mixtape maestro (2.0)

When it comes to Maroon 5’s breakout opus, Songs About Jane, “This Love” gets most of the love (and deservedly so), but let’s not overlook the album’s fourth single “Sunday Morning” which was just as good of a grab. With it’s lightly skittering drums, blissful piano work and out-of-nowhere mini jam breakdown, the record summed up the band’s soul-influenced pop-rock grandly (and don’t act you still don’t get all warm inside once Levine’s catchy chorus hits the ears).

For Maroon’s new set Call & Response: The Remix Album, the ‘04 hit achieves a new level of magnetism thanks to the input of The Roots’ Questlove. Here, hip hop’s most recognizable drummer inverts the piano chords, edging them with somber electric guitar accents, and trades in the jam bit for a sad-eyed, string-lined bridge probably born out of his obsessive studying of old Al Green records. Quest has ultimately muted the sunny vibrancy of the original, but by shading the record in this downbeat melancholia (perhaps a more fitting nod to the soggy imagery the title typically brings to mind), the lyrics’ bittersweet reflection of long-lost romance (and Adam’s throat-straining yelps at the end) take on a deeper emotional heft.

DL: “Sunday Morning (Questlove Remix)” (alt)

Uncategorized maroon 5, questlove, remix