Overexposed is the fourth studio album by the American rock band Maroon 5. It was released on June 20, 2012, by A&M Octone Records. The album was recorded between 2011 and 2012 and was driven by the moderate success of their third album, Hands All Over (2010), and later by the enormous success of the re-released edition, which was promoted by the single "Moves like Jagger", recorded featuring Christina Aguilera. It is the band's only album not to feature keyboardist, rhythm guitarist and background vocalist Jesse Carmichael, who took a temporary break from performing with the group to focus on his studies and was replaced by musician PJ Morton. The band worked with different producers, such as Max Martin, who serves as the album's executive producer, Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, Shellback and Benny Blanco.
The accompanying artwork, created by Los Angeles artist Young & Sick, is a colorful collage of illustrations seemingly inspired by the likes of Picasso and a range of modern cartoonists. Its title is a smirking allusion to Levine's ubiquity, while its sound is a reflection of how the group wishes to retain the large audience they won once again with "Moves Like Jagger". The album's lead single "Payphone", featuring rapper Wiz Khalifa, produced by Shellback and Benny Blanco, was released and performed on The Voice, on April 16, 2012. The song was a success, reaching number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as on the ARIA Charts, while it topped the UK Singles Chart, Canadian Hot 100 and Italian Singles Chart. The second single "One More Night", was released on June 19, 2012. The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 for nine weeks, becoming their longest Hot 100 reign. The following singles, "Daylight" and "Love Somebody", peaked within the Hot 100's Top 10.
The album was met with mixed reception from music critics. Some praised the album, calling it their strongest effort, but others criticized the direction the band decided to take, calling it a failed attempt to go mainstream. Additionally, critics and fans alike perceived the album as overly focused on Levine. It debuted at number 2 on both the UK Albums Chart – selling 38,000 copies – and the US Billboard 200 chart – selling 222,000 copies. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), Overexposed was the 11th global best-selling album of 2012 with sales of 2.2 million copies. To promote the album, the band embarked on the Overexposed Tour (2012–2014).
Background
In September 2010, the band released their third studio album, Hands All Over. While preparing the album, the band received a phone call from Robert John "Mutt" Lange, who had heard the band was beginning to write a new record, and expressed an interest in producing it. The album received generally favorable reviews from music critics and debuted at number 2 on the US Billboard 200 chart. However, the album experienced moderate success in overall sales; regarding that, Maroon 5's guitarist James Valentine expressed some frustration and said that a new album may be coming sooner than was originally planned. Valentine further commented:
"It would be nice to start working on another record next year". "I think with the last two records, it's been a little bit unbalanced, in that we had so much success and there was so much of the world to cover that our studio/road balance was a little off... In a perfect world we'd tour for six months and maybe record for six months, but that's not the way it works. But the whole point is to make more music, and if anything you can spend too much time out there."
Valentine also said the band has "tons of material" available, including holdovers including songs from Hands All Over and also other tracks the band has written since then. "I think everybody's been pretty busy compiling ideas for the next one," he stated. "With technology and the recording capacity we have on our laptops, we can be a little more prolific while we're [touring]. We've never been able to do that before. I think we could go in and make a record today and have a pretty solid album." In July 2011, the band re-released Hands All Over and included a new song called "Moves Like Jagger" which featured American singer Christina Aguilera. The song enjoyed a massive commercial success reaching number 1 on over 22 national singles chart including on the US Billboard Hot 100. In an interview with Mike Wood of Los Angeles Times, Levine explained what went wrong on Hands All Over, "I don't think we knew what kind of record we were making. It was such a hodgepodge — all these disparate ideas and songs that didn't make any sense together. He also stated, "We were in this idyllic paradise, which is a horrible place to make a record. Switzerland's neutrality is very famous, and I feel like that neutrality infected Maroon 5's third album". Levine further stated that "Moves Like Jagger" saved them and totally revived the group. Also in 2011, keyboardist and guitarist Jesse Carmichael stated "I hope that what happens on this next record is that we go even further into different directions and music and just keep branching out so that the record is incredibly diverse. You know, I think people's attention spans are getting shorter as time goes on, and so we're gonna make a quick, concise but super-diverse album."
Recording and production
The band started writing songs for Overexposed during their latest tour in support of Hands All Over. After concluding with the tour, the band recorded the material of the album at the Conway Recording Studios located in Los Angeles, California. Notably not joining them would be founding member Jesse Carmichael, who announced he would be taking a hiatus from the group on March 9, 2012, and would return after the touring cycle for their upcoming fourth album finished. Speaking about the development on the band's material, Valentine revealed that "Moves Like Jagger" was the first time the band worked with an outside writer, so they decided to implement it more on Overexposed. "At this point in our career I think it was a good thing to completely mix up our process and it yielded good results, as well as a more collaborative spirit within the band. We wanted to make something that sounded contemporary with the elements of a lot of early eras of pop music" explained Valentine. On the development of the album, Levine also commented, "Overexposed is definitely our most diverse and poppiest album yet. We had a great time recording it. I can't wait for our fans to hear the record, as well as hitting the road to play it live for everyone later this year." In another interview for Rolling Stone, the singer revealed that is their most dance-driven album ever, commenting: "It's very much an old-fashioned disco tune. I have a love/hate relationship with it – but mostly I love it."
The album was executively produced by Max Martin, with additional tracks produced by Benny Blanco and Ryan Tedder. Tedder commented that the sound of the songs was very fresh and would affect kids. However, he further stated, "maintaining that interest — that's the hardest thing in the world." Blanco explained that he and Levine first met during recording the song "Stereo Hearts" by Gym Class Heroes on which Levine is featured. The producer explained that when Levine heard the song he solely wanted in for himself on which Blanco responded that they will make another track for the band. After producing "Moves Like Jagger", he also worked on Overexposed and produced some songs including the lead single of the album, "Payphone". Although new collaborators were recruited to help in developing the album, Levine wrote all the songs with additional help from Valentine and produced a large portion of it, including the ballad "Sad". According to Valentine, the development of the song began one morning, when he woke up and "before he was even awake" he was at his living room's piano playing the melody. For an interview with MTV News, Levine told that "Sad" is his most personal track on the album, but didn't reveal the inspiration behind it. "Lady Killer" and "Fortune Teller" both started as just song titles thought of by bassist Mickey Madden before the songs were written (the guitar solo from "Ladykiller" was taken from an earlier track titled "Locked Up"). Most of "Ladykiller" was written by Valentine while the band was on tour, and was demoed on Logic Pro X. The song remained mostly unchanged from the demo, with minor touchups to the lyrics and music by Levine, and a guitar solo added from an old song the band recorded under the name Kara's Flowers titled "Locked Up (Pleasure Fucker)".
Composition
Influence and sound
Overexposed is a pop, dance-pop, and electropop album with pop rock, disco, R&B, and reggae influences. According to the band's official website, the album is "a chock-full collection of undeniable, anthemic melodies." Multiple critics stated that "Moves Like Jagger" served as the biggest influence for composing and writing most songs on Overexposed. Additionally, they noted that the works by Barbadian recording artist Rihanna influenced the album's sound.
Songs and lyrics
The album's opening track, "One More Night", is an "irresistible sexy reggae jam" that features influences of pop and rock music. Lyrically, the storyline follows or being able to untangle from the particular love interest. The second track on the album, "Payphone" is a pop and R&B song that contains hip hop beats and piano hooks. Featuring a verse by American rapper Wiz Khalifa, the song explores the way a relationship used to be in the past. "Daylight" is a soft rock song, that carries influence from the works of English band Coldplay (who, incidentally, also have a song called "Daylight"). According to Adam Markovitz of Entertainment Weekly, the song has choruses that are thickly produced and the only physical instrument that you can pick is Levine's larynx. "Lucky Strike" is a funk song that features dubstep and soul rock influences and lyrically discovers the theme of sexual intercourse. The fifth track on the album, "The Man Who Never Lied", produced by Brian West, is a pop and pop rock song that finds the protagonist in a relationship trouble where he is playing the role of a good person. According to Nate Chinen of The New York Times, in the song, Levine sings "about spoiling his perfect record of honesty to spare a quarreling lover some hurtful feelings." "Love Somebody" is the sixth track on the album; a dance-pop song it contains a Sly Stone-meets-Eurythmics synth hook. The funk-laden seventh song, "Ladykiller" features a guitar solo and an elastic funk groove, combined with Adam Levine's blue-eyed soul vocal and pleasing echoes of Hall & Oates. It was inspired by the work of American recording artist Michael Jackson, as noted by the reviewers of BBC Music and Virgin Media.