Maroon 5 and Mel Gibson

Over the weekend we had two new experiences. One was the new Maroon 5 album, received with keen interest after the superb songs on the first album suggested the emergence of a great talent. This album is Pants. Big girls pants. All girth and no lace. More sweat than perfume. In fact I feel wasting the 30 minutes of my listening time that it took to see this body of work for what it is will take some getting back from. All the band qualities that made the songs on the first album come to life are absent.

Instead we have a sorry array of production techniques by a number of very different and unconnected producers stamping their ego's over what turns out sounding like what the son of Prince and Michael Jackson would do if he was 3 years old, and stumbled into the room marked 'Daddy's crap songs of 80's groove music that never made it past the demo phase because they have no groove and no lyric and are crap.'

The best thing I can say about this experience is that if and when Maroon 5 ever release another album, I will not be conned out of a half hour of my listening life again.

Then theres Mel Gibson. We sat down to watch his movie APOCALYPTO with some trepidation. Forewarned that we were in store for a blood fest featuring a cast of unknown Indians and Mexicans, and without a word of English being spoken. Some three hours later I stood up to applaud the masterwork by Mr Gibson, who has undoubtedly achieved a level of excellence quite rare in this throw away entertainment industry.


So - in conclusion. Avoid Maroon 5 (Unless you have issues with Bulimia that prohibit the use of fingers in the mouth) and make sure you get to see APOCALYPTO.