I’ve been steeping in a lot of 2000s nostalgia lately. From binge watching The OC for the first time to watching TikToks about the ways 2000s aesthetics are coming back in new ways to digging up my favorite pivotal songs from the era, I feel so eager to talk about the things that made my childhood fun.

One of those things I need to talk about is one of my favorite bands when I was a kid: Maroon 5.

Now maybe it was the fact that I was in the mood to shuffle through their discography a few weeks ago or how earlier this year I debated the idea of seeing them at their Vegas residency or even the fact that Christo Bowman of Bad Suns might’ve influenced me when he posted an IG story featuring the underrated Maroon 5 song “Never Gonna Leave This Bed” the morning after a show recently that got me thinking about it all. But I need to talk about how much this band meant to me at a few points in my life and how I don’t call myself a fan of theirs anymore.

What really blows my mind is how when you listen to their discography, it’s as if they took a cue from the band in the movie Jennifer’s Body and made a deal with the devil to get famous. As in: when they were everywhere in pop culture, the music was lacking the soul that had seemed to define the first part of their discography. And unfortunately it felt like it got worse until the great fall of Adam Levine last year. I know I’m being dramatic but it’s sad to me that it feels like this band ended up not living up to the hype for the rest of their career. So let me walk you through this tragedy.

Sweet Beginnings

I came to know Maroon 5 through my older sister, who vouched for their first album Songs About Jane and uploaded it to our family desktop’s Windows Media Player — aka the only way to listen to music while playing games on the computer.

Was I too young to be listening to Maroon 5? Yeah probably, especially because I distinctly remember being shielded away from watching the music video to “This Love” for some reason. (To be fair, it’s a very horny music video and no one needs to be explaining that to a six/seven year old.) But I could not deny it at that young age: Songs About Jane was a great album. Sorry, it IS a great album, as in it still fucking HITS.

It’s the kind of album that stops people in their tracks and makes them say “that’s Maroon 5?? They made THIS kind of music?? What happened??” Which I think are valid questions.

This was the iconic debut album that gave us “This Love”, “She Will Be Loved”, and literally one of the best songs of all time: “Sunday Morning.” Between the tender moments and the raw and sexy angst in this album, Maroon 5 found their niche in tapping into their true soul.

But that wasn’t my favorite album growing up. My favorite album was It Won’t Be Soon Before Long. To this day, this album’s got the most raw but polished, sexy sound I’ve heard in an album. Harry Styles came close in some moments with Fine Line, but this album? SOURCE MATERIAL. Like excuse me, a DUET with RIHANNA?? It’s insanely sexy! Iconic behavior all around.

Maybe it’s because I’ve got a thing for angsty music but I loved how many angsty bops this album had. It also felt like they were carving out their distinct blend of pop, rock, soul, and funk in a way that was just so suave. And don’t get me started on the bonus tracks. I can’t believe some of those stayed B-sides.

Hands All Over continued the polished, sexy soulful sound but this time around there was less angst and more tenderness on this album. The songs on this album maintained this sort of vulnerability that really balanced the straight up horndog energy from Adam Levine. The balance was really refreshing because it felt earnest. This is probably my favorite album now.

Songs like “Never Gonna Leave This Bed”, “How”, “Just A Feeling”, and “Runaway” held so much weight pondering deeper relational concepts that even though I didn’t understand it, I could feel it in the song. And believe me, once my big teenage feelings started to show themselves, these songs felt even better.

So that’s why it was shocking to me that right after the tenderness of Hands All Over, they came out with…

Moves Like…Jagger?

Now this is where the ground got shaky for me. I remember when The Voice was starting and as a promotional thing, Maroon 5 decided to release a song with Adam’s fellow judge Christina Aguilera called “Moves Like Jagger.” I remember listening to it when it premiered and being disappointed on first listen. Where was the Maroon 5 that I knew? The band that was more than capable of sexy tenderness without selling a cheap sex?

To me, it felt like they were going with a cheap shot at fame with that song. But because I was a devoted fan at the time, I let it grow on me. Do I still think it’s a bad song? Yeah, but I won’t not dance to it. Just please for the love of God don’t do it at karaoke: it’s not a good idea. I will be visibly uncomfortable.

After that came the Overexposed era, which at that point: aptly titled. This era had some bright spots but it was really when they became less about albums and more about a good song every now and then.

That album was the first time it seems that they were making a clear play at the ways pop music was evolving to highlight electronic music production. And Maroon 5 used a lot of it.

This is where I come in with a big unpopular opinion: “Payphone” is not a good song. Yeah, yeah I know it’s nostalgic for people but I just never understood the hype for it. Of the singles from that era, “Daylight” and more specifically “Love Somebody” were bigger splashes for me because it felt like two of three times they were actually being earnest on the album. The other song being “Sad”, which is basically just Adam’s voice and a passionately played piano. And for that reason, I tried not to give up on them.

A Brief Redemption

When they released the singles to their album V, I waited in expectant hope that they’d have some sort of return to form. And some of the songs felt like it.

This was the era that gave us “Maps”, “Animals”, and “Sugar”. And you know what, I was here for those singles. “Maps” for some reason was inescapable on the Pepperdine campus in 2014 during my freshman year and for that reason I grew to associate it with that time. “Animals” felt like Adam Levine at his horny best, ya know with that primal howl at the end of the bridge? Kinda iconic still. And “Sugar” went viral for being the viral wedding crasher song for the music video concept they went with.

“Sugar” always makes me laugh because my best friend Juliette hates that song but I lowkey still love it. I know it’s nauseatingly sweet, but that’s why it’s so good!! Like, what am I gonna do? Not dance to that song? Not want to be called “hotter than a Southern California day”? Come on! Lol.

V was such a mixed bag of an album. While it had some definite bright spots like the bonus track “Lost Stars” (from Begin Again, the movie Adam was in…he didn’t write that song but great movie), there was an overall guilty pleasure feeling to this album.

The best example of that is the lyrically insane but catchy “This Summer”. I am slightly ashamed to admit it but I love screaming the words to this song in my car. It’s really a “so bad it’s good” kind of thing. I think I can enjoy it because I know it’s not really trying to be deep. In this case, the overproduction works because it’s trying to mirror the excess of the lyrics. I literally dare you to not stop thinking about how cathartic it would be to scream the words “this is summer’s gonna hurt like a motherfucker, fucker” for no reason. Try it, it’s so silly, it’ll cheer you up instantly.

But still, Maroon 5 was proving that they weren’t really an album band anymore: they were really just here to satisfy with singles. And it started to make me uncertain of their future.

A Dip (and not the good kind)

They took a break for a couple years and then came back with the Red Pill Blues era, which was…weird. This era saw a lot of collabs which were kinda fun, but it didn’t always work. It was as if again, they were trying to react to the changes in pop music and it didn’t always feel right.

The mid to late 2010s was a weird time in pop music admittedly. The wave of electronic music influence was giving way to trap music influences and it definitely felt like it put Maroon 5 in an awkward place.

Maroon 5 has always been best when they give us sick guitar solos and get raw. So to hear the antithesis of that with too polished synths and halfhearted lyrics felt strange. Don’t get me wrong: they did give us bops in this era with “What Lovers Do”, “Girls Like You”, “Cold”, and “Don’t Wanna Know” — but something about these songs didn’t really feel like Maroon 5 to me. They felt overproduced with lyrics made to appeal to the masses. It didn’t feel real. It felt more about the science of a pop song than the art of it. That said though, I still have Cardi B’s rap in “Girls Like You” ready to pull out for karaoke. I would love a guy who meant what Adam wrote to sing the rest of the song to me with the passion it deserves.

The True Fall

By the time they released JORDI, an album to commemorate their longtime manager’s passing, I wasn’t really interested in what they were doing. I didn’t give it a listen until recently and honestly the only bright spots were their collabs with Stevie Nicks and Megan Thee Stallion…and they definitely outshined them.

To me, the album suffered from a deeper numbness than the Red Pill Blues era. Even the lead single “Memories” felt numb and not in a purposeful way. Like I know it was meant to be a tribute to their manager Jordi, but it still felt so unenthusiastic and as if they weren’t being truly vulnerable. So much of this album was them once again reacting to the changes in pop music.

But to me (and many others), the nail in the coffin was Adam Levine’s Instagram DM hijinks. I remember thinking to myself that of course something like this was gonna happen to him but it was just so much worse than I expected. Like for God’s sake dude, your MODEL WIFE was pregnant with your second child. And you’re asking a random girl if you can name the baby after her to flirt? The fuck is wrong with you? That plus the fact that he’d been making such halfhearted music made it feel like the band’s legacy was now tarnished. And it made me really sad.

Where Do We Stand Now?

Now, I still maintain that Maroon 5 is a group of exceptional musicians. I can’t deny or overstate the sonic impact they’ve had on me and the way their music has been a comfort in the most primal emotions.

I still look up to the ways they crafted a blend of pop, rock, soul, and funk in their early days. I definitely would love to make a song that captures the It Won’t Be Soon Before Long era vibe. Especially if it’s a song about romantic tension or sexual frustration.

But there’s a reason I didn’t end up going to see their Vegas residency. Something about supporting Adam Levine peacocking around while the rest of the guys don’t get their deserved recognition feels weird to me now.

All I can say is I wish I had a time machine to go back and tell them not to listen to their label or whoever was telling them to make over polished songs that were made with the goal of being a hit. Because to me, their best songs are when they’re the most effortless at tapping into raw emotion. I wish they could go back to that, but it doesn’t feel like it’ll happen. Anyway, pretty sad what happened here. Y’all gave us some legendary songs and I won’t forget about it. But I can’t in good conscience say that I’m gonna be a devoted fan in the future.

So, I speak in mourning and say here’s some of my favorite songs of them that’ll always have a special place in my heart.

Highlights

Harder To Breathe

“How dare you say that my behavior’s unacceptable? So condescending and unnecessarily critical…”

This is such an iconic album opener. It’s dripping in angst and it’s got such a great release. Legend has it Adam Levine wrote it after an argument with a label executive. The words of this song are so punchy and I just love the drums mirror that too. That’s such a marker of the production for Songs About Jane: it’s got this gritty rawness to it that makes it so effortlessly sexy. Maroon 5 was really gunning for the sexy rock band of the 2000s and their first album was a strong start.

Tangled

“Oh shame on myself I don’t know how I got so tangled…”

Now this is a motherfuckin BOP. It’s sassy, it’s sexy, and it just hits all the right notes. Also, the climax of this song is so satisfying and I think they’d love that compliment lol. This song just brilliantly captures the tension that Maroon 5 so brilliantly paints in Songs About Jane. Again, the grittiness of this song is such a standout component that makes it a captivating listen.

The Sun

“And mama I’ve been crying ‘cause things ain’t how they used to be…”

I felt so cool listening to this song when I was a kid. It felt full of feelings I didn’t fully understand. But now that I’m older, I feel entranced by the songwriting in this one. Specifically the line “the sex she slipped into my coffee, the way she felt when she first saw me” is just so mystical to me. I mean yeah, I’d venture to say the whole bridge actually. The details in this song are so vivid and it’s such a shame they didn’t do a video for this one. Also the guitar solo at the end? Underrated. The organ?? Iconic.

Won’t Go Home Without You

“Every night you cry yourself to sleep, thinking why does this happen to me, why does every moment have to be so hard…”

This song is the perfect example of the tenderness that defined their music. Adam’s voice is so pleading and almost gentle and it makes you feel it. The instrumentation feels so epic in comparison like a proper movie soundtrack moment. Ugh, just such a good song.

Infatuation

“If it’s only a fantasy, then why is it killing me?”

One thing about me? I’m gonna publicly admit that I know infatuation (the feeling) like the back of my hand. The fact that there’s such a sexy song about this makes me feel seen because there’s such a powerful feeling behind it. It’s as if I’m encountering the depths of my devotion when I stew in infatuation. The brilliant thing about this song is that it doesn’t count out the anxiety hiding among the powerful feeling of infatuation. I CANNOT BELIEVE THEY KEPT IT AS A B-SIDE.

Until You’re Over Me

“I cannot refuse your eyes, please don’t look at me tonight…”

Another iconic, underrated, IGNORED B-side of It Won’t Be Soon Before Long. I remember my mind being viscerally BLOWN when I heard this song as a kid. And you know what, I forgot about how good this one was until I was digging through their discography for the gems. That actually happens every once in a while because again, THEY CHOSE TO KEEP IT AS A B SIDE. I always love when a melody line is mimicked by another instrument and it’s just perfect here. Adam sings with such regret and release.

Misery

“Why do you do what you do to me? Why won’t you answer me, answer me yeah…”

This is a motherfucking BOP. This song seems to always play in my head when I have a crush because truly, it has me in misery. It’s such a playful song in the way it illustrates relational tension. As someone who’s used to inconsistency in romantic situations, it’s no wonder I love this song so much.

Give A Little More

“I’m not falling in love with ya, I’m not falling in love until I get a little more from you baby…”

Yaaaasss king, give me the words for expressing attention needs in a relationship. Now this one’s a horny, slightly arrogant bop — but a bop nonetheless. I like the idea of covering this song because it feels so much more powerful singing it from a female POV. Again, speaking to my inclinations towards inconsistency, this song is helping me demand better, even if it’s likely that I will cave in anyway,

Just A Feeling

“When I look into your eyes, you’re not even there…”

I remember listening to this song as a preteen and having my mind blown to smithereens. It’s so emotive and beautiful and it HURTS. It so brilliantly captures the moment of suspicion for a breakup. It makes me want to lie in the dark and cry profusely.

Runaway

“‘Cause at 4am when the sweat sets in, did you get my message? Did it send? Or did you just get on with your life?”

This is probably one of my favorite Maroon 5 songs of all time. I love this song just as much now as I did when I first heard it. It’s so emotive and reflective and Adam’s vocals feel perfect here. Not to mention, I classically love songs about running away, don’t I? Also I have a distinct memory of Joe Jonas (the love of my life) tweeting about this song. And we love his stamp of approval.

Lucky Strike

“One in a million, my lucky strike…”

I got to know this song through Juliette and it made me realize I might’ve been sleeping on this album. This song is just fun to dance to. The melodies in this song are just so catchy that it really redeems the song. It’s a great song to dance or workout to and I think that’s how Juliette found it.

Maps

“I’m searching for a song tonight, I’m changing all of the stations…”

This song vividly reminds me of freshman year of college and traveling in Shanghai. I love the main guitar melody and I love how emotive Adam’s voice is here. He does a great job of handling the dynamics of this song. After the overproduction of Overexposed, this song feels like a good step at infusing their classic sound.

Feelings

“I got these feelings for you and I can’t help myself no more…”

This is like the Maroon 5 sexy bop version 2. It’s great to dance to and it’s euphoric in its sentiment. In this case, the amount of pop production almost feels warranted but it also doesn’t feel overproduced. Again, Adam’s vocals really soar in this song and it’s just so enchanting to listen to. But I gotta say, the line “going so high, we fuck the sky, come with me now, fuck that guy” is a funny line.

Don’t Wanna Know (ft. Kendrick Lamar)

“Do you think of me and how it used to be?”

I love this song for one big reason: the fact that they used a raw sample from one of my company’s plugins. Now this was the era of Maroon 5 reacting to the changes in pop music. Is this song repetitive? Yeah, but not without purpose I feel. This song feels like when you try to convince yourself you don’t care about someone but you clearly do. Also, Kendrick Lamar totally upstaged Adam here.

Cold (ft. Future)

“Are we taking time or a time out? I can’t take the in-between…”

I have a very randomly vivid memory of hearing this song from a NYC taxi play as I left NYC after my first time visiting in 2017. It was morning and freezing since it was the beginning of March. I also was trying to let go of a crush I had been holding onto for too long. It just felt so fitting. This song is really well done in my eyes, even if it’s not what Maroon 5 does so well.