It Won't Be Soon Before Long

by

Maroon 5

Edit

Reading reviews from people who go to great lengths to say how "over it" they are when a band (god forbid) changes their musical direction a bit and produces a follow-up to a hugely successful album that dares to be different than its predecessor crack me up.

If the only Maroon 5 set you ever want to hear is SAJ, then don't ever buy any others, just keep listening to that. I loved Songs About Jane, I loved their live acoustic CD's, and I love their new CD. So what if a lot of their lyrics are about love gone wrong - we live in a country where more relationships fail than flourish, so most of us can relate to the lyrics. That they are able to capture the emotions associated with it (anger, bitterness, revenge, sadness, acceptance) in such a wide variety of musical styles speaks to the strength of their creativity, and that they channel some greats in the process (yes, Won't Go Home does have an Every Breath You Take-like guitar riff) is awesome.

I won't go song-by-song, but there are so many great tracks on this CD - catchy, lyrically clever, tightly produced - that the fact that there are a couple filler tracks is largely unimportant. You can't find hardly anyone who doesn't hum along to Makes Me Wonder, and I'd venture to say that several more tracks from this CD - If I Never See Your Face Again, Little of Your Time, Won't Go Home Without You, Can't Stop, Kiwi, Back at Your Door - are also major hit single potential.

There's no point in whining that your favorite best-kept-secret band hit the bigtime and is writing for a larger audience - all of their material they've done has been great in different ways, and this CD is going to be huge. Can't wait to see 'em live again.

2.5 (Man I wish Amazon.com would invest in decimals.)

When Maroon 5 hit the scene in 2002, heads turned and mothers were throwing babies from the bleachers as this Jazz/Funk/Rock band tore up the charts with "Songs about Jane" and it's first single, "Harder to Breathe." Now, in 2007, they've decided to expand themselves, and, in case you read to deeply into that statement, I'm using it as loosely as I can.

It is, in all honesty, a typical sophomore effort. You've got throwback tracks (Wake Up Call), you've got expansion tracks (If I Never See Your Face Again) , you've got influence tracks (Makes Me Wonder), and you've got covers (Kiwi), but, in the case of Maroon 5, what you don't have is mood. Gone is the moody, catchy Maroon 5 we heard during "The Sun" or "Sunday Morning." Gone is the emergence and aggression that were "Harder to Breathe" and "Shiver". What we are left with is Maroon 5 ala Disco-Pop. Jazzy Pop worked with SAJ and, especially if you're a fan, a majority of the songs stuck with you because of distinction and precision. "It Won't Be Soon Before Long" features the band WAY out on a limb, attempting something new, and coming up repetitive, entirely over-produced, and way too poppy for it's own good, lacking mood in place of sonic differentiality. For example, it's hard to emote and relate to Levine's lyrics when the tempo is 135 bpm, and Outkast is wondering if they copyrighted "Hey Ya" or not. It's a clash between emotive lyrics (sometimes humorous even) and up-tempo, disco-heavy, synth-laden noise as filler.

I'm not saying to avoid this record because it DOES have it's highlights ("Wake Up Call", "Better if we Break"), but DO NOT buy it expecting "Songs about Jane". It IS artistic progression, and I applaud that on every level in every forum, but, in my opinion, it's certainly in a difficult direction, too north-east to south-westerly admire.