Maroon 5 - Overexposed Album Review

Having first been portrayed as an alternative funk band with debut single 'Harder To Breathe', Maroon 5 slotted into a much more mainstream position with following releases 'This Love' and 'She Will Be Loved', a place they maintained since. Now on their forth record, they are about to tour South America, before moving on to Asia and Australia.

The reignited interest in Maroon 5 from their all-conquering collaboration with Christina Aguilera is evidenced by the inclusion of 'Moves Like Jagger' as a bonus track here, and more sensational hooks of a similar ilk wouldn't go amiss. With this in mind vocalist Adam Levine seems to have forsaken using his angelic vocals for singing in favour of more universal hooks - witness the grand arena-esque "woah woahs" of 'Daylight' or backing to disco dancer 'Lucky Strike'. Both are listenable without reaching the heights of the aforementioned mega-hit and this very much characterises a record of schizophrenic nature. More disco can be found on 'Tickets', whilst reggae-lite underlines 'One More Night' and the radio-friendly 'Beautiful Goodbye'. The chart-topping performance of 'Payphone' exemplifies that when the band get it right they can produce an enjoyable slice of pop music, and even the all-out balladry of 'Sad' remains more than bearable, but a lack of true identity is prominent. Getting back on the radar in such a big way is admirable for any act on record four, but unless they can keep knocking out another '.Jagger', they'll need to re-establish themselves and their core fanbase.

Alex Lai