Remember back in the day when you heard such great songs like This Love, She Will Be Loved, and Makes Me Wonder on the radio. Nowadays, you hear shit like Don’t Wanna Know and Girls Like You. However, THESE SONGS WERE ALL BY THE SAME BAND.
Originally known as Kara’s Flowers, Maroon 5 reformed under that name in 2001 after adding guitarist James Valentine. From there, they released their debut album Songs About Jane on June 25th, 2002.
Songs About Jane is a beautiful concept album where all 12 songs are about Adam’s ex-girlfriend Jane Herman. This masterpiece blends pop, rock, funk, R&B, soul, and hip hop into a perfect blend of pop rock goodness. There’s songs like She Will Be Loved and Secret that show their soft side while songs like Harder To Breathe and Not Coming Home show that they can rock. But most importantly, Adam does a great vocal performance without overshadowing the other members. What more could you possibly want from a 2000’s pop rock band.
Since very few people bought Songs About Jane until it was re-issued in late 2003, it took awhile for Maroon 5 to record their next album but then 2007 came and it was finally time.
It Won’t Be Soon Before Long replaces the gentler feel of Songs About Jane and replaces it with a more aggressive neo-disco sound, which is cool although i don’t prefer either sound over another. However, the album isn’t as good as it’s predecessor due to the inconsistent track quality. The first 5 tracks are great but after the ballad I Won’t Go Home Without You we get ANOTHER BALLAD. After that, we get the rocker Can’t Stop followed by ANOTHER BALLAD. Then after a mediocre filler track no one cares about, we get Kiwi, an underrated classic that has quite the heavy ending. Finally, we end with ANOTHER 2 BALLADS.
Nearly half the album consists of ballads, who’s idea was it to release an album where 5 out of 12 tracks are ballads. Would’ve it killed them to cut out a few tracks. They could’ve added Nothing Lasts Forever, Not Falling Apart, and Better That We Break to The B-Sides Collection and had 2 albums instead of an album loaded with filler plus a 7 track release that’s too long to be an EP but too short to be an album. But overall, tracks 1-5, 7, and 10 still make this a good album worth seeking out.
After that, we get Hands All Over. While the quality is more consistent, the tracks are sterile compared to their 2 previous albums and it makes the album sound mediocre since the songs aren’t bad but there’s nothing about them that really grabs you.
Then we get Overexposed, the album that firmly places the band in shit territory. From here on out, Maroon 5 is just Adam Levine and friends and the band completely pisses on their rock roots by going full pop.
V is the only time one of their albums was superior to the previous one. However, not by much. The only improvement is that the guitar parts are more interesting this time around.
Red Pill Blues mind as well be called Bad Generic Pop Music That Sells. At this point, Adam Levine can rot in hell with Justin Bieber, Pitbull, and all of the other awful artists who make terrible music. Somehow, they managed to make an album significantly worse than Overexposed and V and it’s depressing to be reminded of how much they’ve fallen.
Hopefully, they’re next album isn’t as bad. The single Memories is certainly an improvement from Red Pill Blues so let’s hope for the best.
Lefty Guitarist Blogs 