Maroon 5 Making A Call In "Payphone"

Maroon 5 pulled back the curtain on the brand new video for their record-breaking single "Payphone," a depressing song stuck in a sunny melody, gets the Michael Bay treatment in their explosive new video, which has no shortage of gunfire, car chases, explosions, plus plenty of frontman Adam Levine actually singing into a payphone. The track, features rapper Wiz Khalifa, is the lead single from their upcoming fourth studio album "Overexposed," set for release on June 26.
The mid-tempo pop ballad talks about a romance that is no more, how regretful the unlucky lady will be for walking away, and finds the 33-year-old frontman in a downbeat mood as he reminisces about a failed relationship, and Khalifa' verse is more direct than Levine's despondent lyrics - it explores the way a relationship used to be and the way they no longer are.
"Payphone" has a plodding, piano-heavy production with martial drumming and a dramatic chorus. It also features throbbing bass on the hook that gives the song the hint of a disco edge. It's a straight-ahead pop ditty that like everything else these days, seems to take a page from Bruno Mars' "Grenade" for its shiny, military-like precise beat that still manages to sound convincingly warm. It's melodic and catchy, and but not overly aggressive.
The Samuel Bayner-directed clip plays out as a flashback that starts with a beleaguered Levine in the middle of a bank robbery, as a bespectacled bank worker who saves a co-worker from bank robbers, torching his ride and dialing his lost love. We then get to see he manages to steal a gun, making a call from a Los Angeles phone booth, bust out of the bank with a foxy lady, and end up becoming a sought-after fugitive himself. Along the way he steals Khalifa's classic sports car and running from police. The clip is an enjoyable mini-blockbuster.