So after the unexpected failure of Kara's Flowers and the Stagg Street recordings leading to nothing, 4 became 5 when joined the band and they were reborn as Maroon 5. Adam had clearly been improving his vocals and the band were influenced heavily by the more funky r'nb stylings of the late 60s and early 70s. Much has been written about their "debut" album Songs About Jane being Adam's breakup process, but whatever the underlying factors it resulted in one of the most accessible and melodic albums of the new millennium. Percolating since 2002, it didn't start to break big until late 2003 when the band's music was featured in my favourite movie, Love, Actually and lead off single Harder To Breathe started to saturate the airwaves. The song possessed an urgency and catchiness along side a gritty looking video and frankly, I couldn't get it out of my head for weeks. When I finally purchased the album it was played non stop for most of 2004. Everybody knows about This Love which became one of the biggest radio smashes of the year and saw Adam looking very RAR in the video. Almost anyone of the other tracks on the album could've been a hit – She Will Be Loved wisely was chosen and gave the band the cigarette lighter waving ballad for the stadiums. Other tracks like Sunday Morning and Sweetest Goodbye saw the sweeter side of M5 while Not Coming Home and Shiver saw their fusion of funk, pop and rock mix together so well that it didn't matter that it wasn't original – it was just done so darn well. A more soulful jam appeared in the form of Woman – a Kanye West collaboration for the Spiderman 2 movie. Incessant touring kept the band in the charts and on the road for most of 04/05 and they were rewarded with multi platinum sales in each country and four grammy awards. And in return I got an album that I'm still not tired of 3 years after first hearing it. Tomorrow ~ maroon 5 go live and unreleased…
.
LINK: Maroon 5's myspace page
LINK: Purchase Songs About Jane
