As/Is is a live album by John Mayer , released October 19, 2004 , available for download from iTunes and also available as a double-CD release. The albums were released from live concert performances across the United States from the tour following the release of Mayer's second album, Heavier Things . The recordings include five albums-worth of material as sold on iTunes. As of July 2009, the four concert-specific albums were still available on iTunes in the United States, though Volume One is no longer available; Each album has its own artwork. A two-disc compilation was released physically and digitally which features the "best" of the iTunes series, plus an additional song, " Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) ", a Marvin Gaye cover . In "Inner City Blues", Mayer called upon DJ Logic , the support act of the Heavier Things tour, to join him to perform a turntable solo.
36-528: The songs all feature Mayer's touring band of the time: Volume one features a cut-out silhouette version of Mayer (from the cover of Heavier Things ) with two tones of blue. As it is separate from the other volumes, its artwork is rather distinct from the rest. Artwork for the covers of volumes two, three, four, and five is by the artist Kozyndan . They feature bunnies in out-of-character situations on their covers, including hanging from helium balloons (two) and in washing machines (three). The bunnies on
72-529: A 100: Tokyo Story ; The Godfather ; Citizen Kane ; Rear Window ; Casablanca ; Boyhood ; Three Colors: Red ; Vertigo ; Fanny and Alexander ; Notorious ; Lawrence of Arabia ; Dekalog ; The Leopard ; and The Conformist . There are five TV show seasons that have received a 99, including Season 4 of Rectify , Season 4 and Season 6 of The Larry Sanders Show , Season 1 of Murder One , and Season 5 of Breaking Bad . The standalone highest-rated album of all time on
108-512: A 2005 Grammy for Song of the Year , beating out fellow contenders Hoobastank , Alicia Keys , Tim McGraw , and Kanye West . He dedicated the award to his grandmother, Annie Hoffman, who died in May 2004. He also won Best Male Pop Vocal Performance , beating Elvis Costello , Josh Groban , Prince , and Seal for the award. At the 37th Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in 2006, Mayer
144-584: A Nation , Hardbodies , Mother's Day and United Passions . The standalone lowest-rated TV show of all time is The 1/2 Hour News Hour , with a 13. The standalone lowest-rated album of all time is Playing with Fire by Kevin Federline , with a 15. Metacritic has received mixed reviews from website critics, commentators, and columnists. Its efficacy has been analyzed, with conclusions finding it to be generally useful or unreliable and biased. The website won two annual Webby Awards for excellence in
180-437: A chart illustrating a downward trend in the average critical ratings of the company's games. He took the ratings seriously and stressed the need for the company to bounce back. Also in 2008, Microsoft used Metacritic averages to delist underperforming Xbox Live Arcade games. Scores are weighted averages . Certain publications are given more significance "because of their stature". Metacritic has said that it will not reveal
216-432: A conservative marketing campaign to promote the album. Columbia Records Group president Will Botwin says, "We think we're being smart. It's a long-term project. We understand what we're creating is a career. Effectively, that's the message: Keep the hype at bay." In keeping with that gameplan, the album's first single, "Bigger Than My Body", only went to radio a few weeks before the album's release; promotional broadcasts of
252-470: A cover for issue 28 of the magazine Giant Robot . Notably, the CD is considered volume six (the last) of the series, and The Great Wave woodblock printing is the first of a 36-part series of art. Volume Six Heavier Things Heavier Things is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter John Mayer , released on September 9, 2003 by Aware and Columbia Records . It debuted at #1 on
288-478: A game's potential sales and, by extension, the publisher's stock price". However, a 2015 study analyzing over 88 Xbox 360 and 80 PS3 games from 2012 found that Metacritic scores did not impact actual sales. Controversially, the website has been used by game publishers as a means of determining whether a game's developer receives additional royalties. One notable example is the 2010 game Fallout: New Vegas , which received an average Metascore of 84, one short of
324-449: A game's state in the future due to post-release updates and patches as well as most press reviews of games taking place around their launch. For example, the metascore for MediEvil (2019) was mixed mainly due to performance issues that existed around the time of the game's launch. These issues were fixed in post-release patches that made the game run smoothly, which would have led to a higher metascore in its patched state. Another example
360-453: A greater investment of time and money, gamers are more informed about reviews than are fans of film or music; they want to know "whether that hotly anticipated title is going to deliver". In June 2018, Metacritic established the "Must-See" label for a movie that "achieves a Metascore of 81 or higher and has been reviewed by a minimum of 15 professional critics". In September 2018, it added the "Must-Play" certification for video games attaining
396-421: A legitimate--albeit still puppy-eyed--singer/songwriter." Chicago Tribune writer Allison Stewart gave the album a favorable review and wrote that Mayer "[has] crafted a sturdy, soulful pop album that credibly expands upon — but never abandons — his core sound". Despite writing that "his self-conscious lyrics can get in the way", Russell Baillie of The New Zealand Herald praised Mayer's musicianship and gave
SECTION 10
#1732776178934432-421: A qualitative assessment of a game. Kotaku also highlighted a practice alleged to be used by some publishers who use Metacritic scores as a way to leverage more favorable terms for the publisher or deny developers bonuses should they not reach a certain score. Doyle countered this by saying "Metacritic has absolutely nothing to do with how the industry uses our numbers... Metacritic has always been about educating
468-477: A score of 90% or more, and a minimum number of 15 reviews from industry professionals. The standalone highest-rated game of all time on the site is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time , with a 99. The three games with a 98 are Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 , Grand Theft Auto IV , and Soulcalibur . There are about two dozen 97-rated games with standouts including Red Dead Redemption 2 and Grand Theft Auto V . There are fourteen movies that have received
504-453: The "Guides/Ratings/Reviews" category, in 2010 and 2015. Metacritic has been criticized for converting all scoring systems into a single quantitative percentage-based scale. For example, an "A" score equates to the value of 100, an "F" the value of zero, and a "B−" the value of 67. Joe Dodson, former editor at GameRevolution , criticized Metacritic and similar sites for turning reviews into scores that he found to be too low. Doyle defended
540-434: The 85 points required by Bethesda Softworks , the game's publisher. As a result, its developer, Obsidian Entertainment , received no additional bonus. Columnists took issue with the company's use of Metacritic, with one suggesting that this makes game critics ultimately accountable for deciding the developer's profits and another pointing out that a Metascore of 84 is not significantly lower than 85. The latter also pointed out
576-723: The US Billboard 200 , selling over 317,000 copies in its first week. Despite some criticism towards Mayer's songwriting, Heavier Things received generally positive reviews. There's a certain swing-for-the-fences feel and a hurried nature that I think you have when you're making your first record and have much to prove. Now that I'm in a higher gear, I don't have to press so hard on the gas, and I'm loving it. John Mayer, Billboard , 2003 Mayer felt he could be more relaxed focused on his art while making Heavier Things . With Jack Joseph Puig as producer, loops and horns were more prominently featured. Mayer took greater control of
612-516: The album 4 out of 5 stars. Rolling Stone magazine's James Hunter called Heavier Things an "equally available yet more sophisticated album" than Room for Squares . In his own review for Esquire , Mayer gave the album a "B minus", adding, "Am I the only one who finds this record creepy to make out to?" Spin said, "Sadly, Mayer's idea of a good time involves hiring jazz musicians to make himself sound like '80s James Taylor." Mayer earned his first number-one single with "Daughters" as well as
648-506: The album were limited to MTV.com and Mayer's official site, both of whom began streaming the complete album the September 2 before its release. Scheduled television appearances included Saturday Night Live on October 4 and several late shows. Columbia Records thought it was important to put Mayer in talk show-type scenarios before the album release to help bring focus to his art and to his singer/songwriter career, and to steer away from
684-408: The cover of four begin as amoeba and diagonally evolve into bunnies. The cover of volume five has several bunnies with their midsections replaced with springs. The CD release continued the use of bunnies, using the artwork 'Uprisings' by Kozyndan , which has hundreds of bunnies in formation to appear like revered Japanese artwork The Great Wave off Kanagawa . The artwork was originally created as
720-441: The creative side with this album; much of it was recorded in his New York City apartment. He also got final approval on all radio edits. Mayer explained that he did not want a "big and bold" title for the record and expressed that the name Heavier Things is "what it is" due to its "insignificance". He further said that he likes the word "things" due to finding it "nondescript and dumb, [...] kind of blunt". Columbia Records used
756-464: The fame and celebrity hype. Despite being "delayed" on the radio, the lead single " Bigger Than My Body " gained commercial and critical success. " Clarity " was the second single released from Heavier Things . Although the song receives rare airplay, it is one of Mayer's fan favorites, and is normally performed at Mayer's concerts. The song received very positive reviews from critics, mostly being praised for its relaxing style and beat. " Daughters "
SECTION 20
#1732776178934792-589: The gamer. We're using product reviews as a tool to help them make the most of their time and money." Metacritic has also been criticized for how it handles banning users and their reviews, with no notice or formal process for appeal. Critics and developers have pointed out that a product can suffer from rating manipulation by users, as by garnering low ratings that purposely damage its reputation or by receiving high ratings from throwaway accounts to make it appear more popular than it actually is. Signal Studios president and creative director Douglas Albright described
828-491: The grading system, believing that every scale should be converted directly to that of the website, with its lowest possible score being 0 and the highest 100. Further criticism was directed to the website's refusal to publicize how it aggregates scores. According to Doyle, publishers often try to persuade him to exclude reviews they feel are unfair, but he said that once a publication is included, he refuses to omit any of its reviews. A Washington Post review of Uncharted 4
864-433: The impressive sales of five million sold units and US$ 300 million in revenue, and also noted a series of Obsidian's layoffs in 2011 and 2012. The website has also been used by columnists and commentators as a general reference for critical reception, and by publishers as a tool of improving their products. Along with other executives, in 2008, John Riccitiello , then CEO of Electronic Arts, showed Wall Street analysts
900-402: The relative weight assigned to each reviewer. Games Editor Marc Doyle was interviewed in 2008 by Keith Stuart of The Guardian to "get a look behind the metascoring process". Stuart wrote: "The Metascore phenomenon, namely Metacritic and GameRankings , have become an enormously important element of online games journalism over the past few years". Doyle said that because video games lead to
936-467: The respective rapid rise and fall in company values after BioShock and Spider-Man 3 were released. In an interview with The Guardian , Marc Doyle cited two major publishers that "conducted comprehensive statistical surveys through which they've been able to draw a correlation between high metascores and stronger sales" in certain genres. He claimed that an increasing number of businesses and financial analysts use Metacritic as "an early indicator of
972-418: The sales of games and the stocks of video game publishers". He explains its influence as coming from the higher cost of buying video games than music or movie tickets. Many executives say that low scores "can hurt the long-term sales potential". Wingfield wrote that Wall Street pays attention to Metacritic and GameRankings because the sites typically post scores before sales data are publicly available, citing
1008-402: The scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average ). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc Doyle, and Julie Doyle Roberts in 1999, and was acquired by Fandom, Inc. in 2022. Metacritic turns each review into a percentage score. This can be done either by calculating the score from the rating given or by making a subjective decision based on the review's quality. Before averaging
1044-438: The scores, they are adjusted based on the critic's popularity, reputation, and the number of reviews they have written. The site also includes a summary from each review and links to the original source, using colors like green, yellow, or red to indicate the overall sentiment of the critics. Metacritic won two Webby Awards for excellence as an aggregation website. It is regarded as the foremost online review aggregation site for
1080-475: The site is Ten Freedom Summers by American trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith , with a 99. The standalone lowest-rated game of all time is Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing , with an 8. There are eleven movies that have received a 1: Bio-Dome , 10 Rules for Sleeping Around , Chaos , Inappropriate Comedy , Not Cool , The Singing Forest , The Garbage Pail Kids Movie , Death of
1116-650: The site. Rotten Tomatoes was already compiling movie reviews, but Doyle, Roberts, and Dietz saw an opportunity to cover a broader range of media. Metacritic was sold to CNET in 2005. CNET and Metacritic were later acquired by the CBS Corporation . In 2020, Metacritic and other CNET titles were bought by Red Ventures . In 2022, Red Ventures sold Metacritic and other entertainment websites to Fandom, Inc. Metacritic has been used by businesses to predict future sales. In 2007, Nick Wingfield of The Wall Street Journal wrote that Metacritic "influence[s]
As/Is - Misplaced Pages Continue
1152-501: The video game industry. Criticism of the site has focused on the assessment system, the assignment of scores to reviews that do not include ratings, third-party attempts to influence the scores, and the reported lack of staff oversight for user reviews. Metacritic was launched in January 2001 by Marc Doyle, his sister Julie Doyle Roberts, and his University of Southern California law classmate Jason Dietz, after two years of developing
1188-440: The website as having no standards. In July 2020, Metacritic added a 36-hour waiting period for user reviews to be posted for video games at launch in an effort to reduce user score review-bombing during that period by users that have not played or barely played the game during a period when most players will not have finished the game. Some have noted that Metacritic scores for modern video games may not be accurately reflective of
1224-522: Was assigned with a rating of 40/100 by Metacritic; this was the only negative review of the game. Readers who disapproved of the review petitioned Metacritic to remove the Post as a trusted source. As a result of its perceived negative influence on the industry, several reviewing sites, including Kotaku and Eurogamer , have dropped numerical reviews that would appear in Metacritic, instead favoring
1260-566: Was honored with the Hal David Starlight Award. All tracks are written by John Mayer except where noted Main musicians Additional musicians Additional personnel Shipments figures based on certification alone. Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films , television shows , music albums , video games , and formerly books . For each product,
1296-402: Was the last single released from Heavier Things . The song has become a huge commercial success, and has received largely positive reviews: several critics called the song as Mayer's best yet. Upon its release, the album received generally positive reviews from music critics; it holds an aggregate score of 67/100 at Metacritic . Billboard magazine stated that it "firmly establishes him as
#933066