Maroon 5

On Sunday I bought the latest Maroon 5 CD, and I've got it on heavy rotation. I really like it, but it seems like most of the songs are heavily influenced by 80's pop. I'm not saying this is a bad thing. I really like 80's pop. But some of the songs are SO obviously inspired by another song or just a very distinctive sound. One song sounds like Prince, one sounds like the Police, another one like John Waite, and a fourth one sounds like Jellyfish. Just about every song on the album gives me that niggling feeling like I've heard it before, or at least something really, really similar. The Police one has a certain spot in the song that sounds so much like Message in a Bottle that I swear it's practically plagiarism. It's so blatant (to me anyway) that I wonder if maybe they did it on purpose. Like they specifically made songs that sounded like various 80's pop groups so that they could tap into the nostalgia factor for people in my age range. Or maybe it just sounds like 80's pop because it's all so very slick; the whole album is produced within an inch of its life.

I also got the older Shins CD, the one with New Slang on it. This is totally my new favorite band.