Imagine for a moment, a popular boy band with millions of built-in teenybopper fans and a mega-selling hit record filled with hit after hit of pop radio songs. No, Maroon 5 is not that boy band, but had they lent their ‘Songs About Jane’ album in that direction where some pop-boy band was lip synching these nifty tracks, this album would have already been a massive hit and found itself all over the place in the past year and a half. Alas, what we have here is a real rock band trying to make a name for themselves a second time around and slowly but surely making sure-footed strides in that direction with this release.

Maroon 5 is comprised of lead singer/guitarist Adam Levine, guitarist James Valentine, bass player Mickey Madden, keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, and drummer Ryan Dusick. All without Valentine had a prior mildly successful band together in the form of Kara’s Flowers at the end of their high school careers. Under the moniker Kara’s Flowers, the band released their power-pop debut in 1997 without much fanfare initially, causing their record label to drop them. Since then however, that same debut release has been an underground hit, spread by word of mouth. After the record label drop, the boys all went off to college and got into different types of music, mainly Funk and R&B. When the guys got back together and added Valentine as a fifth member on guitar, they discovered their sound had changed a bit and decided to rename the band totally starting anew.

With that, we have this current formation known as Maroon 5. Much like their prior album, ‘Songs About Jane’ took a while to get off the launching pad in terms of gaining fanfare. One particular striking song off the album has really done a masterful job of finally getting their name out there to the masses. That first release titled ‘Harder To Breathe’ was initially released back in the summer of 2002. Yet still a year and a half later, that standout song remains a fixture on the modern rock/pop radio circuits. It truly is a gem track full of edge, fun and spunk.

As for the rest of this album, it’s very solid. The second release, ‘This Love’, is a catchy fun pop song and you’ll soon come to realize that most of these tracks fit that same mold in being solid radio-friendly Pop/Rock with lesser hints of Funk, R&B, Soul. Levine’s lead vocals are always superb and silky smooth, and resemble Stevie Wonder at times, most notably in the track ‘Tangled.’ My favorite selection, aside from the two radio hits, would have to be ‘Sunday Morning’ as this is really where they showcase what they can do if they lean more towards the Funk/Soul tip featuring more ultra-smooth vocals and simply finga-lickin good grooves in a Jamiroquai sort of fashion.

Are there any bumps along this road though? Sure, I must confess one glaring mistake on this album. The song ‘Shiver’ comes off as a lot of the pop-hogwash frequently found on Top 40 radio. The problem is it strongly resembles the hit song ‘He Loves U Not’ from a few years ago by this all girl fifteen year old teen-pop band Dream. I just can’t get past that structure similarity. So I treat that as the lone skip-over track here.

Other than that, while much of this gives off a boy band kind of vibe, it delivers much more edge than a boy band ever could produce and shows itself to be the real deal. Their style is different in terms that it’s very hard to place them in a specific category, and that is never a bad trait to have. Overall, an interesting listen for fans of something fresh as this album has a nice flow to it. Grab this disc now while prices are still cheap because once these guys have blown up to star status proportion, the secret will be out and its price will be back up in the stratosphere. A very solid 3.5 Planets.

Track Listing:
1. Harder To Breathe
2. This Love
3. Shiver
4. She Will Be Loved
5. Tangled
6. The Sun
7. Must Get Out
8. Sunday Morning
9. Secret
10. Through With You
11. Not Coming Home (live)
12. Sweetest Goodbye

Shamples Rating:  3.5 out of 5 Planets


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