayer” mix, but I’d probably be in some terrible mood when I was making it. Some of these songs, like the first single, “Who Says,” are passable tracks, maybe for another artist, maybe even for Mayer’s debut, but after his success and Stone covers, he’s now held to a higher standard. I guess what I want from him is heavier things.

The album starts promisingly enough with an orchestra tuning up, and then all that hubbub falls to silence throughout the rest of the tracks. I appreciate it when albums have a wall of sound (to borrow something good Phil Spector did) or obvious talent in instrumentation, or when a track cuts back on all that for effect, like The Beatles’ “Yesterday” versus “A Day In The Life.” There are, of course, places for artists like, say, Nick Drake, who you wouldn’t want to break that sound barrier. It’s the expectation. But on Studies, Mayer only lives up to his worst ones. There are some interesting sounds on the album, like on “Heartbreak Warfare” or “Assassin,” but only in comparison to their immediate competition. The fact that Steve Jordan produced this should have brought more passion out of Mayer.

Though I’m sure whatever heartache Mayer has suffered will be long remembered to him, it has caused him to make an utterly forgettable album, and that’s a shame. Like Kanye’s 808s, I will count Studies as an abberation, a bad-hair-day album, and wait ’til they get back into their groove. Unlike Mr. Friedline but more like Mayer himself, I’m left passionless by the album. It is like an indescernable dream I will barely remember. But Mayer was also quoted as saying Studies “incorporates a lot of the lessons, a lot of the observations, and a little bit of advice. Like a handbook, like a heartbreak handbook.” Maybe, but unlike Studies, I feel like I could learn a lot more from Mr. Friedline.