Red Pill Blues
| Maroon 5
Red Pill Blues
Red Pill Blues is the sixth studio album by American pop rock band Maroon 5. It was released on November 3, 2017, by 222 and Interscope Records. This is the band's first release to feature multi-instrumentalist Sam Farrar as an official member after becoming a touring member in 2012. The title of the album refers to the science fiction term of taking the red pill or the blue pill, which originated from the 1999 sci-fi film The Matrix. - Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
Adam Levine’s band return for their sixth album of smooth, professional, antiseptic soft-rock, which somehow also features Kendrick Lamar, Future, and A$AP Rocky.
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Billboard
Red Pill Blues feels like a culmination of the group's triumphant debut and the masterful hook-making abilities they've displayed since, ultimately indicating that while the 2002 Maroon 5 is great, the 2017 Maroon 5 is legendary.
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Slant Magazine
But listening to Red Pill Blues makes one yearn for an era when there at least seemed to be more room for genuinely ambitious, artful Top 40 pop. In other words, I’ll take the blue pill.
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Rolling Stone
Maroon 5 Still Deftly Navigating the Pop Moment on New LP
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Star2
The bulk of the record – with generic over-produced tracks such as opener Best 4 U, hyper sexual Lips On You and Kendrick Lamar-featuring Don’t Wanna Know – reeks of desperation.
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Entertainment Weekly
Maroon 5 returns with their best LP of the decade
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AllMusic
Taken on its own musical terms, Red Pill Blues is a sleek, assured affair, one that sustains a seductive neon-streaked mood from beginning to end.
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The Gaurdian
impeccable pop and middling R&B
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The DM Online
Maroon 5’s ‘Red Pill Blues’ fails to continue momentum of previous work
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The Soundboard
Maroon 5 have long been a name that goes hand-in-hand with a sigh.
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2Loud2OldMusic
15 year later the band is still going strong with the newest album called ‘Red Pill Blues’.
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AXS
Maroon 5's 'Red Pill Blues' another step forward for the band
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The Times
Maroon 5 must have access to a machine that creates cheesy pop sounds at the touch of a button, because this is not so much a collection of songs as a series of hooks, repeated until they worm their way into your brain whether you want them to or not.
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Showsha
Adam Levine and co dish out another homogenised, bland pop record
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Financial Times
Smooth high vocals give the songs a that degree of charm, while deft production lends depth
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Diandra Reviews It All
Maroon 5’s Red Pill Blues Is Their Most Confident Record Yet
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Immortal Reviews
It's no surprise that Maroon 5 makes everything sound stale with Red Pill Blues.
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The Young Folks
It doesn’t have a “Makes Me Wonder” or “This Love”; it doesn’t even have a “Payphone.” Still, it’s a sign that the band knows how to stay relevant and keep people nodding along as it navigates the choppy waters of romance through its lyrics
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Her Campus
Yes, It’s different than what most Maroon 5 fans are used to. I think the change is a good thing and the album is GREAT!!
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WTOP
Maroon 5 absolutely sparkle on ‘Red Pill Blues’
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The Daily Nebraskan
Maroon 5 just isn’t an interesting band anymore. They don’t have interesting songs, and for that reason alone, you should avoid this album.
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The Skinny
Maroon 5 offer up an album full of bewilderingly bad chart hits with their sixth studio album, Red Pill Blues.
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Spectrum Culture
Albums shouldn’t sound like aural equivalent of rendering a graph on a TI-83, but so long as the paltry gems that bloat Maroon 5’s studio releases keep hitting the Billboard charts, Trigonometry Pop is here to stay.
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The Mancunion
It is so nice to see that despite a lot of experimenting and change, that the band have not lost that spark that made them so good in the first place.
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The Musical Hype
As expected, Maroon 5 fully embrace the modern pop script on ‘Red Pill Blues.’ Despite a so-so promo campaign, the album ends is ‘better than expected.’
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Independent
I can’t remember a trace of its melody or theme: it was just there, and then not there. It’s an experience repeated throughout Red Pill Blues
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Talkhouse
Red Pill Blues is very repetitive, even for a pop album, and listening to it all the way through put me in a dark trance.
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WRBB Radio
Maroon 5 deliver shallow pop music but win over with undeniably impeccable hooks that are effortlessly cool.
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COMMMEDIA
It’s not mature, not developed or dignified and it didn’t take the path listeners were hoping the band would.
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Herald Standard
Fortunately, what Levine puts us through on the rest of the album is a pleasurable pop-infused frolic.
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Entertainment Focus
Red Pill Blues isn’t a bad album but it could be recorded by plenty of other chart stars and you probably wouldn’t notice the difference.
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ACRN
It’s basic. They know their formula, and it works, as usual.
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RicherSounds
It feels like Maroon 5 have always been here, and it seems as if they always will be
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Albany Student Press
If one is looking for a detour from the louder, dizzying Top 40 songs of 2017, this album is sure to privately entertain.
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Brig Newspaper
It’s an interesting concept that pays off to a certain extent.
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Renowned for Sound
The album remains true to the Maroon 5 brand of melodic, stylish neo-soul. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
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The Breeze
For an album that was over two years in the making, “Red Pill Blues” leaves me hoping the next one is much better.
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LiveWire1350
Red Pill Blues is an ultra-current album with just enough versatility to seduce anyone.
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The Ratings Game
With this being their sixth album, the group continues to expand on their sound, collaborating with some of the best in the game.
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TheRed& Black
Sonically, “Red Pill Blues” is highly electronic and electrifying, with a hint of R&B sprinkled throughout
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Something Else!
In the end, Maroon 5’s Red Pill Blues is sleek, sexy and everything you would expect from a Top 40 band.
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WZND
Not much stuck out to us, and neither of us enjoyed that much of it.
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PressPLAY OK
this is the nicest Maroon 5 album in quite some time, and we’re certainly not mad at them for sticking at it.
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ThomasBleach
“Red Pill Blues” had the potential to be a great album but instead it lacks originality and just attempts to re-create moments that have already charted this year from other artists.
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STACK
You’ll have heard bits of Maroon 5’s new album Red Pill Blues on high rotation on the wireless – What Lovers Do and Cold are already fan faves thanks to their catchy hooks – and we’re here to tell you that they are accurate omens for the rest of the record’s bouncy vibes.
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Album Analysis
They should quit making music, find jobs at candy shops or something, and leave our ears alone.
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Pop Central
Red Pill Blues is a completely dry, artistically empty album that elicits no feelings wheresoever in the listener besides boredom, awkwardness, and the occasion annoyance whenever the tropical house moments from the singles get too cringy to suffer through.
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Hawk Talk
Overall, Red Pill Blues is a great album that brings out many different emotions in listeners and proves that Maroon 5 can work with basically any artist.
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Vantage
As if to forebode the entire project, Red Pill Blues fails to offer a cohesive narrative on love and feels underwhelming entirely.
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Campus Times
Five years on, a band that once relied heavily upon musicianship and relatable and well-written melodies now solicits out-of-place collaborations and couches them in radio-friendly production.
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Flyer News
if you are looking for something to listen to that will get you moving because of it’s undeniable pop culture rhythm and it’s soulful vocals, then definitely check out “Red Pill Blues.”
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Lizzies Lowdown
In any case, as a pop album it certainly shines among its counterparts.
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Muzik Speaks
I would say that this album has a rather mellow and modest feel to it throughout but it’s still a sensational, modern-pop record!
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The Panther Online
‘Red Pill Blues’ is the right choice
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DBK News ( The Diamondback)
On Red Pills Blue, Maroon 5's attempt at cohesion comes up completely asymmetric.
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Enthuse
Red Pill Blues is an odd release, but it’s not a bad album, nor is it excellent, or their best. That being said, it’s a cool, well-produced pop record that has enough decent content to not be completely forgotten.
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The Daily Californian
Maroon 5’s directional misfire ‘Red Pill Blues’ crashes somewhere in desert of conventional pop
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The Hoya
This album shows that Maroon 5 is taking risks and moving in a new direction, but perhaps it should rethink its new sound and consider a return to roots.
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Hifi Magazine
By dropping the “overexposed” sound, Maroon 5 manages to pull off their best album since Hands All Over
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PearShaped Magazine
Maroon 5's latest release doesn't live up to their older classics.
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The Courier Online
Forgettable beyond belief and not much fun either, Red Pill Blues is symptomatic of an industry which increasingly values production, and pandering to the lowest common denominator, over actually writing a good song. Don’t waste your time.
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Hey Nineteen
Red Pill Blues is functional, in the same way spark plugs or a formica counter-top is functional. There is a need, there is a market, and this is a product.
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buzz
Maroon 5’s new album is something that is good, and the fusion of trending pop and jazz works well.
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The Irish Times
The hook-drenched Red Pill Blues is sure to be another super-smash, which means we’ll be trapped in the Maroon 5 matrix for some while yet.
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Ultimate-Guitar
Ultimately, Maroon 5 find a more suitable sonic road to travel in "Red Pill Blues."
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Pascack Hills Trailblazer
You Certainly Won’t be Blue from Maroon 5’s New Album, “Red Pill Blues”
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Cryptic Rock
Maroon 5 seems to excel at making strides inside and outside of their usual Pop Rock without isolating devoted fans.
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Gentlemans Anthology
Dubious name (and Snapchat filtered cover) aside, the album actually delivers.
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The Heights
Maroon 5’s ‘Red Pill Blues’ Lacks Direction, Originality
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MTSU Sidelines
The well-accomplished, seven-man group returns to the scene with “Red Pill Blues,” a fresh, crisp and vibrant compilation of upbeat pop sounds that listeners have come to know and love from the multi-Grammy winning group.
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