Number 84 - Songs About Jane by Maroon 5

 Number 84: Songs About Jane by Maroon 5

Heartbreak never sounded so good

Release: June 25th, 2002
Genre: Pop Rock
Favorite Tracks: Sunday Morning, She Will Be Loved, This Love

 

Where I heard it: 

Like I've mentioned many times before, my childhood experience with music was primarily based on what was popular at the time on the airwaves. There was plenty of time to listen to the radio while stuck in California traffic or traversing the tangled highway system. During the summer time when I was off school, my mom would take me a few times a week to the childcare facility she worked at so I had something to do other than play video games all day. For some reason, I clearly remember hearing She Will Be Loved play fairly often during the early morning car rides. That soft guitar intro just stood out to me as a 6 or 7 year old kid. Maroon 5 continued to dominate the charts throughout my childhood into my teen years; even to this day, they're still cranking out hits. Call it nostalgia goggles or whatever, but I've never quite had any songs from Maroon 5 impact me like the songs from Songs About Jane did. My love for this album was reinvigorated around 2015, when a good friend of mine and I had a lengthy discussion about its brilliance. I said it was possibly a top 10 album for me back then...but now that I've actually constructed a top 100 list, maybe it isn't that good. Number 84 ain't too bad though!

Tap on my window, knock on my door
I want to make you feel beautiful
I know I tend to get so insecure
Doesn't matter anymore
It's not always rainbows and butterflies
It's compromise that moves us along
~ She Will Be Loved 

What to expect:

Here's a little trivia you may not have known: the members of Maroon 5 (sans lead guitar James Valentine) were originally in a pop-punk garage band called Kara's Flowers. If you haven't heard them before, you should check out a track from their album The Fourth World. I won't lie, it's a little jarring. How do you get from The Fourth World to Songs About Jane without a dramatic personnel change? Well, you can thank frontman Adam Levine's relocation from LA to NY for a large part of Maroon 5's musical shift from pop-punk to funk rock. Levine grew interested in the bountiful hip-hop culture unlike any he'd seen in Los Angeles that was a cornerstone of New York. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, Levine's ex-girlfriend Jane was the next crucial influence that led to the inception of Songs About Jane. Every song on the album has at least one line that directly addresses their break-up, whether that be from an angle of regret, vengeance, lust, or validation. Though the entirety of Songs About Jane revolves around themes of a fractured relationship, these aren't your grandma's love songs. Maroon 5 isn't afraid to crank up the temperature and discuss some pretty racy themes, whether it's through subtle wordplay or blatant sexual fantasies. The lyrics are packed with whimsical, cunning, and outright erotic material that pushes the boundaries enough to moderately arouse the listener. This songwriting motif fits in well when integrated with the band, who flex their range of romanticism with tender slow ballads and funk rhythms straight out of a 70's porno flick. Although it's guaranteed to raise a few eyebrows, Songs About Jane maintains its musical integrity with the raw talent that Maroon 5 possesses among its members. It's impressive to hear this level of maturity (musically and conceptually) from a blossoming young group in their debut, which made it no surprise to see Maroon 5 emerge as pop megastars as the years went on.

 

What you are doing is screwing things up inside my head
You should know better, you never listened to a word I said
Clutching your pillow and writhing in a naked sweat
Hoping somebody someday would do you like I did
~ Harder to Breathe

Why it's my favorite:

Like many others, I've heard my fair share of songs by Maroon 5 and by proxy have been exposed to plenty of Adam Levine in peak celebrity form. Once Maroon 5 became radio darlings, the depth in songwriting seemed to dissipate with each album release. By the time I reached adulthood, Maroon 5's most successful songs seemed to be empty shells of what Songs About Jane established so many years ago. The formula of writing songs about promiscuity and sexuality was tired by the time they did it the third time, let alone the eighth or ninth or whatever. But this album...there's magic in every minute of it. While the singles released for Songs About Jane accomplished success in droves, the B-side content should not be undermined as mindless filler. In fact, plenty of the album's less popular songs are some of my favorites: The Sun, Secret, Must Get Out, Shiver...shoot, I may as well just attach the entire track listing. I don't think it's Maroon 5's fault for their shift towards full-on pop; they've kept their core lineup intact for nearly every album. This is just another unfortunate case of the tyrannical record industry swallowing up up-and-coming artists so they can shit out the same stuff that sells records. I often wander about what Maroon 5 could have accomplished on an indie label. Songs About Jane had so much potential that, in my opinion, was never fully realized.