Review Summary: Artifacts from an era we'll never get back.
Adam Levine and company have to be aware of what they're doing, right? Maybe they know they're a bunch of frauds and at least have the decency to completely give up the ghost. That kind of morbid honesty might yield a scant sentinel of respect from me, if their current musical output wasn't so overwhelmingly and offensively abhorrent that I still second guess just how cognizant they are after all. "Cognizant of what?", asks the Sputniker who stopped fellating his vinyl copy of
The Devil and God Are Raging Inside A Pedophile to read this review. Well, lemme tell you.
This past Saturday marked
twenty God damn years since Los Angeles based pop "rock" band Maroon 5 released their debut album
Songs About Jane. Of course, their two full lengths under the moniker Kara's Flowers predate this record, but
Jane was the impetus for the band's true breakthrough. It remains their most respected release, its critical reappraisal multiplying exponentially with each subsequent long player the band hurries out. Maroon 5's descent into artistic and commercial obscurity deserves a much deeper rewind, though.
Songs About Jane itself was something of a forewarning of the iceberg ahead. In an interview with VH1, Adam Levine divulged about the "urban and hip hop culture" he discovered in New York, where he spent some time during the Flowers-
Jane interim. Was he referring to the same kind of modus operandi that was the catalyst for Maroon 5's nosedive into overt electropop a decade later? It's tough to say. It honestly conjures eerie reminders of Elvis Presley's fatal dance with prescription drug abuse; the negative effects weren't so readily visible at first. The same applies to
Songs About Jane. Whatever warning signs may have existed that one day these "weirdly funky upstarts" may one day
sell the f*ckkkkkk out weren't easy to single out, if they even existed at all;
Jane was followed up with two albums I honestly think are in the same ballpark of quality. Maroon 5's artistic prime stretched longer than people give them credit for, but when looking at how far from grace they've fallen,
Jane looks more like a comfortable anomaly to run home to than any of its successors.
The title and lyrics herein were inspired by the collapse of Adam Levine's relationship with Jane Herman. From an outsider's perspective, the pair's split wasn't messy or tabloid worthy; "It kind of faded away," Levine explains. Though he did later clarify that every song on the album has lyrics about her in some way. "Harder to Breathe", with its punchy, gritty haste and execution, is said to be a commentary on the band's frustration with Octane Records, conferring the contention they held that the label was "smothering" them. Though the song could also be characterized as a potential stanza on Levine's lost love; "You drain me dry and make me wonder why I'm even here," he laments. "This Love" glides in on the bounciest key glissades you'll ever enjoy, amplified by the band's collective sense of swagger. The purpose and personality the band exudes in this opening sector of the album can't be overstated. It's genuinely interesting and enjoyable music.
"Shiver" is as enigmatic as a non-single gets. It's a textbook showcase of what Maroon 5 did best in their heyday. Adam Levine can so convincingly slip into the role of uncaged sexual deviant in a way many of his contemporaries were just incapable of. Knowing his courtship with Jane is long stillborn, he seeks to get the last laugh. "I won't be satisfied till I'm under your skin," the morbidly alluring commination goes. The guitar solo nears song's end is nothing short of
f*cking killer. The genre-transcending classic "She Will Be Loved" shows Adam's softer side, muting the breakneck tendencies of the band's rock sound palette to weave a composition that displays a great deal of caution so as to not dilute the intimacy of this track. "I want to make you feel beautiful," Levine repeats. On "Tangled", he expresses remorse for the damage he caused and the role he played in his muse walking away. The instrumentals swell with a level of gloss that almost counteracts the song's melancholic narrative.
"The Sun" is a buoyantly played commentary on nostalgia for days gone by, performed in a way that strikes the listener as far more earnest and palpable than the pathetic excuse for noise the Maroon 5 of present insults us with. "Must Get Out" is a soft rock ballad. I will say it lends itself to the conventions of its format (i.e. McDonald's dining area fodder) more than any other track on the album, but it's too innocuous to quarrel with. "Sunday Morning" has the kind of call and response chorus structure all the pop classics (think "I Want It That Way") wouldn't be caught dead without, but the band's orchestral arrangements on the bridge are the extra treat waiting in the wings. If you're not hanging on every word, it's a chance to just have fun. I reckon the Maroon 5 of today couldn't craft a composition this faceted without it sounding criminally pretentious and put on. "Secret" reverberates with ominous synth washes, sullen acoustic plucking and ambiguous messaging from Adam Levine. It sounds like he's courting a stranger, but maybe the stranger in question is Jane, the former muse he wants to get to know all over again? Perhaps he feels starting over is better than just resuming? "I know I don't know you, but I want you so bad," he confesses.
"Through With You" discharges an abundance of electricity on the intro; James Valentine's guitar has a bit of glassiness to it. The pianos become more prominent on the bridge as Levine expresses feelings of discontent and his wishes to move on. "Not Coming Home" draws from the best 70s arena rock, the sound of a cheering crowd complimenting the track's stadium ready histrionics. Levine's subtle vocal runs are a good exemplar of just how talented a vocalist he was twenty years ago. "Sweetest Goodbye" closes the album with a dreamy R&B bent, as Adam appears at odds. He promises protection, but it seems like he's ignoring his true feelings at the same time. He tells his love he'll "never" leave her behind, but he's bidding her farewell. Maybe he knows he isn't good enough? This was one of many tracks on
Jane that had me examining all the different interpretations. It speaks to the band's ability to reel in palpable responses from the listener. On that note, the album Ghostalgeist called "magnum opus, swan song and promising debut all at once" draws to a close.
To say my relationship with Maroon 5 has been tenuous is an understatement. Their laughably censored appearance at the Kids Choice Awards was 10 year old me's introduction to them. The song "Makes Me Wonder" and its supplementing full length
It Won't Be Soon Before Long captivated me. It was actually one of the first albums I ever owned on CD. That was the version of Maroon 5 I knew first, and so I've remained partial to it. As I sit here now though, I think I'm finally reaching a proper level of appreciation for
Songs About Jane. Adam and co strut about with so much zest and confidence, it's impossible to skip a track or not root for them. They were (and in all honesty, still are) a group of truly talented and serious musicians. That's what makes their subsequent senescence a particularly depressing ordeal to watch unfold. Once upon a time, Maroon 5 was a real band. Today, they are a lifeless, soulless and vapid group of robotically mumbling buffoons, churning $11.88 Walmartcore so offensively boring and downright atrocious that a technically intermediate album like
Jane looks like a musical Mona Lisa by comparison. I, and scores of listeners across the landscape, have given up any and all hope that Maroon 5 will one day return to even the same stratosphere of quality
Songs About Jane occupies. I'm thankful for the scintilla of good tunes they provided, though. It's always nice to revisit from time to time. We'll certainly need it, too. If they release another album like
Jordi, I'll eat glass.
I almost forgot to elaborate on what I said at the beginning. Well, for an album as influential and beloved as
Songs About Jane is, Maroon 5 didn't even take the time to acknowledge its 20th anniversary on their various social media. What band doesn't celebrate that kind of benchmark? Maybe the kind of band that knows their reputation has gone to complete dogsh*t and isn't going to bother pretending. It's too obvious to avoid. They are not the same band. They are now a group of cash hungry court jesters, ready to spit out the laziest and most uninspired pop drivel one can concoct. Hopefully they're aware of their status as such, and didn't wish to insult our intelligence by acknowledging the anniversary of the only album of theirs anyone holds in high regard. Thanks for the consideration.....I guess.
RIP Maroon 5. Nothing lasts forever.
