You may want to heed my advice before you decide to get Maroon 5's new album, Hands All Over. On a scale from "Please, change it!" to "Play it again!", there is no doubt that this album spans the whole spectrum. And after waiting more than three years for this release, I feel as though I can speak for most Maroon 5 fans in saying this: I am underwhelmed.
In its entirety, the album is definitely respectable, but I don't know how far I would go to give it much more than that. The album unquestionably screams "Maroon 5" from its funk/pop/rock arrangements of toe-tapping drumbeats to the heart-melting voice of frontman, Adam Levine. But on this album, it is safe to say that the band might have needed to, well, "give a little more," per one of the album's 12 songs.
Maroon 5 is renowned for its catchy, funky love songs, and if that's what you love about the group, then go buy this album. For the rest of us, however, we tend to assume and expect bands to broaden their horizons and try new things as they gain success, tenure and more fans. This simply isn't the case with the band's third released album.
On its 2002 debut, Songs About Jane, girls - and the occasional boy - went crazy for Maroon 5's unique pop-rock sound. A whopping five years later, the group did it again and released It Won't Be Soon Before Long, a second mega-hit album that sounds extremely similar like the first. So, after eight years on the music scene, Maroon 5 has simply served out some more of the same. Does this band know how to not write a love song?
Nevertheless, there actually are quite a few catchy, soon-to-be-popular songs on this album. From the early released single, "Misery," to the spunky and rhythmic "Stutter," the album offers a wide selection of those clich