Arts & Culture

Huge Hit New Maroon 5 “V” on Interscope Records

Cash for your car

Written by Susie Salva
Pop Powerhouse Maroon 5 release V this week on Interscope Records the bands fifth full-length studio effort from the Grammy-winning superstar band. With their amazing range of musical genres from Pop, Reggae, R&B and Rap they dominate the musical landscape pervading todays radio airwaves.

maroon 5 V, adam levine

This disc features the best from their early days to the sonic sounds and pairs up another interesting duet with soon to be the new face of the Voice…Gwen Stefani, on the last track on this album the somber, My Heart is Open, wrapping up their 11 song CD. The album provides a picture of M5’s artistic growth and spins waves into the future. This album is bright, danceable, emotional, and memorable.

Can’t miss the elephant in the room…Adam Levine was crowned the Sexiest Man Alive and he channels that energy and enthusiasm with his signature falsetto on all of the tracks put forth. V features the return of M5’s original keyboardist Jesse Carmichael to the fold, rejoining frontman Adam Levine, guitarist James Valentine, bassist Mickey Madden, drummer/percussionist Matt Flynn and keyboardist PJ Morton after a two-year hiatus.

Maroon 5 kicks off the first track of V the lead-off single Maps, which taps into an African backbeat reminiscent of early Sting saying that all Maps, lead back to you. Levine’s supreme falsetto a signature sound for M5 on these infectious pop-rock beats pairs up the songwriting collaboration between Levine and Ryan Tedder (Adele, Beyonce, One Direction), Benny Blanco (Katy Perry, Britney Spears) and Ammar Malik (Gym Class Heroes, Lady Antebellum, Moves Like jagger).

Animals, features Reggae groove sounds playing on the idea of animal magnetism felt between two people who can’t deny their overwhelming feelings for each other expressed soulfully on this cut. It Was Always You, relies on a slice of auto tune but in a tasteful way as Unkiss Me, has a deep emotional bent “Unkiss me, untouch me, untake this heart…lied to my heart.” For all of the M5 fans the band performs the R&B stunner, Sugar, needing a little sweetness is reminiscent of the Rolling Stones, Brown Sugar.

Leaving California, hearkens back to the classic M5 sound – the bittersweet yet catchy confessionals of heartbreak from songs like that on Songs About Jane, that propelled the band to fame. In Your Pocket, touches on the deception between two people in a torrid relationship — show me what’s in your pocket. On the other end of the spectrum is, New Love, the excitement of a new relationship trying not to upset the other person. Coming Back for You, shows the strength between two people that no matter what…I will be coming back for you. Feelings, summons up vibes similar to that of Michael Jackson with disco beats and EDM thumping.

My Heart is Open for You, pairs up M5 with style mavin Gwen Stefani revealing the emotional rawness and directness passionate romanic fire between the two on this highly charged track. This heart-tugging piano ballad builds to a soaring chorus offers subtle orchestration.

Maroon 5 has always proven popular since the release of the band’s debut album — 2002’s five-times-platinum Songs About Jane, featuring classic M5 hits like, This Love, and She Will Be Loved, that forged its pioneering template of rock, pop, and R&B. In 2011 Maroon 5 built on the momentum of two unlikely forces colliding, the massive exposure brought by Levine’s status as a host of the smash TV series The Voice, and the release of Moves Like Jagger, which returned M5 to the Top 10 after a four-year-break. An international #1 single, Moves like Jagger, became a pop-culture phenomenon – becoming not just Maroon 5’s biggest hit, but one of the best-selling singles of all time, selling over 14 million copies.

That triumph was followed up with yet another win, Maroon 5’s 2012 album, Overexposed, unleashed a foursome of Top 10 hit singles — Pay phone, Daylight, Love Somebody, and One More Night — the latter of which spent nine weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, setting a record for the band. For V Maroon 5 created a set of pop juggernauts raising the band’s sound and taking it to the next level. There is nothing this rock band can’t handle.

This album is slated to break all records and propel them again into superstardom. A great disc to start off the Fall season of music as all of these tracks deliver. M5 are forging new paths alike to create undeniable chapter in the M5 odyssey.

www.maroon5.com/v

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmugSMBh_iI[/youtube]

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About the author

Susie Salva