Maroon 5 – “Songs About Jane” 10th Anniversary Edition Review

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been ten years since Maroon 5 released their debut album, Songs About Jane. It’s definitely been an eventful decade in my own life and Maroon 5’s music has been there through it all. You should know by now that I’m a Maroon 5 superfan, and Jane marked my introduction to the band and is one of my favorite records of all time.

Here’s a photo that I took at my very first Maroon 5 concert in 2004.

This one is from a show I saw in 2005. I took this with a disposable film camera – remember those? 😉

As time has progressed, technology has advanced too. Here’s a video shot with my iPhone at the most recent M5 concert I attended in 2010. Man, things change a lot in a short period of time!

To celebrate a wonderful decade of Maroon 5, the band has put out a 10th anniversary edition of Songs About Jane which includes a bonus disc full of previously unreleased demos and other rarities along with previously unseen video footage. I received a complimentary promotional copy to check out and I was so excited to give it a listen – any time there’s new material released is a big treat, and getting a behind-the-scenes peek at how their songs evolve is really fun.

Disc 1 is the standard Songs About Jane album release, which you may already own. If not, then I (Naturally) suggest picking up a copy! No matter how many times I hear these songs, I will never get tired of them. In my humble opinion, this album is absolutely stellar and holds a universal appeal. Of course, I already know this record inside and out – I could probably sing it backwards at this point – so when the reissue arrived I immediately popped in the second disc of unreleased material.

Disc 2’s bonus content contains 17 tracks, most of which were previously unheard. Songs one through twelve are the demo versions of every single song on Jane, so you’re hearing the earliest known version of the album before the final recordings were made. I LOVE that they included all of the demos and find them to be really fascinating to listen to. Growing up in the music industry has given me an inherent interest in the recording process, so it’s neat for me to hear the initial versions of these songs and learn what they kept and what they discarded. For example, cuts like “Must Get Out” have more of a rock edge in the demos than in their final versions. I also enjoyed hearing a rough studio version of “Not Coming Home” since the final version was actually recorded live.

After the Jane demos, we’re treated to a few other rarities. The first of these is “Take What You Want”, an unreleased song that has been floating around for ages. It’s nice to finally see it released! As far as I can tell, this is pretty much identical to the version which has made the rounds on the web, except with better sound quality. It’s so nice to have a “Real” copy of this song after many years!

Following this are “Ragdoll” and “Woman”, two of Maroon 5’s lesser-known tracks. They’re marked as “Demo” on the liner notes, but this version of “Ragdoll” is the same one that’s been released previously as far as I can tell. I have “Ragdoll” on the deluxe edition of Songs About Jane, which I actually bought with money that I received as a present on my 21st birthday. Oh, how the time flies! “Woman” is the same version that I’m used to hearing, but it is different from the one you normally hear played, which was released on the Spider-Man soundtrack. The one I heard initially must have been this demo, because it’s always bugged me that you usually hear the “Other” mix, which I don’t like quite as much.

The disc of bonus content ends with “Chilly Winter” and an alternate mix of “The Sun”. “Chilly Winter” is a demo that is brand new to me, so I was excited to hear it and very much enjoyed it.

Once you’re done listening to the songs on the bonus CD, you can pop it into your computer to access the bonus video content. This includes 19 minutes of footage from the recording of SAJ along with an 8-minute EPK – electronic press kit – for the album which would have been distributed during its release in 2002. The footage of the band in the studio is awesome – you see a camcorder being held by members of the group at various points during the making of the album, chronicling various aspects of recording. This isn’t really a documentary, but rather compiled raw footage of various moments during the sessions, most of which (If not all – they never really elaborate on who is holding the camera at any given time) was taken by the band themselves. It’s such a cool look behind the scenes – it’s fascinating to watch these songs taking shape and see the band work out parts for songs that would later become huge hits. The footage here captures the band right on the cusp of success – at one point, guitarist James Valentine shows the camera a disconnect notice for one of his bills and quips, “We don’t ‘Pay bills’ at our house…because we have no income!” But his hard work paid off in the end! Of course, all the members of the band are funny people so it’s entertaining as ever to watch them crack jokes and goof around in this footage.

The second video included with this reissue is a clip that served as the album’s electronic press kit, which compiles various bits of footage introducing and interviewing the band and their producer on Jane, Matt Wallace. Both the EPK and the studio footage gave me interesting insight into how the band works together and records their material. Being both a huge Maroon 5 fan and a music nerd, I very much enjoyed this behind-the-scenes peek!

My only complaint about this reissue is that you have to go online to access the bonus videos – they aren’t included on the CD. To watch, you have to load Disc 2 in your computer, open up their website, go through a verification process with the CD in your drive, register for an account, and then you can stream the videos online. They’re only accessible to US & Canadian buyers (?!) and won’t be available after 2015. This just seems crazy to me – I mean, I have an enhanced Britney Spears CD that I bought in 1998, and I can still pop it into my computer and watch her “…Baby One More Time” video. Since this is being marketed to collectors, there really ought to be a way to at least download the videos so that you can watch them in the future. Given how cheap CD-ROMS and jewel cases are to produce wholesale, I’m pretty sure they’ll actually have to spend more money on bandwidth costs hosting these videos than if they just made a 3rd CD.

Songs About Jane: 10th Anniversary Edition is both a fan’s must-have and a reminder of how time flies. I’m so happy that they decided to release all of these unheard goodies and I hope that they do something just as awesome for the 20th anniversary edition!

You can pick up this special reissue on Amazon, iTunes, or on Maroon5.com. And watch this space for a very special giveaway later today for your chance to win a copy!