Band leading the bland

Maroon 5

The further up the tree you climb, the more your backside becomes a target for envious malcontents.

Keep going though and you can get so high that none of the jibes and jealousy can touch you.

Multi-platinum LA pop stars Maroon 5 are right up there in the stratosphere of contemporary fame. Even if you feel their sound has become too generic, too much a part of the bland sonic wallpaper of modern life, it’s hard to fault their skill.

Their new album Jordi – their tribute to their late manager Jordan Feldstein – is immaculately crafted modern pop, in debt to hip-hop and brimming with hits such as Beautiful Mistakes, gueststarring Megan Thee Stallion. The calming beats may not quite gel with Adam Levine’s lyrics (“Beautiful mistakes / I made inside my head / She’s naked in my bed”), but the song is as addictive as hot molasses.

Haunting lead single Memories was a triple-platinum smash (which shamelessly ‘adapted’ Johann Pachelbel’s Canon). We get two versions, the single and another take featuring LA rappers YG and the late Nipsey Hussle. The rotating cast of guesting celebs range from blackbear on the repetitive Echo to Stevie Nicks on the mid-paced Remedy, which is about as dull as pop can get. Other notables include the late Juice WRLD, Jason Derulo, H.E.R. and Bantu.

It’s easy to see why fans of the band’s early jazzy funk-rock lost interest. This is music shaped for the market, jettisoning what made the group stand out originally.

Meg on Family Guy once declared herself a Maroon 5 fan, adding that she likes “bad music”. Harsh? Maybe, but what would Adam care? He’s part of mainstream culture, a TV regular voted People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive.

He’s moved like Jagger into the super league of stardom.