https://music.apple.com/us/album/love-is-like/1821537686
Maroon 5 — Love Is Like
A butterfly at the flame: the risk, the burn, the glow.
Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
Maroon 5’s eighth studio album arrives with a promise: fewer outside voices, more of the band’s own pen and pulse. Adam Levine described the project as “a return to how we used to do things” - writing organically and leaning less on outside producers. Released August 15, 2025 via 222/Interscope – a date that happens to be my birthday – the 10‑track set runs a lean 27 minutes and folds pop, R&B, and hip‑hop textures into a lacquered, radio‑ready whole.
The cover art, a butterfly engulfed by flame against a cool backdrop, lands like a thesis statement. It’s love as the classic moth‑to‑flame parable: blind, reckless, fragile, irresistible anyway. The image frames the record as a study in dangerous desire, the kind you chase knowing the scorch is part of the story.
Across Love Is Like, you can hear the intention to write as a collective again. Even where outside producers appear, the center of gravity feels closer to the core: Federico Vindver and JKash steer much of the production with longtime band confidants Sam Farrar and Noah “Mailbox” Passovoy, names familiar to Maroon 5’s camp rather than a revolving door of trend-chasing specialists.
The sonic palette pulls from sleek pop and sample‑tinted R&B/hip‑hop, with splashes of soul and new wave. And the way the vocals are stacked with warm, soul layers, shows PJ Morton’s fingerprints, at least in spirit. That’s a good thing: those harmonies deepen the paint, especially on the title track and “All Night.”
Maroon 5 sequenced the rollout like a breadcrumb trail:
- “Priceless” (feat. LISA) – released May 2, a guitar‑led pop cut and the band’s first K‑pop collaboration.
- “All Night” – dropped June 23, with a disco‑tinted lift and a saxophone flourish in the mix; the video arrived later that week.
- “California” – a vulnerable, concise release on July 17 that plays like a late‑night postcard from the West Coast.
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“Love Is Like” (feat. Lil Wayne) – issued August 14, teeing up the album’s arrival the next day.
The strategy was airtight; the artistic signal, less so. Each single peaks in a different lane, and while that shows range, it also dilutes cohesion.
Track highlights: where the spark catches
“Priceless” (feat. LISA) pivots on a nimble guitar figure – Levine’s hook carving room for LISA’s playful rap to land with a wink. The Aerin Moreno–directed video nods to Mr. & Mrs. Smith and was shot on 35mm. This film technique matches the track’s intent: a back‑to‑roots sheen rather than hyper‑gloss.
“All Night” makes the strongest case for the band’s renewed chemistry: crisp percussion, airy synths, and that sax detail give the chorus a buoyant, late‑’70s lift without cosplay.
“California” is the most emotionally exposed moment here - short, mournful, and cut to the bone. The lyric’s paralysis‑in‑place reads like an unguarded memo; the release was quietly handled via a lyric video that let the writing do the talking.
“Love Is Like” (feat. Lil Wayne) is concept‑on‑concept: the chorus sketches love as hazard, Wayne’s verses turn the metaphor on its head, and those PJ‑coded harmonies cushion the edges. Apple Music calls out “retro flecks” on tracks like “Burn Burn Burn,” and you hear that heat here too.
Elsewhere, “I Like It” (feat. Sexyy Red) and “Yes I Did” play their roles – hooks intact, production tight, but they sit closer to the expected than the exceptional.
Here’s my tension: on a 10‑track album, three feature slots (LISA, Lil Wayne, Sexyy Red) feel less like seasoning and more like scaffolding. Maroon 5 has always navigated Pop’s collaborative economy, but rotating guests can start to sound like a playlist rather than a band statement. When the group leans into its own storytelling, what once made our ears perk up, the results feel more singular. When they outsource the narrative, the identity blurs.
There is a reverence for lineage here: you can hear Maroon 5 nodding toward classic soul and R&B frameworks - think the lush, stacked harmonies and patient grooves that long outlast trends. But I miss the real Maroon 5: the band that married compelling storylines to beautiful lyrical turns and instrumentation that felt authored, not templated. In an era where Pop often leans on shared production ecosystems, Love Is Like sometimes accepts the genre’s defaults instead of subverting them.
The verdict
Love Is Like isn’t a misfire; it’s a solid record with moments of glow. The cover tells the truth - the burn and the beauty live side by side. When the band writes from the inside and lets those organic‑tinted vocal stacks breathe, the flame feels earned. When the features overtake the frame, the heat dissipates. For casual listeners, this is polished, pleasant, safe. For lifers craving the band’s signature spark, it’s a step, just not a full stride, back toward home.
Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
Until next time, I listen. I lead. I write the culture.
The Original KiKi