Idolator

I'm pleasantly surprised...but is this a mastered version of the song? At some points, either the vocals don't sound mixed high enough or the instrumental is too high.

Yeah, I didn't hate this as much as I thought I would. It's actually "fun". Better than this Mika schlock.

Only their second album? Did the scarring from the first one run that deeply?

What's the opposite of a backlash? It's not the backlash to a backlash, because nobody really liked them to begin with. A defrosting? Spring blossom? Rejuvenation?

A decade ago, I happened upon their old band Kara's Flowers playing bottom of the bill at a Corporate Rock Fest (CRFs themselves now an endangered species, sort of). One of these guys did a quick guitar line test with a phrase/lick of "Richard III" by Supergrass.

For that alone they should commended. Well, "for that only," actually.

The three-note piano hook that bridges you from the verse into the chorus is a nice touch - very late-'70s Rod Temperton.

Back when they were making their assault on pop radio four years ago (with that slow-blooming, five-year-old album), the Maroon 5 track I liked best by far was "Harder to Breathe," the really boy-bandish one that broke them at Top 40 radio. I thought it was a clever idea: taking the sound of *N Sync and translating it into rock instruments. No one else was trying exactly that back then. But each single after that was less and less punchy, and more and more annoying. ("She Will Be Loved," which followed me and my wife across Italy on our honeymoon, was the nadir.)

If they go back to that sound I liked on "Breathe" - taking white-boy R&B and playing it in a rock context - I don't see why they couldn't be at least two-thirds as fun as Justin.

That's a pretty astute analysis of "Harder To Breathe," Dennis. I agree completely. It's not so much that I found the other Maroon 5 singles less punchy, it's just that they all wound up suffering from "Two Princes" syndrome - too much airplay to the point where you almost get into a car accident while scrambling to change the station.

This new song is really quite good. I'm dreading what it'll sound like to my ears in about 5 or 6 months, but for the moment, it's getting multiple listens.

it's easy to not get tired of a group by just doing one thing: turning off the radio.

This reminds me of that Soul Decision song, "Faded," which I also secretly like.

@Jeff Reguilon: Oh my god, I LOVE "Faded." Every time it plays on my iTunes, I dance in my little office chair. I must go play it now.

Their songs aren't bad compared to, say, Nickelback. Not very memorable (all I can remember about that one song I liked is that the video intercut soft-core with a stage performance) but good.

What's more important is that the band is pretty cute. I'll take one of the guy in the white sneakers and one of the guy in the white blazer, please. Thanks.

@NickEddy: I have a promo cassette of that Kara's Flowers album. Quirky pop. I liked it a lot back then.

This really isn't that awful (and I'd previously considered Maroon 5 quite awful). I remember this one Seven Mary Three song that I heard with some pals whilst driving around Atlanta in the late 90s. We were listening to 99x and this sweet, light, harmony-driven song came on, and we all thought, "Okay, this is wimpy but nice" (and who were we to talk about wimpy, really?), and by the end we were singing along. It turned out to be Seven Mary Three. Never have heard that song ever again. I imagine it wasn't a big hit. Anybody got any tips on that one? I guess that's what iTunes is for.

@Lucas Jensen: Per the band's Wiki page, a song called "Cumbersome" was a hit for Seven Mary Three. Is that it?

Oh, no. "Cumbersome" is one of the more execrable rock songs of the 90s. That's why this other song was so surprising. Thanks for looking, though.

I actually kind of like this. My interest is piqued.

This must be an early April fools joke. That's possibly the worst song I've ever heard. And I'll admit it, their last CD was my secret guilty pleasure.

This is good in a top forty post boy band era, then again I don't feel comfortable promoting substandard versions of Jamiroquai