sessions with wongie: maroon 5

my thoughts on maroon 5 are pretty positive in general. lead singer adam levine is a cutie with a smooth soulful voice. their last album songs about jane was a surprisingly confident collection of pop songs that channeled the best of 80's bands like hall & oats and steely dan. and what i like the most about these guys is that their strong work ethic of touring for 3 years non-stop gave them well deserved respect and success.

so there i was flying in to LA for an interview with the boys (just adam and jesse - who i've never noticed to be cute, but now i think i have a new band crush on him) and i have to be honest, even if i wasn't going crazy to listen to the new album 'it won't be soon before long', i definitely was curious to see what they could come up with after all this time.

though there are some questionable lyrics (simple is more like it) and no real thread between the title of the album and the songs themselves, i have to say, with more than 1/2 the album full of potential radio hits, the boys need not worry about their next few years.

Track listing is as follows:

1. If I Never See Your Face Again (typical opening song, catchy and what you'd expect from the boys)
2. Makes Me Wonder (1st single and well... not that mind blowing as you'd want it to be)
3. Little Of Your Time
4. Wake Up Call (the 2nd single but i'm totally not into this silly song about murder and cheating and yawn...)
5. Won't Go Home Without You (the album starts to get interesting at this mark.)
6. Nothing Lasts Forever (the vocal sample used in the kanye west 'heard em say' gets a full song. it's pretty beautiful really.)
7. Can't Stop
8. Goodnight, Goodnight
9. Not Falling Apart (this should be THE single.)
10. Kiwi
11. Better That We Break (lovely! this is the ballad that showcases adam and his writing talents the best.)
12. Back At Your Door (yet another lovely adult ballad. maybe the boys should drop their rock star dreams and embrace their proper songwriting talents instead.)

if you're a fan of the 1st single, the video for 'makes me wonder' will world premiere on TRL march 29th (i'll find you a youtube version, don't you worry)