What are the good parts of Maroon 5’s newest album, “V”?
The album cover.
No, really. That’s it.
While the band has had its ups and downs in recent years, this has to be its worst release. It seems the musical decline after “Songs about Jane” is still real and true. 
The album opens with all three earlier-released singles back to back, “Maps” followed by “Animals” and then “It Was Always You.”
While all three singles have done fairly well, these are the album’s only powerful tracks. Placing them all back-to-back and in the beginning of the album was a mistake. Once these tracks are over, you may as well turn the album off because you won’t be missing much.
But if you keep the album on, it will continue into a rotation of slow songs and fast songs, all badly written.
Adam Levine’s vocals can’t even save these tracks from their dismal lyrics and bad beats. It’s that bad.
None of these songs sound like an adult pop or rock band. While bands do gain younger fans, the majority of Maroon 5’s fanbase comes from people that were there from the beginning. The people from the “Songs About Jane” era have aged, just like the band, and would most likely prefer to see growth and maturity in each newly released album.
Maroon 5 seems to do none of that. Instead of maturing, they seem to go backward. This album would be perfectly accepted by the 12-16 age group, but not the band’s older fans.
The album has one collaboration with Gwen Stefani. Because Stefani hasn’t put out solo music for a while and her No Doubt resurgence didn’t have the popularity most hoped for, this is just another kiss of death to the album.
“My Heart is Open” is supposed to be some type of moving duet, but all it’ll move listeners to do is turn it off. Compared to the rest of the album, the lyrics aren’t bad, but the song itself is poorly constructed. A ballad should move the listener, but there’s absolutely nothing special about this one.  
The deluxe album includes a song from Levine’s recently released movie, “Begin Again.” That song actually isn’t bad and might be the record’s saving grace. But because it is just Levine and not really a Maroon 5 song at all, it can’t really be considered their work, just an addition to the record. Take that however you choose.