Overexposed Review

OVEREXPOSED
Maroon 5
2012
A&M/Octone
Prod. by Max Martin, Noah “Mailbox” Passovoy, Shellback, et. al.

Those of you buying Overexposed to learn more about Maroon 5 as a band had best steer clear. Overexposed is clearly an Adam Levine affair, and it’s a series of pop songs that ping-pong between their own hit, “Payphone,” and an imitation of the pop stylings of Coldplay.

Perhaps similarly to Mylo Xyoto, you’ll occasionally wonder if there really is a band behind Adam Levine. The first three songs do very little to justify the album as anything other than an Adam Levine solo record, including the six-writers-pop-starlet “Payphone,” which has never very much impressed me beyond a nice drum line on the verses. However, the guitarist, James Valentine (who helps to write a third of the songs on the album, though not the guitar-heavy ones) comes to life on “Lucky Strike,” a moment that finally aims for the energy of “Moves Like Jagger” last year. The rest of the band is hidden behind your standard synth-pop backing, but it’s a nice reminder that there IS another member to Maroon 5.

However, album then sinks back into washed out pop nonsense. It’s perhaps telling that I have trouble differentiating most of these songs from Rebecca Black’s “Friday.” These aren't especially good pop hooks or productions, and it's overall a very meandering affair. An effort is made to return focus to bass player Mickey Madden on “Lady Killer” (for which Madden actually receives a writing credit) but it’s not quite enough to make his presence notable. The only break from the monotony of completely disposable candy before the finale is the ninth track, “Sad," which is perfectly fine but not lyrical or virtuosic enough to propel it beyond the album. The finale, “Beautiful Goodbye,” is destined to become a moderately popular single or concert closer, but it’s still not especially different from anything before it. There are a couple of iTunes bonus songs that fail to impress any memories upon me, leaving the original finale as the superior place to stop.

Credit must be given to drummer Matt Flynn for his mostly thankless job as a drummer on what really amounts to a pop album. Flynn manages to consistently contribute lines that are more interesting than the songs require without ever distracting the listener from the song. Flynn’s drums on this album are actually a strong example of the kind of more technical drumming I like, in comparison to the stylings of Peart on Rush songs.

Spotify seems to have an exclusive performance of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” that drops all performance by members other than Levine, Valentine, and rhythm guitarist Jesse Carmichael. It perhaps summarizes the entire experience that no part is truly impressive or even exciting, no matter how pretty Levine’s voice can be, as the instrumentation never comes in to back him up.

I booted up “Songs About Jane,” the breakthrough album with “This Love” and “Harder to Breathe,” for the first time in years yesterday for comparison’s sake. It opened my eyes and saddened me as I laid witness to the fact that these are talented players when given the opportunity to actually perform. Here, Maroon 5 is effectively reduced to Levine and session musicians.

2/5
HIGHLIGHTS: “Daylight,” “Lucky Strike”
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES: “One More Night,” “Doin’ Dirt”
CATALOG CHOICE: Songs About Jane
NEXT STOP: A Rush Of Blood To The Head, Coldplay
AFTER THAT: C’est Chic, Chic