10 Years, 100 Songs: #32. “I Was So High I Did Not Recognize…”

Over the final months of our fine decade, Intensities in Ten Suburbs will be sending the Naughty Oughties out in style with a series of essays devoted to the top 100 songs of the decade–the ones we will most remember as we look back fondly on this period of pop music years down the road. The archives can be found here. If you want to argue about the order, you can’t, because we’re not totally sure what the qualifications are either. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy.

As people, Maroon 5 were not necessarily an easy band to like–and by Maroon 5, of course, I mean lead singer Adam Levine, appearing to be the only Maroon 5 member of any real sort of consequence. He was extraordinarily good-looking, he cast himself in cheesy soap opera-ish plots with fairly attractive women that he may or may not have been dating in his music videos, he sang with mock-affectation and with the kind of hilt in his voice that has connoted “douche” for centuries, and he just generally seemed like the kind of guy that would fill you with an equal mixture of disgust and envy as you passed him hitting on college girls in the quad (or he would have if my college had a quad, anyway). Largely for this reason, Maroon 5 songs were occasionally deplorable. But somehow, just as often, they were fairly close to divine, for one simple reason–for all their fratty obnoxiousness, them white boys had the funk.

Relatively speaking, anyway. Nobody would ever confuse Maroon 5 with Earth, Wind and Fire, and no one would ever claim that such a comparison was a fair one to either outfit. But there’s no denying that Maroon 5 had a firmer grasp of pop-soul songcraft than any band had in years, possibly even going back to the days of Hall & Oates. M5 didn’t quite have the emotional range of H&O–they were always a little too smug to be believable as genuine balladeers, which is why their straight-faced love songs always sucked–but when it came to feelings like spite, jealousy, betrayal, and occasional unbridled lust, Maroon 5 certainly would have made Darryl and John proud. They were most sympathetic when they were being straight up sum-bitches, not trying to mask their narcissism and discontent, and putting all that testy energy into their hit songs, giving them that tiny bit of nervy edge that was so often missing in 00s radio pop.

“This Love” was the band’s real breakout song, and despite being eclipsed chart-wise by future singles, probably the one the band is still best known for. It’s the first of theris that I heard, certainly–around when I was just starting to come out of my indie snobbery, when I caught the video once or twice on MTV and was snapped to attention. The thing pounded in a way I certainly wouldn’t have anticipated from such a bland-seeming group. Not heavy by any means, and certainly highly polished, but it had an almost angular sound to it, with the chopped-up guitar line and discordantly low piano hook making for a hook agressive and funky enough that it was only a “Paid in Full”-sampling drumbeat away from sounding like an early-90s indie-dance single. For many this may or may not have been considerable as a positive, but for someone with an unnaturally fond recollection for the era of Jesus Jones and EMF, this was damn near close to being an ideal.

The lyrics…were not great. “This Love” was about Levine’s heartbreak over being left by his girlfriend, but the most sentimental sections of the song are the worst, resorting to mediocre cliches like “I’ll repair your broken wings” and “Kept playing love like it was just a game”–icky. Better are the parts where Levine reveals that the failing in the relationship was largely a sexual one–“I tried my best to feed her appetite / Keep her coming (sic) every night / So hard to keep her satisfied”–at which point the lyrics start to hit with the same kind of friction and bite as the music. Levine even gets downright lewd in the bridge, mentioning “sinking my fingertips / into every inch of you / ‘coz I know that’s what you want me to do.” Unsurprisingly, this fingerbang description marks the musical and emotional climax of the song–preferable to it being some line about crying a thousand tears or wishing he could kiss her fears away or some such, no doubt.

And at the very least, Maroon 5 could always just hang back on the verses and let the chrous do most of the work for them. Their grasp of melody was as strong as just about anyone’s in the Naughty Oughties, and the way the relentlessly minor and sinister-sounding tune of the verse gives away to the feel-good jam of the chorus guaranteed the song as a smash hit no matter what else happened. For a breakup song, and a supposedly lovelorn one at that, the chorus is surprisingly anthemic–not a mere lament about this love having taking its toll on Adam Levine, but rather a chant: “THIS! LOVE! HAS! TAKEN ITS TOLL! ON ME!” Said Levine about recording the song, “I was in a relationship that was ending, but I was really excited on the other end because the band was about to go make the record and I was ecstatic to go in the studio.” And it makes sense–Adam sounds like he was having so much fun writing and playing “This Love” that he forgot he was supposed to be, y’know, sad or something about the fact that his girlfriend broke up with him. Maroon 5 were simply not meant to be a mopey bunch.

“This Love” parent album Songs About Jane sold nearly five million copies and stayed on the charts for about half the decade, one of the last legit blockbusters of the CD era, and spawned a couple more smashes, one good (“Sunday Morning,” the best song Adam Duritz never wrote unless maybe he did) and one terrible (“She Will Be Loved,” a worthy candidate for bottom ten of the decade). Follow-up It Won’t Be Soon Before Long saw the boys getting leaner and meaner, with a thankfully nasty pair of fuck-off singles in “Makes Me Wonder” and “Wake Up Call,” although they still couldn’t quite escape the lure of the treacly ballad (“I Won’t Go Home Without You,” arguably even worse than “Loved,” but at least not used in as many previews). Overall, they did an impressive job of seeming like a constant force in 00s pop, despite the fact that they only released two albums this decade–just further proof that if your lust for stardom conflicts with your general laziness, the Adult Contemporary market is the one you want to corner.

It’ll be interesting to see if M5 can survive into the 2010s–how far into his 30s and 40s are we prepared to follow Adam Levine, as he continues to spurn chicks in falsetto and make out with his hot model girlfriends in his videos? I feel like I could stand it for a couple more years, anyway.

(Have any thoughts or remembrances of this song? Want to correct our lyrics or call us out for relying too much on Wikipedia? Please feel free to leave a comment here, or (gulp) Tweet us about it at twitter.com/intensities. Your input is lusted after and appreciated.)

The List So Far (Now With Links!):

100. Green Day – “Jesus of Suburbia”
99. The Ying Yang Twins – “Wait (The Whisper Song)”
98. Crazytown – “Butterfly”
97. Taylor Swift – “Teardrops on My Guitar”
96. The Fray – “Over My Head (Cable Car)”
95. Fergie – “Fergalicious”
94. Lidstrom – “I Feel Space”
93. Chevelle – “Send the Pain Below”
92. T-Pain f/ Yung Joc – “Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin’)”
91. The Arctic Monkeys – “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor”
90. Cassie – “Me & U”
89. Nelly Furtado – “Maneater”
88. Mike Jones f/ Slim Thug & Paul Wall – “Still Tippin’”
87. Bat for Lashes – “Daniel”
86. The Darkness – “I Believe in a Thing Called Love”
85. Dynamite Hack – “Boyz n the Hood”
84. DJ Khaled f/ T.I., Rick Ross, Fat Joe, Birdman, Lil’ Wayne & Akon – “We Takin’ Over”
83. Matchbox20 – “Bent”
82. The Game f/ 50 Cent – “Hate It or Love It”
81. 311 – “Amber”
80. 3 Doors Down – “Krptonite”
79. Nas – “Made You Look”
78. Royksopp – “Eple”
77. The Pussycat Dolls – “Don’t Cha”
76. DMX – “Party Up (Up in Here)”
75. Junior Senior – “Move Your Feet”
74. Twista f/ Kanye West & Jamie Foxx – “Slow Jamz”
73. The Streets – “Weak Become Heroes”
72. Jimmy Eat World – “The Middle”
71. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Maps”
70. Snoop Dogg f/ Pharrell – “Drop It Like It’s Hot”
69. Alice DeeJay – “Better Off Alone”
68. Xiu Xiu – “I Luv the Valley OH!”
67. Incubus – “Stellar”
66. Mariah Carey – “We Belong Together”
65. Andrew W.K. – “Party Hard”
64. Jurgen Paape – “So Weit Wie Noch Nie”
63. Taking Back Sunday – “MakeDamnSure”
62. Kid Cudi – “Day n Nite”
61. Paramore – “That’s What You Get”
60. System of a Down – “Toxicity”
59. dNTEL f/ Ben Gibbard – “(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan”
58. Three 6 Mafia f/ 8Ball & MJG – “Stay Fly”
57. Good Charlotte – “The Anthem”
56. The Lonely Island – “Lazy Sunday”
55. Darude – “Sandstorm“
54. Yellowcard – “Ocean Avenue”
53. The Killers – “Mr. Brightside”
52. Luomo – “Tessio“
51. Blink-182 – “Stay Together For the Kids”
50. My Chemical Romance – “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)“
49. Freelance Hellraiser – “A Stroke of Genius”
48. Daft Punk – “Digital Love”
47. Snow Patrol – “Chasing Cars“
46. Sean Paul – “Like Glue”
45. Ludacris – “Stand Up”
44. Britney Spears – “Toxic”
43. Kings of Leon – “Sex on Fire“
42. Jennifer Lopez f/ Ja Rule – “I’m Real (Remix)”
41. Lifehouse – “Hanging By a Moment”
40. Plain White T’s – “Hey There Delilah”
39. MGMT – “Kids”
38. Gym Class Heroes f/ Patrick Stump – “Cupid’s Chokehold”
37. Franz Ferdinand – “Do You Want To”
36. Kylie Minogue – “Can’t Get You Out of My Head”
35. Vertical Horizon – “Everything You Want”
34. The White Stripes – “Fell in Love With a Girl”
33. Jay-Z – “Takeover”
32. Maroon 5 – “This Love”