Whether you love or hate the pop charts, it's hard to deny the glistening production of Maroon 5.
With sales of 15 million albums and counting, the LA pop-rockers have been big-league players since their second release, It Won't Be Soon Before Long, broke into the mainstream. But they've just done themselves one better by having their latest, Hands All Above, worked over by Robert 'Mutt' Lange, producer to Nickelback, AC/DC and Def Leppard.
Where their debut, Songs About Jane, displayed obvious soul influences and It Won't be Soon Before Long vacillated between Prince and the Police, Hands All Above shows a group that has hit its pitch-perfect pop stride.
It's radio-friendly down to its perfectly crafted hooks and punchy beats, with fewer of the funkier elements that once had Maroon 5 described as 'blue-eyed soul'. But don't worry fans, frontman Adam Levine is still the band's distinguishing factor as main songwriter, and his falsetto vocals lend the group a touch of R&B that sits pleasantly with their love-and-subsequent-loss lyrics.