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It's catchy music, but it won't be loved |
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Written by Howard Cohen, MCT
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Tuesday, 29 May 2007 |
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MAROON 5
It Won't Be Soon Before Long
(A&M/Octone)
2 ½ stars
In the long line of rock star misogynists - from Gene Simmons to Fred Durst - Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine does his best on studio album No. 2 to uphold his lecherous, self-loving image and keep pace with his predecessors.
It's unsettling to give credence to the tabloids that have had Levine bedhopping and speed-dumping such Hollywood hotties as Jessicas Simpson and Biels, Kirsten Dunst and Lindsay Lohan, but he makes it so darned easy in the love 'em and leave 'em lyrics he revels in on the oddly-titled "It Won't Be Soon Before Long."
"If I never see your face again," he coldly sings, "I don't mind 'cause we've gone much further than I thought we'd get tonight." His narcissism, displayed on old songs like "This Love" from the group's smash 2002 debut "Songs About Jane," rears its head often here, on songs where he ponders whether his ex's new lover could possibly be as good in bed as he is. On the somewhat sleazy processed funk number "Kiwi," he promises to "Give you something better / Than anything you've ever had / A stronger and a faster lover." Someone might want to let Levine know that in that department, "faster" is definitely not "better."
It's hard to imagine his younger female fans buying these lines when he curtly dismisses one of them on the discoish single "Makes Me Wonder" with a dispassionate: "Really makes me wonder if I ever gave a ---- about you / Give me something to believe in 'cause I don't believe in you anymore."
Levine surrounds his cruel streak with undeniably catchy music, though. "Makes Me Wonder" sounded hookless and joyless live (as on recent performances on "American Idol" and "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno"), but on CD it crackles and leaps from the speakers owing to this disc's up-to-the-minute showroom production.
Five years between albums is the difference between the Beatles as a cover band in Liverpool and the trailblazing "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." "It Won't Be Soon Before Long" is not a huge Beatles-styled evolution forward; Maroon 5 vocally and sonically cribs from other sources, most notably "Synchronicity"-era Police. "Won't Go Home Without You" brashly rewrites Sting's "Every Breath You Take" (not surprisingly Maroon 5 is opening for The Police's summer reunion tour).
Fans of the band's debut album and its blend of pop, lite-R&B and lazy Sunday morning jazzy ditties may be put off by the streamlined Justin Timberlake-sized white funk that makes up the bulk of this long-awaited followup. The new CD is slightly less stylistically diverse than "Songs About Jane." "It Won't Be Soon Before Long" is calculated but exceedingly well crafted, and for what promises to be the album of the summer, it could be a lot worse.
Pod Picks: "If I Never See Your Face Again," "Can't Stop," "Wake Up Call."
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JOAN OSBORNE
Breakfast in Bed
(Time-Life)
2 ½ stars
Joan Osborne never breaks a sweat on her second album essaying classic soul songs (the first, "How Sweet It Is," was in 2002) and initially that can make her covers of Gladys Knight and the Pips' "I've Got to Use My Imagination" and "Midnight Train to Georgia" and the Stylistics' "Break Up to Make Up" feel listless and noncommittal. Her backing musicians' tasteful and steady midtempo pace also condemns these covers to secondary status compared to the more distinctive originals.
That said, Osborne's sultry, sexy, husky delivery and the warm music and familiar melodies start to work a relaxing, sensual engaging charm. There's an appealing intimacy to Osborne's singing compared to overly melismatic R&B singers or thin-voiced divas du jour.
Several new songs written in the same style - "Baby Is a Butterfly," "Eliminate the Night" and "I Know What's Goin' On," among them - fit seamlessly with the classics. This is a CD that goes down as easy as a Sunday morning or fits the bill in the car ride home from a successful date with someone you'd like to see again.
The biggest mistake was in tacking on two grittier Motown covers from the soundtrack of "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" to the CD's end, thus spoiling the slow burn groove.
Pod Picks: "Baby Is a Butterfly," "Breakfast in Bed," "I've Got to Use My Imagination." | Only registered users can write comments.
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