Review
Genre and Mood
Maroon 5 and Cardi B’s Girls Like You is pop and pop rock with a rap verse dropped into it: romantic and calm for most of its length, then bold for the few bars Cardi B takes. Rolling Stone heard an impressively placid, gentle wash of sound punctured by her typically emphatic guest verse.
Song Summary
The song first appeared in 2017 as the ninth track of Red Pill Blues, a 3:35 album cut without a guest. On 31 May 2018 Maroon 5 released this recording, listed on the reissued album as Girls Like You (Cardi B version): about twenty seconds longer, with a verse Cardi B co-wrote and performs, and the album’s fifth and final single. Adam Levine said he told her to put down something that shows her fierceness as a woman, and to say it however she wanted. Spin found the song sentimental and profoundly shallow, yet the hostile reviews in Vice, Time and Spin all singled out her verse.
Musical Breakdown
The sources describe this song by its contrast rather than section by section, so this follows the two voices.
Levine’s Song
Levine carries the verses and choruses over the soft arrangement that Cirkut and Jason Evigan produced. One reviewer noted that his voice is not deep or heavy, yet remains compelling.
Cardi B’s Verse
Her verse is short, merely a taste in one reviewer’s words, and comes late. A later St. Vincent remix moved it to the front.
Concepts in Focus
Cardi B is the <a href=“https://korczis.github.io/sonic-playground/concept/featured-artist/” class=“concept-link font-medium text-primary-700 underline decoration-dotted underline-offset-4 hover:decoration-solid dark:text-primary-400” data-concept=“featured-artist” title=“A guest performer credited on another artist’s track, usually as “feat.”: a rapper’s verse, a singer’s hook or a second voice. Features bring together different styles and audiences and are central to hip-hop, R&B and dance music.“>featured artist who turned an album track into a record-breaking single. Compare her role here with Cardi B – Money, where she carries everything herself.
Rolling Stone notes that the Cardi B version is in itself a remix: she is not on the album cut. Four more remixes followed in August 2018, by St. Vincent, Tokimonsta, Cray and WondaGurl.
The music video, directed by David Dobkin, shows Levine singing in one room while the band plays and women lip-sync and dance, among them Camila Cabello, Gal Gadot, Jennifer Lopez, Ellen DeGeneres, Millie Bobby Brown and Rita Ora. It was Vevo’s most-viewed video of 2018.
Artistic Context
The single came out through 222 Records and Interscope, recorded at Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles. On the Billboard Hot 100 it climbed from number 94 to number four, spent six weeks at number two behind Drake’s In My Feelings, then seven at number one: the first pop song on top after 34 straight weeks of rap.
Impact and Reception
It spent 33 weeks in the top ten, 36 at number one on the Adult Contemporary chart, was certified diamond in 2021 and was nominated for a Grammy. Watch the video and wait for the verse.
