Has it been 10 years already? It’s hard to imagine, but I guess it has. When MAROON 5 first burst onto the scene with their debut album, SONGS ABOUT JANE in 2002, I was managing a Sam Goody store and was at the forefront of the musical battlefield, introducing the masses to new sounds on a weekly basis. In-between the punk rock and heavy music that so often could be heard blaring from the store (much to the dismay of the Dress Barn across the hall), we spun some pop – but only what we dug. MAROON 5 fit the bill.
A little Jamiroquai, a little Justin Timberlake, a little rock n’ roll with a whole lot of funk and r&b soul, Adam Levine and Co. were winning some listeners in our neck of the woods, and as time has told – well beyond.
Evolving from an earlier band called KARA’S FLOWERS (who released one album on Reprise in 1997 that was re-issued in 2004. That album was produced by longtime GREEN DAY collaborator Rob Cavallo) that carried more of a pure rock sound, MAROON 5 landed at just the right time to strike listeners with the combination of sounds they carried with them. Had they arrived a few years earlier, or even a few years later, it would be highly unlikely that the band would’ve acheived the same level of success.
For the 10th Anniversary of that landmark moment, A&M/OCTONE have released an expanded edition of SONGS ABOUT JANE, bringing together the twelve original album tracks alongside a new collection of seventeen demos and alternate versions. While the full disc of bonus versions is a fun listen, the additional material does little to enhance the original album, which still sounds great a decade into it’s recorded legacy.
I was probably a little unfairly harsh in a review I’d written for another publication regarding 2010’s HANDS ALL OVER, but we’ll see where MAROON 5 stands in 2012 when their fourth studio album, OVEREXPOSED, hits stores on June 26th – exactly 10 years and one day after the release of SONGS ABOUT JANE.
SONGS ABOUT JANE: 10th Anniversary Edition available now on iTunes.
The Rock Father Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
