Songs About Jane

Background

All but one member of the band had been members of a previous Los Angeles band called Kara's Flowers which released an album called The Fourth World in mid-1997 on Reprise Records with little success. Kara's Flowers left Reprise Records in 1999 and with the addition of guitarist James Valentine became Maroon 5.

The band played showcase gigs in New York City and Los Angeles. Singer and guitarist Adam Levine credited the interim with influencing the band's new style in an interview with VH1. "During the time between our record deals, I spent a lot of time in New York where I was exposed to an urban and hip-hop culture in a way that had never happened to me in L.A. It turned me on to an entirely new genre of music which has had a profound impact on my song writing."

The band signed with Octone Records, a New York independent label with distribution through BMG and an artist development deal with Clive Davis' J Records. The band recorded Songs About Jane at Rumbo Recorders in Los Angeles with producer Matt Wallace, who had also produced with Train, Faith No More, and O.A.R.. Production was handled primarily by Wallace, with Mark Endert mixing with additional production for "This Love".

All the songs on the album were either written or co-written by Levine while he was living in New York. Much of the lyrics for the album are inspired by Levine's relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Jane. Levine notes, "I saw this girl at a gas station, and I fell in love with her," he says. "I wrote a song about her and played it in the store where she worked. It was an awful song. But she found out about this relatively psychotic boy. She was my muse for years. . . . And then it kind of faded away." Levine also confirmed this, saying there was at least one line in every song about her.

Release and reception

The album has been released with the Copy Control protection system in some regions. After the release of the album in mid-2002, the band toured with Michelle Branch and Nikka Costa. They also toured with Matchbox Twenty and Sugar Ray during some of their shows in 2003. In March 2004, the album had reached the top 20 of the Billboard 200, and had reached the top 10 by the end of the year. Songs About Jane also eventually topped the UK and Australian album charts. Songs About Jane was the seventh best-selling album of 2004 in the U.S., with about 2.7 million copies sold. In Australia, the album did not chart on the End of Year Charts until 2004, where it reached No. 6. After constant touring, three years after the release of Songs About Jane, it received a Grammy for Best New Artist. The album reached 5.1 million sales in the United States in August 2015.

The album was generally well received by music critics. Christian Hoard of Rolling Stone praised the album for its "vaguely funky white-soul stylings, tunefulness and vocals" and mentioned "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", stating: "Songs About Jane is love-drunk on what makes Maroon 5 tick as a band ... they've got grit and a sexy strut, personally and musically." Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian commented that the album "isn't as useless as one would hope ... Songs About Jane is pitched at the Busted market, for which their guitar-mashing and surging harmonies eminently qualify them." PopMatters's Jason Thompson, however, panned the album, criticizing Levine's likeness to Jay Kay of Jamiroquai. Calling the album "limp at best", he further added: "There's simply nothing here to get excited about. And what about that soul that these guys are boasting about, anyway?"

Singles

The first single "Harder to Breathe", released a month after the album, slowly started to pick up airplay which helped spur sales of the album. "Harder to Breathe" also made the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts and the singles charts in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

The second single from the album, "This Love", won the band their first Grammy Award, for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 2006 Grammy Awards. In March 2004, two years after being released, the song reached the top 10 of the Australian and United States singles charts. The single's accompanying music video proved to be popular as well, but had to be edited from its original version to avoid being banned from MTV.

"She Will Be Loved", the third single from the album, also reached similar chart success, topping the Australian and Belgian charts and peaking at No. 5 in the United States, the same chart position of previous single and breakthrough hit, "This Love".

"Sunday Morning" was released as the fourth single from the album. It did not reach the chart success of the previous singles but nevertheless garnered positive reviews from critics. It was reported that this song was the one that got the band signed to Octone Records, with its executive Ben Berkman calling it "genius".

The fifth and final release from the album was "Must Get Out". The single failed to chart in the US, and just made the Top 30 in the United Kingdom, Ireland and New Zealand.

Other songs

Alternative versions of "Tangled" and "Not Coming Home" were recorded under the Kara's Flowers name and featured in the 2001 gay romantic comedy film All Over the Guy.

"Sweetest Goodbye" was featured in the 2003 British romantic comedy film Love Actually.

"Woman", a song recorded during the Songs About Jane era, was featured in the 2004 superhero film Spider-Man 2.

"Secret" was featured in the 2005 American romantic comedy film The Wedding Date.

Personnel

Credits for Songs About Jane adapted from AllMusic and the album's liner notes.