Review Summary: The undisputed champions of brilliant album titles stray further from their roots.
I realized our Sputnik-wide appreciation for prime Maroon 5 circle jerk had died down a bit, so I put myself through the anguish of revisiting this second of four consecutive abominations by the Los Angeles based "pop rock" superstars. But beyond that, I also dug through old interviews and things of that nature. While going down this rabbit hole, I stumbled onto a 2018 interview with Adam Levine where he claimed rock music was "nowhere" and that "all" of the excitement and innovation currently happening in contemporary music was found in hip-hop. He also called hip-hop "better than everything else." This prompted a variety of responses, most notably from Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor, who called Levine a "schmuck" and propounded that while Levine might claim to have the "moves like Jagger", he'll never "rock" like Jagger. Which of course brings us right back to the electropop banger that is impossible to pretermit when discussing Maroon 5's legacy.
As if it needs to be completely hashed out again, "Moves Like Jagger" utterly saved Maroon 5's career. Outside of, say Aerosmith with "I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing", few already massively popular or recognizable acts have reignited their fame with a late stage mega smash the way Maroon 5 did when the summer 2011 favorite landed mercifully in their laps. Had it not, they would have spiraled into the same precinct of obscurity they currently occupy in 2021 a whopping decade earlier. So this afforded the band that much time to package their catalog with more massive radio hits and make a f*ckton of money. When 2012's particularly pathetic
Overexposed was released, it was blatantly obvious that's what they were trying to do. And the follow up, their fifth studio album titled (get this)
V is no different.
As we dive in, I gotta ask; are these guys too dumb to realize it or are they doing it on purpose? In the same vein as
Overexposed, Maroon 5 offers us the most offensively seducing teases of what we want to hear, which is the band that made
Songs About Jane. The band must know we're holding out hope that band is trapped in there somewhere, because the airy guitar slicks on opening track and lead off single "Maps" are God damn irresistible. While the band obviously trades live instrumentals for processed noises on the choruses, it's still got some of the most rollicking energy in the entire Maroon 5 canon. File this one under guilty pleasure, because I can't help but wonder if the song was crafted specifically to pacify those of us wishing to get the
Jane vibes back.
"Animals", for its inclusion of laughable vocal delivery from Levine (the howl gave me cancer), has aged a lot better than most of modern Maroon 5's output. When discussing covering the song, Ice Nine Kills frontman Spencer Charnas described the song's lyrics as "dark", lyrics he could see himself writing. It's a brooding, sexually unruly jaunt with faint guitar fills and Adam Levine can still slip into the role of uncaged muse like few other artists can. The pre-chorus drums on "It Was Always You" give you a brief sliver of hope that Maroon 5 are going to actually reach a crescendo on three tracks in a row (imagine that!), but the depressingly uneventful chorus is prolonged by a bland, beat-driven middle section. Levine sounds fine on "Unkiss Me", but its inoffensive nature merely underscores how painfully boring and forgettable it is.
"Leaving California" is another scant glimpse at the Maroon 5 of old; not necessarily the funky upstarts from
Jane, but rather a watered down version of the innocuous adult contemporary vibes of
It Won't Be Soon Before Long and
Hands All Over. The drums and keys become a bit more prominent on the verses, but sadly take a backseat to another middling hook where the only interesting or even
good thing going on is Levine's vocals. "In Your Pocket" is a decent enough electropop re-imagining of previous lovelorn stanzas like "Wake Up Call", though it lacks the spark and excitement of the former track. That song was all about Adam being out for
revenge; this one is just an interrogation with a musical accompaniment. Elsewhere, Levine sounds like a diseased chipmunk on "New Love" and like the world's most annoying fake tough guy on "Feelings"; usually Levine's instantly recognizable voice is the only reason you'd bother to pay attention to a Maroon 5 composition, certainly a newer one, but here, the roles are flipped. The beat laden soundscapes and production are actually somewhat passable and intriguing, but this guy who sounds like he's trying to force his balls to drop completely kills the vibe.
Gwen Stefani pops in for closer "My Heart Is Open". Stefani sounds fine, adding a bit of alto to her moderately melancholy delivery, which I can't fault for merely matching the composition. But while some vibrant keys make a brief appearance on the intro, the rest of the track is another boring and tedious offering. I'm glad, though. It afforded me the chance to not hang on every word. If you can even make it to this closing sector of the album, you too will find you're in a hurry to get it over with, hoping there aren't any last minute bells and whistles that might actually salvage the experience, which brings me to my biggest indictment of this album.
At least with
Overexposed, the band knew exactly what they wanted, which was to capitalize off their newly restored fame, courtesy of "Jagger." Even though they failed, they
tried. They spit in our faces with occasional traces of their old genius a la "Lucky Strike", but they tried. Here, those teases are even more scarce and even more jarring. "Maps" remains among their best tracks, a genuinely enjoyable pop rock pleasantry. But the rest of the album ranges from innocent to laughably atrocious, with most of the album residing squarely in the middle; the
boring realm. Maroon 5's ability to conjure up instantly forgettable contract filler pop is almost criminal. I'm sure we'd all like to make a buttload of money for very little work, particularly work that further reinforced Maroon 5 as a pop mainstay with zero interest in returning to their interesting and well missed neosoul roots. "If (rock) it's around, no one's invited me to the party", said Levine in the aforementioned interview. I wouldn't classify
Jane uniquely as rock, but it was well beyond rock-adjacent and it was God damn fun to listen to. And Adam Levine knows it too. He's not stupid. He didn't need an invite to the party. He chose to leave early. What's even sadder is the "party" he chose to throw instead gets even less fun from here (f*cking hell only one more album separates us from
Jordi).
