Review Summary: A strong sophomore album rendered bittersweet by the passage of time.
"It won't be soon before long" was powerful foreshadowing, and we all should have seen it coming. Maroon 5's sophomore album title is fatalistic for a very good reason, a reason the band couldn't have seen coming - this is the last time anyone was going to hear Maroon 5 at their best. Every album after "It Won't Be Soon Before Long" dove further and further into a deep, dark pool of mediocrity and cashgrabby, easy-listening pop that you'd instantly forget were it not featured in a romcom or a garbage animated movie trailer. What truly sucks about "It Won't Be Soon" is that it doesn't even sound like the beginning of the end. The highlights of this album aren't *quite* as ear-wormy and immediately likable as
Songs About Jane's highlights, but "It Won't Be Soon" is, much like its predecessor, forty-or-so minutes of well-constructed pop brimming with personality, confidence, and genuinely interesting music.
Confidence in particular buzzes through "It Won't Be Soon" - it's amazing how much of
Jane's stage presence was carried over. "Wake Up Call" - one of the best-known songs from this record, and for good reason - is dominated by a swanky groove throughout, very reminiscent of a sexier version of "Misery", which would come out a scant three years later. It's a song with strut, full of funk-rock that glides between its piano power chords, bouncy drums, and choky guitar embellishments with gusto. "Makes Me Wonder" is a straightforward Daft Punk groove given some spice with elements of The Neptunes thrown in there, given the dark, growling synths, chromaticism, the simultaneously chunky and melodic guitar parts. Speaking of the Neptunes, "Little Of Your Time" has an *insane* Neptunes sound throughout. The continuous dips in and out of the key of the song, the blend of chirpy synths and held, swelling pads, the processed drums, the slight overmodulation effect on Levine's voice... the production and composition are so strikingly reminiscent of the Neptunes that I'd be surprised if the influence was either unintentional or unconscious. "Little Of Your Time" is really punchy and unique even without all that - the flamenco vibe on this cut is badass. It brings to mind what Fall Out Boy would try and fail to do with "Uma Thurman" eight years later.
Indeed, it feels like Maroon 5 were influenced by quite a few easily-traceable sources at the time, and that bleeds into the overall sound of "It Won't Be Soon" - in particular, there's a distinctive 80's tint to the whole project, with songs that sound like the works of The Police, Peter Gabriel, and (traces of) Prince. Case in point: "If I Never See You Again" is weirdly Prince-like, its faint traces of the Minneapolis sound only accentuated by the bursts into falsetto that Levine delivers and the stacked vocal harmonies that pop up every now and then. The palm-muted, arpeggio-rhythm verses on "Not Falling Apart" are just a few notes away from outright plagiarizing "Every Breath You Take", and there's a strange, inexplicable New Wave influence on the otherwise fast-paced, thoroughly-enjoyable "Kiwi" that can't be ignored. The fast-paced, palm-muted guitars and bass, the square-wave embellishments and synth stabs, the sudden horn flourishes, the female call-and-response; songs like "Kiwi" emanate a strong 80's vibe, and the song just gets better and better as it goes on, culminating in an overdriven, noisy guitar solo and a pounding hailstorm of drums and rapid-fire bass.
But not every song is successful. In fact, I would say Maroon 5's occasional forays into pulling from other, non-Songs About Jane sources miss more than they hit. Take "Nothing Lasts Forever" - there's a clash between the gorgeous, summery acoustic soundscape in the background and the funkier, more syncopated vocal melody that Levine delivers that I think just doesn't work. It feels like the instruments in the back are struggling to match pace with what Levine's trying to do, and vice versa. This has some of the prettiest ear candy on the whole album; I adore the acoustic-synth instrumentation. But I feel like there was a struggle in the studio over whether to make this song more syncopated or more melodic, and "Nothing Lasts Forever" meets awkwardly in the middle.
There's something hokey and lame about "Can't Stop", like it's Maroon 5 trying to emulate the Foo Fighters and the Arctic Monkeys and sounding much thinner than both - the drum-heavy, rhythmic song is over so quickly that it almost feels like borderline filler. And "Won't Go Home Without You" is just weak - it feels like it's trying to be "Kiss Me", "Every Breath You Take", and the band's own "She Will Be Loved" all in one, and winds up being a worse version of all three of these superior pop songs. The prechorus *is* awfully pretty, with distant, ethereal piano notes fluttering in the background alongside some clean, ringing guitar arpeggios, but I can't help but be reminded of how much better "She Will Be Loved" is - structurally, melodically, and sonically. Even some of the best songs have their weaker moments - "If I Never See You Again" is enjoyable, but every time it's about to burst into something bigger and more grandiose, the song abruptly reels back into a steadier groove, which creates some uneasy musical whiplash. It's dissonance that doesn't quite work.
There are more low points present here than there are in
Songs About Jane, and the highlights of "It Won't Be Soon", while assuredly strong, aren't quite as enthralling as knockout songs like "This Love", "Shiver", and "Sunday Morning". Even so, some of the best pop songs of the 2000's are present on this record, and "It Won't Be Soon" deserves to be lauded for that much. There's something strangely bittersweet about "It Won't Be Soon" - no doubt because of the retrospective foresight that Maroon 5 would eventually become, in layman's terms, f*ckin' sh*te - that's best demonstrated in the final two songs of the record: "Better Than We Break", the piano-driven 80's power ballad that works way better than it should thanks to smooth, stacked piano chords, open hi-hats, and the devil-may-care acoustic guitar highlighting Adam Levine's bluesy twist on a simple, pleasing melody (feels like a sentimental, hearty sequel to "Sunday Morning")... and "Back At Your Door", the gorgeous combination of weepy, waltzy RnB and melodic, catchy pop that it is. It's a strong closer with rich, expressive piano, waltzy drums, and Levine's pained, jazzy vocals meshing almost perfectly with the poppy guitar arpeggios and rousing Oscar-bait strings. This is a beautiful ending track; it almost feels like a sendoff to the band that Maroon 5 used to be. This is not quite as good as
Jane - in fact, I'd argue it suffers more from a lack of cohesion than Jane did - but this is a very good record nevertheless. It's just a crying shame that this would be the last time we'd ever see *this* side of Maroon 5, the last time we'd ever really see them as a colorful, charismatic group of talented popstars and not as meaningless background noise. It's a very sweet goodbye, the sweetest goodbye that we ever did receive, but it's a goodbye all the same.
