Summary:The sixth full-length studio release for the Los Angeles rock band led by Adam Levine features guest appearances from ASAP Rocky, LunchMoney Lewis, Julia Michaels, and SZA.
Everything comes to a head on "Closure," an extended 11-minute smooth-funk jam that throws all the album's strict structure out the window. Its presence not only draws attention to how Maroon 5 can vamp, it also highlights the discipline behind the rest of Red Pill Blues.
Whether skating over house beats on "Plastic Rose" or cruising through a ballad like "Denim Jacket," Levine proves himself a pliant star of Jacksonian ease and Stingly self-assurance.
Levine’s voice murmurs and glints in the corners of the arrangement, and the total effect is exactly as pleasingly immaculate and numbing as all soft rock should be.
Listening to Red Pill Blues makes one yearn for an era when there at least seemed to be more room for genuinely ambitious, artful Top 40 pop. In other words, I'll take the blue pill.
Moments after hearing “Best 4 You”, with its slimline groove and sleek falsetto chorus, I can’t remember a trace of its melody or theme: it was just there, and then not there. It’s an experience repeated throughout Red Pill Blues.
With Red Pill Blues Levine and co have managed to produce an album that is uninteresting and unexciting; at best this is background music, to be listened to on very, very low volume, or even better, not at all.
Maroon 5 is always about giving us some fun tunes that stay in our head as soon as we listen to it , I haven't ever listen a heart-breakMaroon 5 is always about giving us some fun tunes that stay in our head as soon as we listen to it , I haven't ever listen a heart-break type or very emotional song from Maroon 5 that stayed in my head and that's okay , they are not about that , therefore comparing to their last album . they are keeping up with the age and deliver some great songs with this one but only few memorable tunes comparing to their previews ones. I listened to Chis brown , Sam smith and Maroon 5 's new albums same day , always love all of their music and I have listened to all of their previous albums . they are three very different unique artists but Maroon 5 was the only one I replayed more and from all of them their new albums, Maroon 5 has more of what I expected comparing to their old albums and New albums I listened same day. Overall It's a great album and Specially good if you want to spend stuck in a great mood .…Expand
Best 4 U: 0.5
What Lovers Do (feat. SZA): 0.75
Wait: 0.25
Lips On You: 0.5
Bet My Heart: 0.25
HelpRed Pill Blues by Maroon 5: 3.60
Best 4 U: 0.5
What Lovers Do (feat. SZA): 0.75
Wait: 0.25
Lips On You: 0.5
Bet My Heart: 0.25
Help Me Out (with Julia Michaels): 0.25
Who I Am (feat. LunchMoney Lewis): 0.5
Whisky (feat. A$AP Rocky): 0.75
Girls Like You (feat. Cardi B) (1 :))/regular version (1 :)): 1 :)
Closure: 0.75
Denim Jacket: 1
Visions: 0.5
Plastic Rose: 0.5
Don’t Wanna Know (feat. Kendrick Lamar): 0.75
Cold (feat. Future): 0.75
9/15 = .600 -> 3.60
Red Pill Blues is Maroon 5’s most recent album. It’s also their worst. A lot of their music sounds the same, the use of generic electronic drum tracks is very annoying, and Adam Levine relies too much on autotune. Such a shame, since Levine has a great voice. There’s no need to try to “improve” it. Autotune only makes voices worse because we can’t understand what people who use autotune are saying. What happened to Maroon 5’s rock and roll music? That was so much better than the pop they’re producing now. I don’t hate pop, unless it sounds like this. That being said, a lot of the songs are still upbeat and fun. I hope that Red Pill Blues is just something Maroon 5 is trying out, just like Taylor Swift’s 2016 album “reputation”. Her next album, Lover, was a huge improvement and reminded me of her earlier stuff. Red Pill Blues is just the runt of the litter, and hopefully this means that Maroon 5’s new stuff (when they release it) will be a lot better than this. Of course, this album wasn’t horrible, as it could have been a lot worse. That doesn’t mean it’s a good album, though. Maroon 5, please go back to producing rock. Highlights: Girls Like You and Denim Jacket. (Whiskey was also a good song, but I didn’t like its somewhat extensive use of autotune).…Expand
This atrocious album shows the band’s complete ineptitude to listen to themselves, which is a basic task for a musician, with ungodly melodicThis atrocious album shows the band’s complete ineptitude to listen to themselves, which is a basic task for a musician, with ungodly melodic repetitions that could be played in torture chambers, insanely tedious and bland harmonic progressions, and a disgusting, systematized weak timbre that couldn’t even be improved in a long apologetic jam at the end, all presented so innocently it makes me want to burn all physical copies in existence. My Score: 48/180 (Trash) = 2.7/10…Expand
Literal garbage, Maroon 5 hit the bottom of the barrel. It's even worse than V, which at least had 1 great song, Maps, and a few ok ones, ItLiteral garbage, Maroon 5 hit the bottom of the barrel. It's even worse than V, which at least had 1 great song, Maps, and a few ok ones, It Was Always You, Unkiss Me, and This Summer.
But this album has no good songs. The first half is mostly boring filler like Lips On You and Bet My Heart. It does however feature the absolute worst Maroon 5 song ever: What Lovers Do. This song is so f*cking atrocious, with horrid production, and an abysmal excuse for lyrics that are repeated a million times.
The second half of the album has a bunch of crap with featured artists. It starts with Help Me Out, which is so cringeworthy with the terrible vocals and dumb noises. Closure is the least worst on this album, and it kinda works as background music.
Don't forget Girls Like You, no not the Crappy B, sorry I meant Cardi B version. This version is the boring version because my god, it is so f*cking lame.
And then there's the deluxe version, which features the godawful Denim Jacket, the pathetic Visions, the dull Plastic Rose, the irritating Don't Wanna Know, and the monotonous Cold.
It also has the Crappy B version of Girls Like You.
So overall, worse than V, another disappointment.…Expand
