My Amazon Reviews: Maroon 5 "V"

Effortless pop, Expertly delivered
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Better than the overproduced "Overexposed," "V" is Maroon 5's return to making candy-floss pop. I mean that as a compliment. As many bands that try to make this kind of music, few succeed at it quite the way Adam Levine and the boys do. Want more proof? Just think of Adam's TV stint on "The Voice," where assorted contestants vie for the opportunity to make this kind of music (with the odd country or soul belter mixed in for variety) and remind yourself that the show has yet to turn out a viable star. If it was that easy, they'd all have sales of the magnitude Maroon 5 have achieved.

For one thing, Maroon 5 know their way around a killer hook. Both "Maps" and "Animals" have hooks so big they belong in butcher shops and Adam's blue eyed soul delivery (and falsetto) make them stick to your ear canals. He also knows how to deliver one for the ladies, as the ballad "Unkiss Me" shows. The big piano ballad with Gwen Stefani, "My Heart Is Open" is a wonderful pairing, although "Moves Like Jagger" wins the duet contest by virtue of its snappiness. Yet Maroon 5 provides the fizz that pops in the 10's decade that it needs to stand above the fray.

I'll add an extra recommendation for the deluxe version of "V" in that two of the three songs are actually worthy of the couple extra bucks. There's the surprisingly bare bones version of the 90's one hit wonder Marcy Playground's "Sex And Candy." Then there's the Levine Oscar nominated solo track "Lost Stars," which Levine recorded for the movie "Begin Again" which he had an acting role in. They round out "V" and make it an album to rival Maroon 5's better entries.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Maroon 5 "Overexposed"

Over Everything,
3 Out Of 5 Stars

The irony of titling their new album "Overexposed" must have been lost on Adam Levine and Maroon 5. The album is overproduced, over-compressed and over-just-about-everything. Like so many bands in the current pop zeitgeist, they decided that they needed to conform to current popular production memes, which means having a guest rapper-of-the-moment (Wiz Khalifa, adding bonus profanities to "Payphone"), auto-tune, writer/producers of the now (Max Martin, Ryan Tedder) and multiple other steps that rob the band of any of their previous individual qualities. Take Adam out of the equation, and this would be another generic, over-compressed/produced pop-album.

The saving grace is Adam, who's white-boy soul is on a par with Daryl Hall at this point. Given the material he has to work with, he milks every hook and croon he can. Good numbers like "Lucky Strike," "Lady Killer" and even the obscenity laced "Payphone" stick like rubber cement. I'll make a quick point to say that I'm not a prude, but for a band that seemingly prides itself on their pop craftsmanship, the swearing in "Payphone" and "Tickets" just seems more gratuitous than effective, like the band has to prove how hard they are. But when you're capable of making really good light funk that hits its groove like "Fortune Teller" and "Doin' Dirt," you don't need to prove you're anything but a great pop band.

Which is what, ultimately, Maroon 5 is. "Overexposed" hits all its marks seemingly without effort, with craftsmanship that most any other band would sell their bubblegum machines for. Adam's unique voice gives the band enough identity to cut through the generic sounding production here, and when they horn-pump Prince's slinky "Kiss" (a bonus track on the deluxe version), they demonstrate that they're above the cookie-cutter sound that plagues this album.