Maps of Music

Songs About Jane (2002)

Where the lyrics of Songs About Jane take you, and where it was really made.

This debut started as a sleeper hit, and it only topped the UK album chart after its 2003 re-release.

Key places

Recording at Rumbo Recorders in Los Angeles (2002)

Recording site Rumbo Recorders — Maroon 5 recorded Songs About Jane here with producer Matt Wallace, who had also worked with Train, Faith No More, and O.A.R. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Songs About Jane: debut studio album by American pop rock band Maroon 5
• Released June 25, 2002 by Octone
• Became a sleeper hit with five singles that charted
• Lead singles include "Harder to Breathe", "This Love", and "She Will Be Loved"
• Only album by the band to feature founding drummer Ryan Dusick (excluding Kara's Flowers releases)
• Re-released October 14, 2003 by Octone Records and J Records
• Became a huge international commercial success after the re-release

Background

• Band was formerly known as Kara's Flowers, which released The Fourth World on Reprise Records in mid-1997
• Left Reprise Records in 1999; guitarist James Valentine joined, and the five-person band became Maroon 5
• Signed to Octone Records, a New York independent label with distribution through BMG
• Artist development deal with Clive Davis' J Records
• Many lyrics inspired by singer Adam Levine's relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Jane Herman

Recording

• Recorded at Rumbo Recorders in Los Angeles with producer Matt Wallace
• Mark Endert handled mixing and additional production on "This Love"
• Michael Barbiero handled mixing on "Harder to Breathe"
• Eight songs were written or co-written by Levine and keyboardist Jesse Carmichael while Levine was living in New York

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed as Kara's Flowers in Los Angeles, California, in 1994 while members attended Brentwood School.
• Released the independent album ...We Like Digging? in late 1994 and signed to Reprise Records, releasing The Fourth World (1997), which sold around 5,000 copies before the band was dropped.
• Re-emerged in 2001 as Maroon 5 after signing to Octone Records and adding guitarist James Valentine.
• Debut album Songs About Jane (2002) peaked at number six on the Billboard 200 and won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 2005.

Members

• Current lineup: Adam Levine, Jesse Carmichael, James Valentine, Matt Flynn, PJ Morton, Sam Farrar.
• Ryan Dusick left in 2006 and was replaced by Flynn.
• Mickey Madden left in 2020 after a domestic violence arrest; the case was dropped without charges and Farrar replaced him.

Career

• It Won't Be Soon Before Long (2007) debuted atop the US Billboard 200; "Makes Me Wonder" topped the Billboard Hot 100.
• "Moves Like Jagger" (2011) reached US number one; "One More Night" topped the Hot 100 for nine consecutive weeks in 2012.
• Maroon 5 has sold more than 135 million records and won three Grammy Awards and three American Music Awards.
• Headlined the Super Bowl LIII halftime show in 2019 and ran a Las Vegas residency from 2023 to 2025.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Christian Hoard of Rolling Stone praised the album for its "vaguely funky white-soul stylings, tunefulness and vocals"
• Hoard named "Must Get Out" and "This Love" as the album's standout tracks
• AllMusic's MacKenzie Wilson called the album an "impressive rebirth" from Kara's Flowers' "indie outfit"
• Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian wrote that the album "isn't as useless as one would hope"
• Mikael Wood in The Village Voice wrote that Adam Levine's "sexual politics occasionally lapse into casual senior-year cruelty" but that he "more often than not complicates the situation encouragingly"
• Jason Thompson of PopMatters panned the album, calling it "limp at best" and criticizing Levine's likeness to Jay Kay of Jamiroquai

Reappraisal

• According to Billboard, as of 2022, the album is one of the 15 best-performing 21st-century albums with no single reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100

Records

• Topped the album charts in Australia, France, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, and the UK
• Reached the top ten in 17 other countries
• Reached the top 20 of the Billboard 200 in March 2004 and the top ten by the end of 2004
• Seventh best-selling album of 2004 in the US, with about 2.7 million copies sold
• Reached 5.1 million sales in the US in August 2015
• Sold 10 million copies worldwide
• Received a Grammy for Best New Artist

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Adam Levine told MTV News in August 2002 that "Harder to Breathe" reflected the band's frustration with Octone Records during the making of the debut album
• Levine wrote "This Love" during what he called the most emotionally trying time of his life, as his relationship was ending
• "Tangled" was never released as a single and tells the story from the abuser's point of view
• "Woman", an outtake, appeared on the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack
• "Wasted Years" was not written for this album despite popular belief, but for the band's later second album
• "Sunday Morning" was reported to be the song that got the band signed to Octone Records, with executive Ben Berkman calling it "genius"

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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