Latest Release
- AUG 11, 2023
- 1 Song
- Hands All Over (Deluxe Edition) · 2010
- V · 2014
- Red Pill Blues (Deluxe) · 2017
- Girls Like You (feat. Cardi B) - Single · 2018
- Songs About Jane · 2002
- V (Deluxe) · 2014
- Beautiful Mistakes - Single · 2021
- Overexposed (Deluxe Version) · 2012
- V (Deluxe) · 2014
- Songs About Jane · 2002
Essential Albums
- Brimming with attitude and eager to impress, Songs About Jane is a debut album that displays zero lack of confidence. Then again, Maroon 5 had plenty of time to get ready for this moment. Four of its five original members—singer and rhythm guitarist Adam Levine, keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, bassist Mickey Madden, and drummer Ryan Dusick—had already weathered an earlier life as Kara’s Flowers, the band they originally formed while still in high school in Los Angeles. After an unsuccessful major-label album and a hiatus for studies at college, the four reconvened, added guitarist James Valentine and—after a long sojourn in New York, where Levine soaked up hip-hop culture and nursed a major but valuable heartache—reinvented themselves as Maroon 5. In place of the Britpop and punk-pop leanings of Kara’s Flowers came the R&B bravado and funk-influenced rock that make Songs About Jane as arresting as it is immediately appealing. The first and most aggressive of the album’s hits, “Harder To Breathe” introduced the flair for high drama that would serve Levine very well in the years to come. Nor is this the last time his songwriting would vividly portray the to-and-fro of a toxic romance (“want to stay but you know very well I want you gone”), though, in the future, he’d shy away from expressing the kind of raw anger and hurt that’s so evident in “Shiver” and “Not Coming Home.” Not even the irrepressible exuberance of “This Love”—which became the breakout hit that the band had been gunning for since its days at Brentwood High—can entirely disguise the emotional turbulence at the core of Levine’s songs. Just as surprising is the softness that exists within it, too. With Levine’s tenor floating on a groove that manages to be both insistent and featherlight, “She Will Be Loved” sees Maroon 5 balance the cocksure attitude of so much of Songs About Jane with a sense of yearning, one that suggests his Lothario pose may really be just a useful disguise.
Albums
- 2014
Artist Playlists
- From "This Love" to "Sugar," the very best from Adam Levine and co.
- Vivid, sunshiny visuals to accompany their soulful pop.
- Hidden gems that draw inspiration from the islands and alt-rock.
- Their decidedly 21st-century pop has its roots in the classics.
- Grab the mic and sing along with some of their biggest hits.
Compilations
- Weighing in on Maroon 5's Halftime Show and more.
- Revisiting the biggest shows in Super Bowl Halftime history.
- Jayde Donovan revisits pop-rock powerhouse Maroon 5’s debut album.
- The band on "Beautiful Mistakes," plus premiere from Benny Sings.
- The English band drop "Into the Surf," Cage The Elephant guest.
- Featuring 6lack, Tyga, and Maroon 5.
About Maroon 5
When the video for Maroon 5’s “This Love” hit MTV in 2004, the network censored two words: coming, as in “keep her coming every night,” and sinking, as in “sinking my fingertips into every inch of you.” It’s not that the words were dirty, of course, but the context—well, even as euphemism, they felt a little too R for a song so universally catchy, so G. The incident was, in a way, a precedent: Even as they ascended to megastardom, Maroon 5 has managed to retain a sense of edge and sexuality that seems incomparable with how huge they are, bringing the boudoir to the grocery store while simultaneously remaining one of the 21st century’s few mainstream bands—as in, that old-timey concoction of guitar, bass, drums, and a singer—able to keep pace with the innovations of electronic music and hip-hop. Made up primarily of old high-school friends, the band formed in Los Angeles in the early 2000s after an earlier—and musically unrelated—incarnation called Kara’s Flowers failed to launch. Influenced by singer Adam Levine’s then-recent baptism in hip-hop music and culture, 2002’s Songs About Jane was a slow burn, taking about two years to reach the upper end of the charts. The band toured relentlessly, venturing further into soul and Prince-style pop-rock for 2007’s It Won’t Be Soon Before Long, adding both polish and power for 2010’s Hands All Over. In 2011, Levine started serving as a coach on The Voice, launching his own celebrity while expanding the band’s reach even further.
- ORIGIN
- Los Angeles, CA, United States
- FORMED
- 2001
- GENRE
- Pop