"This Love Has Taken It's Toll On Me"

Maroon 5 are due to release their highly anticipated follow up LP on the 21st of May. Their first album, ‘Songs About Jane’ is a personal favourite of mine. I never heard the album until last year, which makes me extremely late because it was released in 2002. Who takes five years to record an album anyway? They do, and it better be good . . . it better be great in fact!

Their second LP is titled ‘It Won’t Be Soon Before Long’. I haven’t heard the album yet . . . BUT I do have it already. The internet is a beautiful place.

I’ve heard the group’s first single of the new album, 'Makes Me Wonder', and like it a lot. It sounds fresh, funky and reminds me of their first album. I don’t like the video though, no idea where they were going with that concept. Pink, purple and strobe lighting? What’s that all about Johnny?

If ‘Songs About Jane’ was so great I wouldn’t be typing this up now, it’s really that simple. Nobody has ever told me that that album is ‘ok’ or ‘alright’ . . . when I mention it to people who have heard it they insist on singing their favourite songs . . . all of them . . . in track order . . . and yes I must join in, it’s a social law.

“This love has taken its toll on me,
She said goodbye, too many times before.
Her heart is breaking in front of me,
I have no choice, ‘cos I won’t say goodbye anymore.” – This Love

It’s serious business people.

Lyrically ‘Songs About Jane’ is watertight. They kept away from the corny themes and cheesy one-liners. What you get on this album is a lot of depth and honesty. It’s not hard enough to be consumed by a male dominated audience, and it’s not soft enough for the ladies to claim it as their own. Unlike most of these R’n’B pansies out there who just write albums to serenade women, Maroon 5’s LP swings heavily in the favour of the gents. It’s still emotional, but not the heartbreak hotel vibe you get from James Morrison’s ‘Undiscovered’ or Damien Rice’s (throw yourself in front of a train because she left you) ‘O’.

‘Songs About Jane’ is like a testimony of the bands failed relationships . . . but it’s like ‘hey we got over it’ and had some good times along the way.

“But I cannot forget
Refuse to regret

So glad I met you and

Take my breath away

Make everyday

Worth all of the pain that I have

Gone through” – The Sun

It’s classed as a rock/pop album, I prefer to qualify it was rock/funk. It’s not your typical ‘loud’ rock-pop album designed to disturb the neighbours and keep your parents out of your bedroom. It’s extremely well composed. You can actually hear the piano, the crisp and controlled hits of the snare drum, hi-hats and bass kicks; you can visualise the symbols as they crash and fade out with each stroke.

The band most certainly does use and abuse the electric guitar but so much melody comes out of it. The opening track ‘Harder To Breathe’ is as reckless as it gets, and that’s mainly on the chorus. The chaos is justified considering the songs content.

“You drain me dry and make me wonder why I'm even here

This double vision I was seeing is finally clear

You want to stay but you know very well I want you gone

Not fit to f**kin' tread the ground that I am walking on” – Harder To Breathe

Not exactly one for the ladies is it? There is no more swearing on the rest of the album, I guess they just needed to get a few things off of their chest. Don’t run ladies, there is some ‘kissing-up’ involved in this LP. It’s not a woman bashing album. The second single ‘She Will Be Loved’ was not an isolated track released to attract a larger female audience. Add to that list ‘Sunday Morning’ (my favourite track along side The Sun), and ‘Sweetest Goodbye’.

If ‘It Won’t Be Soon Before Long’ can match up to the calibre of ‘Songs About Jane’ I’ll have it looping on my iPod. If not then I’ll try to find Damien Rice’s second album called ‘9’. I really shouldn’t listen to his 'cry-baby' anthems but he really knows how to put an emotion into a song . . . its scary stuff.

A to the . . .

“Sunshine Plays A Major Part Of The Daytime”

The temperature is rising and London isn’t looking as grey lately. Summer is on its way and people are going to get excited at the prospect of getting out last years sunshades. I’m going to buy a new pair.

We’re pretty much used to crappy summers here in London, we get good weeks here and there but there is always and tone of uncertainty (it’s going to rain) . . . even in the midst of a heat wave.

Understandably people tend to get a little bit carried away when the sun has got her hat on. You don’t have to be in shape to walk around half naked, you don’t need to have a nice car to pose at traffic lights with the windows down and the system up. Water fights have no age limit; couples get ‘carried away’ kissing in the park, arms and legs get abused my gnats (but you have to leave the window open because it’s too hot), people pass out on the underground trains because it’s too hot, cold drinks are overpriced because it’s too hot, people bring their fans to work because it’s too hot, children get to have classes outside because it’s too hot, “I cant concentrate miss, it’s too hot” . . . and before the heat even peaks everyone complains that it is too hot.

Dear Summer, why is it that we have to be on and off?
You know I miss you when you’re gone and you’re gone a lot.
Warm days just remind me of times,
When you brightened up my day with your radiant shine.
It’s like you’re teasing me, and every sign is misleading me,
I’m infatuated; you’re barely in need of me.
I try to tell myself I’m in love with Winter,
Wrap up warm and snuggle up with December.
It just aint the same, why do we do things this way?
F*ck it, I’m the one to blame.
I should have known you couldn’t be tamed,
When I asked you to stay the night, and you refused to stay.
You’ve always got somewhere to go, and that’s cool with me.
‘Cos every time you come back round, we’re making memories.
It’s an issue of the heart, every year I grow older,
One day you’ll tap me on my frozen cold shoulder.

-By Ak-Man

Metaphorically speaking of course.

A to the . . .