It Won't Be Soon Before Long

Maroon 5

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 22, 2007)
• Original Release Date: May 22, 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: A&M / Octone Records
• ASIN: B000P2A256
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (266 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #471 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Sometimes it's O.K.--even important--to put aside your reluctance to embrace artists who make teenage girls scream. It happened in 2006, when Justin Timberlake scraped the sludge off pop and left something shiny behind, and it's happening again in 2007 with Maroon 5. It Won't Be Soon Before Long, the L.A. band's sophomore studio disc, rode in on a crest of hype and crumpled expectations--fan reports had it that Adam Levine & Co. scrapped their signature pop-soul sound for something harder and darker. Not so. Shades of Prince, Hall & Oates, and Sting still color the Maroon sound (check out the spectacularly fizzy "Little of Your Time," as well as the first single, "Makes Me Wonder," a song catchier than fire), but they're made ever fainter here by the clamping down of five guys on what is essentially the most distinctive pop sound to emerge from a single band since the Bee Gees squealed into the mid-'70s. It Won't Be Soon squares hip-hop sensibilities ("Wake Up Call") with rock ones ("If I Never See Your Face Again") and stormy moods ("Can't Stop") with bittersweet ballads ("Better That We Break"). It's a disc destined to defy detractors and go on to greatness, elevating the credibility of teenage girls for years to come. --Tammy La Gorce

Product Description
Global neo-soul rock superstars Maroon 5 are back with their much-anticipated sophomore album, It Won't Be Soon Before Long. The follow-up to the 10x platinum, Grammy-winning Songs About Jane will be "sexier and stronger," according to frontman Adam Levine, who looked to '80s icons such as Prince, Michael Jackson, and Talking Heads for inspiration. Recorded at home in Los Angeles with producers Mike Elizondo (Fiona Apple, Eminem), Mark "Spike" Stent (Bjork, Keane, Gwen Stefani), Mark Endert (Madonna, Fiona Apple), and Eric Valentine (Queens of the Stone Age, Nickel Creek), the album promises to be a louder take on the pop sounds of their first effort. "It's definitely aggressive, upbeat and pounding," says Levine.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

76 of 84 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Am I the only person who EXPECTED a different album than SAJ II?, May 29, 2007

By	Michael T. Rognlien (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Reading reviews from people who go to great lengths to say how "over it" they are when a band (god forbid) changes their musical direction a bit and produces a follow-up to a hugely successful album that dares to be different than its predecessor crack me up.

If the only Maroon 5 set you ever want to hear is SAJ, then don't ever buy any others, just keep listening to that. I loved Songs About Jane, I loved their live acoustic CD's, and I love their new CD. So what if a lot of their lyrics are about love gone wrong - we live in a country where more relationships fail than flourish, so most of us can relate to the lyrics. That they are able to capture the emotions associated with it (anger, bitterness, revenge, sadness, acceptance) in such a wide variety of musical styles speaks to the strength of their creativity, and that they channel some greats in the process (yes, Won't Go Home does have an Every Breath You Take-like guitar riff) is awesome.

I won't go song-by-song, but there are so many great tracks on this CD - catchy, lyrically clever, tightly produced - that the fact that there are a couple filler tracks is largely unimportant. You can't find hardly anyone who doesn't hum along to Makes Me Wonder, and I'd venture to say that several more tracks from this CD - If I Never See Your Face Again, Little of Your Time, Won't Go Home Without You, Can't Stop, Kiwi, Back at Your Door - are also major hit single potential.

There's no point in whining that your favorite best-kept-secret band hit the bigtime and is writing for a larger audience - all of their material they've done has been great in different ways, and this CD is going to be huge. Can't wait to see 'em live again.

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Band that Beat the Curse of the 'Best New Artist' Grammy, June 19, 2007

By	Thomas D. Ryan "American Hit Network" (New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Normally (although not deliberately), I tend to ignore bands like Maroon 5. A bluntly commercial band with this much corporate support does not need my backing, so I usually leave it alone and let the marketplace decide for itself. The world at large seems to understand Avril Lavigne, Nickelback and Fall Out Boy a lot better than I do anyway, so voicing my opinion about the musical value of these acts would feel like screaming at the wall. Usually, I simply look the other way, but I've been listening to "It Won't Be Soon Before Long" for a few weeks now, and it has me believing that Maroon 5 can justify the hype.
Maroon 5's last album, "Songs About Jane," may have been released in 2002, but I didn't hear a note of it until two years later, when the relentless push from the band's backers finally ignited the jet fuel that lifted the band to stardom. Apparently, I wasn't alone in this regard, since the band took home a Grammy award for best new artist three years later, in 2005. Naturally, that brought them a lot of attention, but I figured they would suffer the same fate as many previous `Best New Artist' winners and vanish into the night sky. "It Won't Be Soon Before Long" renders my prediction obsolete. The production is damn near perfect, but in a mid-`80s, Quincy Jones kind of way that often gets in the way of allowing the band to establish its own identity. There is a slick, funky sheen to the best songs, and vocalist Adam Levine dishes out melodies that are flawlessly polished to a full luster. Imagine Maxwell covering a Michael Jackson hit with an ace rock band for support, and you'll get close to the essence of this song collection.
The subject matter is also intriguing. There are lots of cheating songs on the disk, and lots of lyrics that will break the hearts of hormone-addled romantics. If his words are remotely autobiographical, then Levine could be the poster boy for the lovelorn, even when his sentiments are shopworn and clichéd; on "Won't Go Home Without You," he knows the girl was right to ditch him, but swears that he needs "one more chance to make it right." On "Nothing Lasts Forever," he sings "I love you but I'm letting go" while "Can't Stop (Thinking About You)" is self-explanatory. "Wake Up Call" is a bit more blatant - "Caught you in the morning with another one in my bed. Don't you care about me anymore?" Umm, I don't think so, dude, but don't worry about it, because there are millions of fans to help to ease your pain. This'll sell zillions, and I can understand why it will. B+ Tom Ryan

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good, May 23, 2007

By	Ray (Michigan) - See all my reviews

Every song on this cd is very listenable. Out of all 12 songs maybe 2 are just ok. I dont have there first cd but did enjoy all the singles that came off it. I downloaded this before i bought it to make sure i would like as i do with all cds anymore. Anyone looking for a cd that all songs are worth while this is the one :)