Not all things get better with age: Examining Maroon 5’s new album

Moving even further away from its original sound, Maroon 5’s latest album Red Pill Blues is an adventure into pop-land that nobody needs to go on.

The album cover alone is enough to question buying the album. The face of Maroon 5 is quite literally becoming as mainstream trash as the new music, with every member donning Snapchat filters. All seven members are either in puppy ears, flower crowns, hearts or some other lame filter that marketers thought would distract from the fact that Maroon 5 is getting old. And yes, Maroon 5 has seven current members, which only further proves the point that quantity does not equal quality.

The album itself is rather long in length with 15 songs on the track listing. The band attempted to appeal to different audiences with Kendrick Lamar, SZA, Julia Michaels, Future and A$AP Rocky featuring on different songs, but the features overshadowed Maroon 5 to the point that Adam Levine’s voice and the rest of the band became forgettable.

A$AP Rocky, Kendrick Lamar and Future try to save the wreckage that Maroon 5 headed towards in an attempt to create crappy pop-song gold. It is as though Maroon 5 called each artist up only because hip-hop is more relevant than anything it could produce. Rocky sounds amazing on his track, but his part is extremely short for a collaboration. Future’s “Cold” and Lamar’s “Don’t Wanna Know” features are by far the best parts of the songs, even though their verses are short. Skipping past Levine’s voice on these tracks is a must.

 

SZA seemed like she would be an amazing collaboration, but “What Lovers Do” became overplayed, uninteresting, stuck-in-your-head garbage. With mumbling words and lame lyrics, SZA loses her usual flair through stereotypical meanings and pointless hooks.

Julia Michael’s collaboration with Maroon 5 is a strictly unnoteworthy Lily Allen knockoff.

The few tracks that are quite decent, like “Closure,” are overshadowed by the atrocity of the rest of the album. Gone are the days where Maroon 5 maintained its popularity off of quality music. The only thing that continues to be prevalent is Adam Levine’s face, and as long as Maroon 5 continues to benefit off his looks alone, there is no telling how bad the music will get.

– Natalie Forster