Review - Maroon 5 Girls Like You

I am back! And how amazing is it that the music video that I will be reviewing to bring my blog back from the dead, is from Maroon 5?

I wasn’t enthralled with the song at the beginning, but it grew on me after I listened to the song a couple more times. The best way I can describe how Girls Like Me sounds to me is clean, minimalist and unadorned. The main body of the song was really just Adam’s voice and James’ guitar accompaniment, and that sort of no-frills simplicity they presented was in my opinion, what made it a good song.

The music video was great, in that it was symbolized very well the minimalist approach of the song. There was just one set with no props, and the band was present but out of focus except for Adam. Even then, it becomes clear almost right away that he is not the main character of the video. The main characters were all the women who appeared at various intervals in the video. I think that it was a great idea on Maroon 5’s part to invite women from different industries, I believe there were athletes, models, celebrities and activists. It added some interesting depth to the music video, although personally I think that it is almost never a good idea to have activists on the music video set, and I'm going to add context to that by asking why Candace Owens was not invited. Or Sarah Haider? Surely political unicorns like them deserve the spotlight.

See what I mean? One or two would have been fine to add diversity, but having so many in your music video just opens a can of political worms that Maroon 5 did not have to, but I don’t want to get into politics in a song review. I was disappointed though, that Yuna was not invited to be on the music video. Was it because she wasn’t American? She would have been great on set! Then again, maybe I’m being biased. I just thought of another thing: How amazing would it have been if Gal Gadot appeared in her Wonder Woman gear? That would have blown my mind berries.

Let me ask this though: Does the final scene in the music video not look like Maroon 5 kidnapped a bunch of women and stuck them in a Hunger Games-esque arena to fight to the death?

May the odds be ever in your favor.

My money is on Eleven.

Remember how I said that the simplicity of Girls Like You was the best part of the song? Now this is where it also becomes a problem: The lyrics were too simple. The more I listened to it, the more I realized how it really says nothing at all. The depth that shows in the music video does not translate over to the actual song whatsoever, and most of Maroon 5 songs used to be intricate and meaningful. Songs like Animals and She Will Be Loved did not necessarily tell highly complex stories, but they still told stories. Girls Like You lacks the same substance.

I’ve always loved Maroon 5, and have followed their releases religiously for years. While Wait and Girls Like You was good, the truth is that the band has been on a slow and steady downward spiral ever since their V album. Here’s my theory: Ever since Adam Levine got married, his life has been so blissful and sparkly that it is reflecting in the band’s songs. Maroon 5 songs have always been amazing because there was a hint of darkness in them. Animals, One More Night, Maps, etc etc…Think about it. Even though songs like She Will Be Loved or Love Somebody, wasn’t dark in the same sense, there was an intense, raw emotion in them that lifted them above the average mundane. But now that the lead singer no longer has any melancholic emotions to inject in his songwriting, Maroon 5 songs are gradually taking their place as part of the endless sea of preppy pop music. I mean, yes, there have been poppy songs in the past like Sugar, which I thought was great by the way, but those have always been few and far in between.

The reason I think that Girls Like You is much better than their earlier songs have been is because it had the raw emotion that I spoke about. Furthermore, the music video was beautiful, especially at the end when his family made a cameo. It was pure, heartfelt and much better than the weird trippy stuff that Maroon 5 has been coming up with recently. Now I’m not trying to say that I want Adam Levine to wallow in angst and blasphemy in order to produce good music again. But I think that it would do Maroon 5 good if he could separate his work from his private life. I’ll say it again, Girls Like You was beautiful because there was a genuinely warm family moment in the end. But cameos in Wait and Cold were unnecessary. Like all celebrities, Maroon 5 represents an image, and that image is not Adam Levine, the doting family man. I’ll reinterate again, it’s good that he has such a fulfilling private life, but that should not be what Maroon 5 is about.

Right, now off I go back into hiding less the diehard Maroon 5 fans find me, murder me and decimate my dead corpse. Peace out.