It is the band's first album in four years since Red Pill Blues (2017), and also their first album without longtime bassist
Mickey Madden following his arrest in 2020, due to domestic violence (though some of his contributions are heard on tracks 10 & 12).
The album is titled after a nickname of the band's late manager Jordan Feldstein, who died in 2017.[1] The album received mixed reviews from critics.[2]
Background
One month after the release of Red Pill Blues in November 2017, the band's manager and
Adam Levine's childhood friend Jordan Feldstein died of a
pulmonary embolism aged 40.[3] Feldstein was the older brother of actors
Jonah Hill and
Beanie Feldstein. Two years later, the band dedicated the song "
Memories" to him.[4] The song went on to become a worldwide success—it is the first single released from the album and it appears on the track listing in two versions (alongside the original version of the song, the album also includes a remix, featuring American rappers
Nipsey Hussle &
YG). The album was recorded between 2019 and 2021 (prior to and during the
COVID-19 pandemic).[5][6][7][8]
On April 29, 2021, the band announced the album and was available for pre-order on the same day.[9] The track listing for the deluxe edition was announced on May 24, 2021.[10]
Singles
The album is promoted by five singles. The first single, "
Memories", was released on September 20, 2019.[11] The song debuted at number 22 on the
Billboard Hot 100, later peaking at number 2 and becoming the band's tenth top-5 single, as well as their fifteenth top-10 single. The second single, "
Nobody's Love", was released on July 24, 2020.[12] The song was inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic and the
George Floyd protests.[13] It peaked at 41 and 119 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and
Billboard Global 200, respectively.
The third single, "
Beautiful Mistakes", a collaboration with American rapper
Megan Thee Stallion, was released on March 3, 2021,[14] also with a lyric video.[15] The official music video was released on March 11, 2021, and was directed by
Sophie Muller.[16] The song peaked at 13 and 26 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and Global 200, respectively.[17][18] The fourth single, "
Lost", was released alongside the album on June 11, 2021, along with an official music video.[19] The fifth and final single "Lovesick", was sent to Italian radio on January 7, 2022.[20]
Musician Bantu released a remix version of the album's song "One Light" on August 5, 2022, with the band and featuring artists
Yung Bleu and
Latto.[21]
Jordi received mixed to negative reviews from critics. Aggerator
Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 48 out of 100, based on 9 reviews, it garned "mixed to average reviews", This is the lowest score of any the 381 albums listed on Metacritic from 2021.[22]
Writing for NME, El Hunt reported that, with Jordi, Maroon 5 were "more visible, and, at times, vulnerable", describing the two versions of "
Memories" as "sharp pop songs with both substance and heart". Talking about the collaborations, Hunt detailed that
Stevie Nicks' contribution to "Remedy" sounded like "a corrupted
Siri singing
country-western", and described
Jason Derulo's collaboration with Levine, "
Lifestyle," as "silly" and "slightly overdone". She remarked that the addition of
Juice Wrld on "Can't Leave You Alone" "serves little purpose", and that his verse is "wedged into the middle of an otherwise unremarkable break-up song".[29]
In a negative review, Kate Solomon of i described the songs on the album as "generic but hypnotic melodies over generic but danceable beats", saying
that the songs were "banal" and "advertisement-friendly". While Solomon highlighted the inclusion of
H.E.R. and
Megan Thee Stallion, she described the posthumous appearances by
Nipsey Hussle and Juice Wrld as "unmemorable". Solomon remarked that the album is "perfectly crafted to please crowds, to slip into your consciousness without you really realising [sic]".[27] In a similar review, The Guardian'sAlexis Petridis described the album as "a plethora of well-worn 21st-century pop tropes – tropical house sounds, post-
Tame Impala floaty synths – but nothing you would describe as novel in the music or lyrics". He likened Maroon 5 to a blank canvas, saying that the band was "reliant on guest artists to inject personality and songwriters and producers to come up with the goods". He highlighted Bantu and Thee Stallion's contributions, describing them as "fiery" and "a surprise", respectively, but described the rest of the album as a "mixed bag", and remarked that the songs felt "too calculated for their own good".[26]
Commercial performance
In the United States, Jordi debuted at number eight on the
Billboard 200 with first week sales of 37,000 equivalent units, which consisted of 15,000 pure album sales, marking the group's lowest first week album sales.[33] Despite this, it also marks the group's seventh top ten effort on the charts since their debut album Songs About Jane. As of June 22, 2021, the album has been certified gold by the
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for moving 500,000 units in the country alone.[34]