apologies are in order:
Left work with some creative juices left in my system, so here I am. I just want to formally apologize for missing my first monthly post in over a year. Hopefully, with some routine in my life, I shouldn’t be missing any more of these—as it is one of my favorite things I do.
So what’s happened since June? Well, the past two months were filled with lovely travels and disarray, but now we’ve leveled out and I’ve officially started my second week in the working class of America. All that has really changed is how weird it feels to write this on my singular laptop screen (and not 2 massive monitors) and how my weekday free time has dwindled.
“the fun stuff”
Anyway, I know all of this is of no interest to you all—you’re just here for the fun stuff… aka good music. Transparently, I have fallen right back into old habits of listening to some great rock music in that end-of-summer pocket of time. Specifically, The Black Keys’ Turn Blue and my start of fall semester playlist from last year have pretty much just been on repeat. Anything and everything from Little River Band to Led Zeppelin, The Last Shadow Puppets to Radiohead can be found in there… truly some of my best work in playlist creation. You can find more of my ramblings about it all in this post from last September.
Today I’ll be throwing it back to a much earlier stage in my life to an album I think we all know and love. So this one goes out to my 10-year-old self and her big fat crush on Adam Levine: let’s talk about Maroon 5’s Songs About Jane.
Before giving this album its proper listen all the way through about a week ago, I never would’ve put it into any type of rock category, but that was such an incorrect assumption. While Maroon 5 went on to lead pop music charts in the decades to follow, this album is honestly pretty jazzy and rock-filled.
Songs About Jane was first introduced to the world with Maroon 5 back in June of 2002. They had initially released an album or two as the band called “Kara’s Flowers,” but I guess that name just didn’t catch on quite like this color-number combo of Maroon 5. While Songs About Jane ended up landing the band with a Grammy for Best New Artist… it wasn’t until 2004. Wikipedia described the album as a “sleeper hit with the help of five singles that attained chart success.” It took years of touring before it truly caught the traction it deserves. Billboard even reported that as of 2022, it’s “one of the 15 best-performing 21st-century albums” without any number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100. Sleeper album indeed.
What is there to even pinpoint about this album? I think AllMusic’s MacKenzie Wilson said it best when she wrote, “Songs About Jane is love-drunk on what makes Maroon 5 tick as a band… they’ve got grit and a sexy strut, personally and musically.” These songs are filled with lust and yearning and blues beats and Levine’s mesmerizing voice.
There are 3 tracks I want to highlight here today:
First and foremost, I can never escape from “She Will Be Loved.” From the get-go, I’m just absolutely hooked. The little acoustic guitar melody and light percussion paired with Levine’s softer yet emotion-filled vocals is just chef’s kiss.
Beauty queen of only eighteen
She had some trouble with herself
He was always there to help her
She always belonged to someone else
Perfect for a One Tree Hill soundtrack.
Next up is another classic, and probably my second favorite on the album, “Sunday Morning.” It sounds just like a peaceful Sunday morning—sleeping in, sunlight streaming through the window, some nice coffee, and good company. How did they reproduce it all so perfectly? And just like that, it’s landed itself directly on my fall morning playlist.
And one last song was actually a new one for me: “The Sun.” I don’t think it ever actually landed on my radar until last week. There’s honestly some random ‘70s funk that almost reminds me a little of Marvin Gaye or Stevie Wonder. I don’t know, something about it just rubs me the right way. It’s a great sound.
She said, “The matter’s almost won
And we’re only several miles from the Sun”
So anyway, thank you to Jane Herman for being Levine’s ex-girlfriend and muse. These 12 songs are pretty much perfection, and we all have you to thank (Levine reported that at least one line in each song was inspired by her). I never would’ve expected to be writing about this album, but honestly Songs About Jane took me by surprise and truly deserves our love and respect.
Iz FM 
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