People have been wanting another "Songs About Jane" for forever. It's never gonna happen. They abandoned that long ago in the quest for relevancy. Just the most generic band out there.
I actually thought their last single “Nobody’s Love” was decent Top 40 pop music and more enjoyable than they’d been in a while. Now admittedly I grade their new stuff on a VERY low curve, and my expectations for this are still near-zero, but... it could be okay?
In general though I fully agree. I actually enjoy most of Hands All Over in addition to the great first two albums, but it’s amazing how virtually nothing since then has been interesting.
Never have expectations with this band anymore, that way you can’t be disappointed. Honestly the production on this is pleasant enough and Megan sounds good... super basic song but I wasn’t expecting anything else. Not totally awful but definitely not something I’d ever choose to listen to.
oh wow, the whole track listing is even more intense TRACKLIST: 01 “Beautiful Mistakes” (Feat. Megan Thee Stallion) 02 “Lost” 03 “Echo” (Feat. blackbear_ 04 “Lovesick” 05 “Remedy” (Feat. Stevie Nicks) 06 “Seasons” 07 “One Light” (Feat. Bantu) 08 “Convince Me Otherwise” (Feat. H.E.R.) 09 “Nobody’s Love” 10 “Can’t Leave You Alone” (Feat. Juice WRLD) 11 “Memories” 12 “Memories (Remix)” (Feat. Nipsey Hussle & YG) 13 “Button” (Feat. Anuel AA & Tainy)* 14 “Lifestyle” (Jason Derulo Feat. Adam Levine)* *Bonus tracks on the Target physical version
Same. Believe it or not, this is only their 2nd album since then. Red Pill Blues came out in 2018. I think it seems like more because they had a whole slew of unmemorable singles leading up to that (which of course just got tacked on to the end of that album as a "deluxe version"). And pretty much the same with this one. I mean "Memories" came out in 2019, for fuck's sake.
The bonus track "Denim Jacket" from Red Pill Blues, and the standard album closer "Closure" are both worthwhile listens. Denim Jacket is my favorite thing from them in recent memory and "Closure" is basically an 11-minute jam session that is annoying in the sense of "oh, these guys can be quality musicians if they actually care, but they obviously don't"
Songs About Jane and It Won't Be Soon Before Long are still really good albums and even most of Hands All Over. Just wish these guys would write something with actual meaning again.
It's tough, because as a music fan I totally and completely want them to make better music, it's that simple. But looking at their band as a job, they 100% have succeeded in creating a successful product that will support their families and that's totally their prerogative. I get the feeling they really just do treat it like a job and aren't as into the creative process as much, which again... is fine for them, just not as a music fan
What the hell is a Stevie Nicks feature on a modern-day Maroon 5 song even going to sound like…? If this were their early days I’d say this could be cool, but I have zero faith in them nowadays to make good music, even with a true musical legend involved.
I’ll be honest, I totally forgot both of those songs existed til I saw this post. Went back to them, and I basically share your thoughts… if more of their new stuff was like these songs and still had solid musicality and songwriting, I’d be more okay with it. As it stands though, it’s like you said, they still have the ability to write somewhat cool stuff if they actually cared but ~95% of the time nowadays that’s not their main objective.
I had a job mowing lawns one summer for the city. Awesome job, just ride around and blast tunes. I think I listened to It Won't Be Soon Before Long every single day that summer. Their best album by a wide margin for me. Hands All Over was overall pretty decent. Overexposed had a few excellent songs and half meh, and V still had a couple good songs and a lot of not so... that's where it ends. They were briefly poised (and big enough) to take pop music in a really refreshing direction. A fairly harmless, well-produced guitar band with an proper pop star front man and hooks for days. I always think of the song "I Can't Lie' from Hands All Over - it's just a wonderful, jangly, sunny song. Overflowing with harmonies. Gives me almost distant Hall & Oates-cousin vibes. Really sad it turned out this way
Just listened to a leak of the new album with super low expectations. Honestly... don't get your hopes up too high folks but... this was more enjoyable than I was expecting. It's still a very mixed bag as will happen with so many different songwriters and producers in the kitchen, but there are actually some pretty solid modern pop highlights imo. "Lost" is co-written by Jon Bellion and is reminiscent of the best songs on Justin Bieber's newest album with a clear The Police influence. And uh... the song "Convince Me Otherwise" with H.E.R. is without question their best song since pre-Moves Like Jagger for me. It's billed as "Maroon 5 & H.E.R." rather than a guest feature, and it's totally deserved, because she absolutely carries this thing. Really stunning vocals, and an actually pretty great full-band instrumental, with a gorgeous piano melody and solid bass line. If only the whole album was on this level... but I'm still really glad they released a new song with so much evident passion put in.
They’re really good at writing/picking commercially pop music. I haven’t listened to a full album by then in a minute, but just did a run through of some random songs on here and they were all enjoyable as hell without being as jingle-y as their singles can sometimes be. Agreed that the H.E.R. song was a standout.