John Mayer — what a curious case. As a pop personality, the guy's abarrel of laughs. He's a tabloid fixture who wears his celebrity with a wink: modeling Borat's onesie swimsuit, starring in goofy YouTube videos, and generally disarming, with wit and self-deprecation, the millions inclined to hate a starlet-shagging guitar virtuoso. But then Mayer steps into a studio, and the fun spigot claps shut. It's as if Mayer, burdened by his status as heir apparent to the Clapton-Sting-Knopfler tradition of classy pop-rock classicism, pulls on a mask: the Furrowed Middlebrow.

There's no doubting the man's chops. Battle Studies is a real study in craftsmanship and understated guitar ninja-dom, and musos will thrill to Mayer's deconstruction of Robert Johnson's "Crossroads." But the solemnity is suffocating. On "Heartbreak Warfare," Mayer delivers U2-style guitar and strained war metaphors: "Clouds of sulfur in the air/Bombs are falling everywhere." That bust-up with Jennifer Aniston was bad, but was it really like the firebombing of Tokyo?

Battle Studies is terrific when Mayer drops the seriousness, pondering and sending up his reputation as a rake. On "Half of My Heart," with Taylor Swift, Mayer plays the dude who kisses with one eye open, scanning for his next conquest. Then there's the folk-pop single "Who Says," the confession of a dope-smoking roué: "I don't remember you looking any better/But then again, I don't remember you." Turns out, loose, louche, funny Mayer isn't just good for publicity. It's good for art.

“My President”

Young Jeezy teams up with Nas on this track, in which he compare his own success with the idea of an African-American winning the Democratic Party's nomination in the 2008 presidential election. "When I pulled up in my car, that s--- was unbelievable to people in my neighborhood because they were like, 'We grew up with him. How the hell did he accomplish this?'" he told Rolling Stone. "I feel like it was the same way with Obama. I grew up all this time, but I've never seen a black man this close to running this country."