Music Review: Marooon 5 & Wiz Khalifa "Payphone"

Maroon 5 & Wiz Khalifa

Payphone

Album: Overexposed

Year: 2012

              Adam Levine rails at his ex-girlfriend for not loving him enough in the grouchy  “Payphone.”     

                A slight synth opens the single, setting a wan tone.  Part of the chorus starts the single.  He picks at his food, moving his grape leaves around his plate. He checks his cellphone. The battery is dead and it has turned itself off.  In the corner, he sees a payphone by the bathrooms. He heads to the register and pays for his check and then walks over the pay phone. In his wallet, he finds two dollars in change. He’s been doing nothing but driving for three hours, thinking about her as he drove on the expressway, through a small town and finally, a major city. She accepts his call and he puts more change in the phone. Once he’s given he’s the ok, he asks her why she doesn’t want to be with him anymore. (“I'm at a payphone trying to call home/All of my change I spent on you/Where have the times gone?/Baby it's all wrong/Where are the plans we made for two?”)

                 He tells to think back two years ago. Then, they were fun-loving and spontaneous people. He thought they would be together for the rest of their lives. But then she changed. She became much more serious. She tells him the damage is done. He accuses her of using him, forgetting how much she help she needed when she didn’t have enough credit to get a loan for a car. He co-signed that loan for her! (“No, I, I know it's hard to remember/The people we used to be/It's even harder to picture/That you're not here next to me/You say it's too late to make it/But is it too late to try?/And in our time that you wasted/All of our bridges burned down.”)

         In the pre-chorus, he yells over the automated voice telling him to insert more change that he could’ve other things instead concentrating on her for the last couple years. She made his life suck and he doesn’t know who is anymore. He wishes he could forget ever dating her at all. (“Youve wasted my life/You turned out the lights/Now I'm paralyzed/Still stuck in that time when we called it love/But even the sun sets in paradise.”)

          In the full chorus, he adds he no longer believes in love. It’s made-up, a ruse to make people buy candy and flowers in February. He can’t even listen to the radio in his car. All they play are love songs that lie. (“I'm at a pay phone trying to call home.. where are the plans we made for two?/If happy ever after did exist/I would still be holding you like this/All those fairytales are full of shit/One more fuckin' love song I'll be sick.”)

           He tells her that when was with him, she was getting her start. Now, she can afford to buy her own home and has a job with a salaried position. It doesn’t make her any better than him. He’s not going to just get over it. Once she gets off the phone with him, she’s going to tell her friends what a loser he is. He reminds her they have no chance of getting back together. He’s through! (“You turn your back on tomorrow/'Cause you forgot yesterday/I gave you my love to borrow/But you just gave it away/You can't expect me to be fine/I don't expect you to care/I know I've said it before/But all of our bridges burned down.”)

            The pre-chorus and full chorus are sung again.

             He adds that calling her from a payphone was the only he could get her listen. (“Now I'm at a payphone.”)

             Wiz Khalifa breaks in with his section. He blows her off, saying she’ll regret her decision someday. She’ll be broke after going through her money. It’s him who appreciates the value of a dollar. He’s had success and never supported him. He tells her she can’t talk to him. He got his number changed. He’s rich and doesn’t need her. He’s a great guy who has the potential to be somebody important. She’s going to see him on television and shout to her boring husband “I used to date that guy!” ‘and then while she’s sleeping, she’ll dreaming of the nights they spent together. So there!  (“Man, fuck that shit!/I'll be out spending all this money while you're sittin' round/Wondering why it wasn't you who came up from nothing/Made it from the botton/Now when you see me I'm stunting/And all of my cars start with a push of a button/Telling me I changed since I blew up or whatever you call it/Switched the number to my phone/So you never could call it/Don't need my name, on my shirt/You can tell it I'm ballin'/Swish, what a shame coulda got picked/Had a really good game but you missed your last shot/So you talk about who you see at the top/Or what you could've saw/But sad to say it's over for her/Phantom roll up valet open doors/Wish I'd go away, got what you was looking for/Now it's me who they want/So you can go take that little piece of shit with you.”)

                   The pre-chorus and full chorus are sung again. 

                   He ends the single saying “I’m at a payphone.”

              Levine’s naïve vocals finger point, digging his index finger into her, forming a bruise. He views himself as the wronged party and is out to hurt her. He is going to have the last word. She’s not going to win. He fails to realize that for her, the relationship has run its course. He clearly needs to move on. Any further conversation with her and he’ll humilate himself more than already has.

          In Khalifa’s mousy rap, he spouts some lame comebacks to prove he’s the better person., He balloons the final minute, becoming a random space filler and then takes off. His slapped on appearance hangs there, out of place and then drops to the floor forgotten.

             In 2012, Criminal Minds featured Dr. Spencer Reid looking for a payphone. Garcia, although puzzled, searched through Google and found one right away. By acknowledging that payphones don’t really exist anymore, they were able to make it plausible.  The problem with the single is it still assumes it’s 1995 and all Levine would have to do is to go to a gas station.

       The juenvile “Payphone” kicks the air, screaming, wanting its way at the expense of another person’s feelings.