Album Review: Maroon 5's "V" Has Hits, But Is It One Itself?

I'd pretty much consider myself a Maroon 5 guru -- I've purchased every studio album of theirs, have several CD singles, their live album and have seen them live in concert twice --, and a major fan as well, but Maroon 5's 5th disc, V, takes a little bit longer to digest. While being backed by a string of successful singles  ("Maps", "It Was Always You" and "Animals"), most other tracks included on the album don't feel like your typical Maroon 5 songs. Even with that being said, the new record isn't their worst one (I'd say that 2010's Hands All Over is narrowly their worst), and does have at least two to three more faired sized hits in addition to "Animals", "Maps" and "It Was Always You" ("Sugar", "Unkiss Me" and "My Heart Is Open").

Lead single "Maps" kicks off the party in a really odd, yet friendly fashion. While previous hits by Maroon 5 seem to focus on all parts of the band (bass, drums, guitar, keyboards, and vocals), "Maps" sees lead singer Adam Levine in the driver seat, with the rest of the band being almost entirely replaced by extremely sugary, pop beats. However, as live performances will reveal, the rest of the band's members do have prominent roles sprinkled throughout the song. Regardless, "Maps" wound up at #1 on the CDS Music Chart Hot 50, a position it held for 5 consecutive weeks.

And to those of you "Maroon 5 superfans" that say "Maps" is terrible compared to songs on their prior albums (Songs About Jane, It Won't Be Soon Before Long, Hands All Over): all bands need to change in order to stay solid. You shouldn't complain that their new material sounds overly pop, because if they did stick to just their original rock sound, you'd be complaining that they haven't changed enough. You can't call yourself a fan of Maroon 5 if you criticize them for changing; its what all artists do.

 

While "Maps" definitely helps make V a massive success, "It Was Always You" is easily the best track on the disc, as well as one of the group's most inventive songs of their career. Not only does it toy with electronic pop elements in a way that has never been done on any Maroon 5 song, it experiments with sounds and pops that help make it extremely unique. Additionally, the vocal work and radio friendly backing beat make it one of group's stronger efforts in recent years. It also topped the CDS Music Chart Hot 50, staying for the 3 weeks directly following the reign of "Maps". In total, Maroon 5 has topped the list for 8 weeks during this album cycle (they topped for 6 during the Overexposed album cycle).

"Animals", which I struggled with enjoying upon first listen, seemed to have the most support from fans to be the album's second single (over "It Was Always You") when it dropped last weekend. It quickly reached #2 on the United States iTunes Store (behind only Taylor Swift's massively successful "Shake It Off") and held well in sales, even with the car company KIA giving out over 200,000 free downloads of the song to anyone who wanted one in the United States. Thanks to the track becoming a quick favorite (among most), it was announced on August 25th (three days after it first premiered) that the track would be serviced to United States pop radio later that day as the album's second official single. While I believe that decision to be a bit stupid (as I was much more in favor of the group releasing "It Was Always You"), the song itself is still pretty solid.

Built around a high energy, funky, bass beat, "Animals" sounds like a radio winner for the group -- even if it takes a while to warm up.

Other highlights include "Sugar", "My Heart Is Open (feat. Gwen Stefani)", "Unkiss Me" and "Coming Back For You". Among those, "My Heart Is Open (feat. Gwen Stefani)" is clearly the most likely to become a hit single, with "Unkiss Me" and "Sugar" also having a good shot. Even though "My Heart Is Open (feat. Gwen Stefani)" is bound to be a hit, the 4th and 5th best songs (after "It Was Always You", "Maps" and "Animals") have to be "Unkiss Me" and "Sugar".

"Sugar" is one of my favorites mainly because its sexy, it's explicit and it clearly has some single potential. "Unkiss Me" is more of a classic Maroon 5 song, mellow but piercing, familiar yet fresh.

Update: As most of you know, "Animals" was selected as the album's 2nd single. According to listings on several online retailers and other sources, "Unkiss Me" will be serviced to radio as the album's 3rd official single. At this point, it's unlikely that we'll get an announcement about a 4th single until either the end of this year or early next year. Remember this hasn't been confirmed, but it appears that Maroon 5 is fully backing "Unkiss Me" as the next single.

Update 2: Maroon 5 will not be releasing "Unkiss Me" as the album's 3rd official single. Instead, "Sugar" will be serviced to radio as the third single after the promotion for "Animals" concludes. In an interview, the band announced that they've already made some progress in the planning of the video for "Sugar" as well.

Overview: Maroon 5's V appears to lack any sort of theme, but multiple re-listens will show just how well the songs mesh together. Almost every sort of style that Maroon 5 has ever done appears in someway or another, whether it be in the form of piercing vocals, or plucked strings, everything is there. It's basically a greatest hits filled with completely new material.

Now, I'll admit that there are some noticeable low points (the deluxe bonus tracks except "Sex and Candy", "New Love" and "Feelings"), and some marginal lyrics: "Show me that phone in your pocket" ("In Your Pocket"; this is not the proper way to call out your lover for cheating), but the album is still one of their most solid efforts to date. There's several other songs that have strong single potential, and even some tracks that'll miss radio and still become fan favorites. By no means has Maroon 5 lost touch; they're expanding their style while trying to stay true to their original sound.

     86/100 (B+)