“V” Review
By Ike Hajinazarian
Grade: C
I miss my childhood.
The days when my dad would turn on the radio and I’d get to hear classic jams such as “Sunday Morning” and “Harder to Breathe.”
That was Maroon 5 in the band’s heyday. We’re never going to get that back.
That’s understandable — bands will always have a peak — and Maroon 5’s was “Songs About Jane.”
That age of the band’s history created just wonderful pop music, kind of raw, not too overproduced and ballsy. Paired with Adam Levine’s unbelievably sexy voice, it was a tour de force.
But since then, Maroon 5 has changed. They’ve become too big to know what to do with themselves, and their music has reflected it.
It’s so heavily produced and factory-pressed that the listener is left to wonder if there really is a band making the music on instruments at all.
Maroon 5’s “V” is good. It’s not excellent.
It’s not spellbinding, capturing or revolutionary, and it is not the band in its top form. But it’s good.
One of the biggest problems of this record is that it’s just so tired.
Maroon 5 shows its age so distinctly by adding on an absolutely wonderful cover of “Sex and Candy” at the end of the album.
Let me explain.
It’s not that the band’s performance is bad on this album — just listen to the beauty of the power-ballad duet with Gwen Stefani, “My Heart Is Open.” It’s that, for the most part, the songs’ writing just shows a complete lack of care.
That’s why, after listening to an entire album of textbook-written pop songs, the direct transition into a beautifully and creatively written song such as “Sex and Candy” shows just how far the band’s writing has slipped.
There are some good songs on this album: the totally radio-ready “Maps” and the synth-poppy “It Was Always You,” to name a couple.
The album also has a little treat at the very end for the listener: Adam Levine’s absolutely kick ass “Lost Stars” from the film “Begin Again.”
All in all, though, Maroon 5 has left us with some OK pop music, aching for the days when its music was full of passion and good energy. It’s not their worst, but it’s definitely not their best.
This review was based on the Deluxe Edition of “V.”
