Maroon 5

Overexposed seems a particularly apt title for this Maroon 5 album, given the amount of worldwide airplay Moves Like Jagger has had over the last twelve months (it has sold around 8 million copies as of June 2012). Included on some formats of this new album, the track has been dominating airwaves and its slick slice of modern pop unsurprisingly shapes the sound of the band’s fourth album. In a way that is rather a shame, because when they first arrived on the scene, Maroon 5 sounded genuinely fresh.

Here the classy sound of Songs About Jane is almost completely lost in the 2012 fixation of over producing and almost squeezing the tune out of every track by over-processing. Given Adam Levine’s ear for a good pop song that is disappointing. Payphone, One More Night and Lucky Strike are songs that will forever be time-stamped 2012 but are still impressive pieces of catchy pop.

Mostly centred around relationships, the lyrics are never awfully challenging, and on Payphone Levine even seems to been remonstrating with himself about the lack of variety; “one more stupid love song and I’ll be sick.” Everything passes by more smoothly than George Clooney and you end up wanting something to jump out and surprise you. But it doesn’t.

Ladykiller’s shuffling rhythm and the obligatory tender ballad Sad do provide a slight change of pace but the likes of The Man Who Never Lied and Fortune Teller pass by without their tune making the slightest mark on your memory. Maroon 5 admit that they are not a ‘cool’ band, but why worry about that if your records continue to sell as well as they do. And there is no doubt this will sell well, but if you want more interesting pop-rock that the band once promised, you would do well to check out sound-alikes The Script, or even better, the superb Gavin de Graw.