Is less truly more? Perhaps it depends on the context. But in the case of Maroon 5's debut album, the answer is certainly yes.

When considering this impossibly broad question, why zero in on this particular band? Because 2000s pop/rock — the milieu that made them — is a perfect sandbox for it. That landscape was full of albums that kept it simple, using a stripped-down palette to communicate maximum information. The turn of the millennium gave us Coldplay's Parachutes; 2001 brought Train's Drops of Jupiter; 2004, Death Cab for Cutie's Plans and Keane's Hopes and Fears; two years after that, John Mayer made a classy, soulful pivot into Continuum. So on and so forth.

Closer to the top of the decade, we got Maroon 5's 2002 debut, Songs About Jane, which sold more than 10 million copies and helped earn the band a GRAMMY for Best New Artist in 2003. Like the Pandora's box on its cover, the band's future flowed from it. Singer Adam Levine went on to serve as a coach on "The Voice" for nearly a decade; the band collaborated with the likes of Christina Aguilera, Kendrick Lamar and Cardi B; and by 2019, Maroon 5 had logged so many hits that they headlined their own Super Bowl halftime show.

But arguably none of it would have happened without this very simple album, which arrived 20 years ago on June 25.

Across a more than two-decade career, Maroon 5 have planted their flag as some of the most effective hookwriters in the business (even if "Moves Like Jagger" or "One More Night" aren't your thing, try to get them out of your head). And Songs About Jane contains all their melodic abilities with a minimum of varnish.

This is clear as soon as the album begins. The punchy, staccato offbeats in opener "Harder to Breathe" perfectly frame Levine's bluesy melody. His bittersweet, minor-key vocal line in "This Love" rides scratchy, funk-influenced guitars, creating the perfect balance between heartfelt and hip-swiveling. And the subtly droning, building, insistent progression of "She Will Be Loved" opens into a sunshower of a chorus.

And those moments keep coming fast and hard — through the bubblegum pop of "Must Get Out," to the fraught "Through With You," to the all the way to the bumping, acoustic-guitar-inflected closer "Sweetest Goodbye." This simple presentation — we are a white-soul band, and here are our songs — earned Maroon 5 accolades to die for, from the GRAMMYs to the Billboard charts. And arguably because of it, Songs About Jane endures.

Maroon 5 didn't exactly stay in the creative lane of Songs About Jane, but that's no slight. Like all of their aforementioned peers (Coldplay especially), the group got bigger and bolder on subsequent albums: 2007's funky It Won't Be Soon Before Long, 2010's sleek Hands All Over, all the way to 2021's vulnerable Jordi. (The latter featured guest spots from a hoard of superstars, including  Megan Thee Stallion, Blackbear, H.E.R., and the late Nipsey Hussle.)

These are all albums of merit, and they offer something to all sorts of contingents of Maroon 5's fan base. But Songs About Jane remains a favorite because it displayed all their strengths in an accessible, unfussy package. So, enjoy the constantly expanding and developing sounds of Maroon 5 and other 2000s favorites. Along with it, give a toast to simplicity — which was deeply in fashion in the production world of that time, and aged spectacularly as a result.

Because thanks to songcraft, attitude, and being in the right place at the right time — among other things — Maroon 5 all but guaranteed they will be loved.

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Maroon 5 keyboardist PJ Morton's guest-stuffed new album, Cape Town to Cairo, is built on an attention-grabbing conceit. He wrote and recorded it within a 30-day span, while journeying the African continent, visiting Johannesburg, Lagos, Accra, up to Cairo, back down to South Africa.

But a good story is just that, and the entire project — which features Fireboy DML, Mádé Kuti, the Soweto Spiritual Singers, and others — would collapse without quality songs. "The songs were the main thing," the five-time GRAMMY winner says. "It doesn't matter who I have on these songs if I don't have any good songs, so that was the priority."

It's a chicken-or-egg situation; the raw materials of Cape Town to Cairo are solid, but the guests helped them truly pop. Of Nigerian native Fireboy DML, who Morton worked with in his home country: "I had a bit of my song 'Count on Me' already, and he sat there and wrote that in 20 minutes," he says, with awe still palpable in his voice.

Elsewhere, Morton hails South African trumpeter and composer Ndabo Zulu's sense of instrumental space on "All the Dreamers" (which also features singer/songwriter Aṣa), and on the highlife "Who You Are," Mádé Kuti's channeling of his grandfather Fela Kuti's essence.

What was Morton's primary takeaway from the experience? Most of us abstractly understand how much Africa influenced American music; it's another ballgame altogether to witness it firsthand — as this native New Orleanian did.

"When I'm in Lagos, Nigeria, and I'm seeing the horn players play, I'm like, Man, this feels like home," Morton enthuses. "I'm in Ghana, and I hear highlife, I'm like, This feels like a second line or something. And then, I eat jollof rice, and I'm like, Man, this is jambalaya. This is their version."

Read on for the full interview about Cape Town to Cairo, and what Maroon 5's working on in 2024.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

When our CEO, Harvey Mason jr., traveled Africa, he called the experience "mind-bending," "game-changing" and "eye-opening." What was your reaction?

Oh, man. That was constantly happening for me over and over. When someone says, "Welcome home," or I look at money and see a Black man on the money, I'm like, Man. This is a different place, and so much love.

But for me, it was all the connections I was making to my home. I mean, being from New Orleans, a lot of the food, the music, the way they dance in the streets, and the way they celebrate, it just was really a bunch of connections happening for me. I'd say it was a life-changing trip for me.

I totally hear that syncopation and swing in Maroon 5.

Yeah. This is a big statement, but ultimately all our music is African music. It's hard to unsee once you see that. Now, all I see and hear is Africa a lot of times. We've used those three chords and the truth forever. These banjos, these things were created in Africa.

I've been in Maroon 14 years, and I think a reason I connected with the guys is because we're influenced by the same things — even in different worlds that we didn't realize were the same things.

Can you talk about the process of making Cape Town to Cairo while on the road?

That's what was so crazy about this — I created the album in 30 days while in Africa from scratch.

So, there was no time to process and then put it together, which was also just fascinating — something I never do. I take my time. I'm intricate. I cross every T and dot every I, so this was an experiment in trusting my instincts and just trusting what I know that has gotten me this far in music.

That was a really interesting part — because I had to quickly process what I was feeling, or not even fully process, but allow my soul and my body to process it and just write whatever was coming out, and create whatever music that was happening in South Africa.

Sounds like a heavy readjustment of your usual thinking.

As soon as I stepped on the ground and the first day we were in the studio, everybody was kind of on edge because they didn't know what I was going to write. I didn't know what I was going to write, but three songs came immediately.

Three ideas came that very first day I was in the studio, and that kind of relaxed me a bit, but that was the process. It was feel where you are, go in the studio, write some melodies, create some music, come back a few days later, put lyrics to that, and then redo.

And so, we did from South Africa, we started in Cape Town, obviously to Cairo, but with Cape Town. Then we went to Johannesburg, and all in between this, I was doing shows. We were doing concerts. I was doing radio interviews, TV interviews. I really wanted to just engulf myself as fast as I could.

When we got to Lagos, we landed on Fela Kuti's birthday, who's the father of Afrobeat. And man, it was so inspiring for me. I went in the studio the next day in Lagos, and the same thing happened — three songs just like that, three ideas.

One thing that was also different from my process is, sequencing is so important to me, but I couldn't leave Africa without knowing that these songs worked together. So I had to kind of work through that process in a truncated period of time, but I'm so proud of what happened. It's just really listening to my instincts, and it is raw emotion, this album is.

Some of the songs, I didn't realize what I was talking about until after I listened to them, and it was like, oh, I thought I was talking about this, but I'm talking about this.

Such as?

"Please Be Good to Me," specifically, it was like, I thought it was like a sexy love song, vibe song, but I feel like I'm talking to Africa.

Like, Take me to another place. I don't need to be in control. I've promised all these people I'm going to write an album in 30 days. Continent, please be good to me. Just give it to me. I have bad writer's block sometimes, so I was hoping that didn't happen, and it worked out.

Fela Kuti… speaking of people who should be on money. But what's his significance to you, personally?

I just think the way he was a fighter, the way he was a band leader, I really pride myself on musicianship.

Again, being from New Orleans — Afro Orleans is the name of my new band that we're going out with in the summer, and it's the horns, it's the percussion and all of that. So it is in that spirit of Fela. Also, his grandson, Mádé Kuti, is on one of the songs, "Who You Are."

He's the first person that made me pay attention to African music in general. My gateway was Fela. And so, to connect it this way, and to finally be in Lagos where he did it — to be at the shrine — was just special.

You made Cape Town to Cairo in such an intuitive and freewheeling manner. How did you ensure an album came out the other end, and not a bunch of outtakes or something?

It was trial and error, man, because initially I was trying to do so much stuff that I was like, Wait, I lost my voice. You know what I'm saying? I was just trying to do too much, and I was like, OK, let's kind of refocus and keep the main thing. So, I had to cancel some interviews; I had to cancel some things and really focus on the main things.

For me, it was trusting those ideas, the things that felt good. What happens in the studio with me is, sometimes I'll have a good idea, but I'm like, well, I can beat that. Let me try to beat it, and then I'll try to beat it. Sometimes, that first one was the one that was supposed to happen, but technically I'm beating it.

But am I beating it? I don't know, because maybe it wanted to come out in that pure form, and not have me get in the way with all my knowledge and years of [experience].

So I started to really trust that. I really just was like, OK, first idea, let's go. This first melody, that's what came out. Let's go with that. Then, I would write lyrics to my mumble track of the melody that I felt right, that moved me immediately. Thankfully, I've been writing songs for a long time, and we got to it, man.

But you're right — it wasn't just about writing songs in 30 days. It's about writing a complete album that I thought was good in 30 days, which is a completely different thing. But I just locked in, man, and I'm still kind of tripping that it happened this way, but I can literally place every song and remember where I was because it's such a short period of time.

I can't wait to fully see the footage of me creating from scratch. We're working on the documentary now, but I've never seen myself make something from nothing [like] this. So, I'm excited to see the inception to the full thing.

What's Maroon 5 up to?

We just did Questlove's podcast and talked about it a little bit, but we're definitely working on a record. Adam's been on fire writing lately, and we just finished the residency in Vegas days ago. We'll be back in Vegas in September, at Park MGM.

But it's going great, man. The music is coming out really cool. I joined at a unique time, which is after Hands All Over and before "Moves Like Jagger" and all of that stuff. It was a transition when Adam started to bring in co-work, and Hands All Over is the last time they didn't use co-writers.

So, now it's back to just him writing, and it's refreshing. I can't lie. It's exciting.

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While in a studio, Andrew Watt bounces off the walls. Just ask Mick Jagger, who once had to gently tell the 33-year-old, "Look, I can deal with this, but when you meet Ronnie and Keith, you have to dial it down a little bit."

Or ask Pearl Jam's Stone Gossard. "He really got the best out of [drummer] Matt [Cameron] just by being excited — literally jumping up and down and pumping his fist and running around," he tells GRAMMY.com.

As Watt's hot streak has burned on, reams have rightly been written about his ability to take a legacy act, reconnect them with their essence, and put a battery in their back. His efficacy can be seen at Music's Biggest Night: Ozzy Osbourne's Patient Number 9 won Best Rock Album at the 2023 GRAMMYs. At the last ceremony, the Rolling Stones were nominated for Best Rock Song, for Hackney Diamonds' opener "Angry."

On Pearl Jam's return to form, Dark Matter, due out April 19. Who was behind the desk? Take a wild guess.

"You want to see them live more than you want to listen to their albums, and they have the ability to look at each other and play and follow each other. I don't like my rock music any other way, as a listener," Watt tells GRAMMY.com. "All my favorite records are made like that — of people speeding up, slowing down, playing longer than they should."

As such, Watt had a lightbulb moment: to not record any demos, and have them write together in the room. "They're all playing different stuff, and it makes up what Pearl Jam is, and singer Eddie [Vedder] rides it like a wave."

If you're more of a pop listener, there's tons of Watt for you — he's worked with Justin Bieber ("Hit the Ground" from Purpose), Lana Del Rey ("Doin' Time" from Norman F—ing Rockwell) and much more. Read on for a breakdown of big name rockers who have worked with Andrew Watt.

Pearl Jam / Eddie Vedder

Watt didn't just produce Dark Matter; he also helmed Vedder's well-received third solo album, Earthling, from 2022. Watt plays guitar in Vedder's live backing band, known as the Earthlings — which also includes Josh Klinghoffer, who replaced John Frusciante in the Red Hot Chili Peppers for a stint.

The Rolling Stones

Dark Matter was a comeback for Pearl Jam, but Hackney Diamonds was really a comeback for the Stones. While it had a hater or two, the overwhelming consensus was that it was the Stones' best album in decades — maybe even since 1978's Some Girls.

"I hope what makes it fresh and modern comes down to the way it's mixed, with focus on low end and making sure the drums are big," Watt, who wore a different Stones shirt every day in the studio, has said about Hackney Diamonds. "But the record is recorded like a Stones album."

Where there are modern rock flourishes on Hackney Diamonds, "There's no click tracks. There's no gridding. There's no computer editing," he continued. "This s— is performed live and it speeds up and slows down. It's made to the f—ing heartbeat connection of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Steve Jordan.

"And Charlie," Watt added, tipping a hat to Watts, who played on Hackney Diamonds but died before it came out. "When Charlie's on it."

Iggy Pop

Ever since he first picked up a mic and removed his shirt, the snapping junkyard dog of the Stooges has stayed relevant — as far as indie, alternative and punk music has been concerned.

But aside from bright spots like 2016's Josh Homme-produced Post Pop Depression, his late-career output has felt occasionally indulgent and enervated. The 11 songs on 2023's eclectic Watt-produced Every Loser, on the other hand, slap you in the face in 11 different ways.

"We would jam and make tracks and send them to Iggy, and he would like 'em and write to them or wouldn't like them and we'd do something else," Watt told Billboard. "It was very low pressure. We just kept making music until we felt like we had an album." (And as with Pearl Jam and Vedder's Earthlings band, Watt has rocked out onstage with Pop.

Ozzy Osbourne

You dropped your crown, O Prince of Darkness. When he hooked up with Watt, the original Black Sabbath frontman hadn't released any solo music since 2010's Scream; in 2017, Sabbath finally said goodbye after 49 years and 10 (!) singers.

On 2020's Ordinary Man and 2022's Patient Number 9, Watt reenergized Ozzy; even when he sounds his age, Ozz sounds resolute, defiant, spitting in the face of the Reaper. (A bittersweet aside: the late Taylor Hawkins appears on Patient Number 9, which was written and recorded in just four days.)

Maroon 5

Yeah, yeah, they're more of a pop-rock band, but they have guitars, bass and drums. (And if you're the type of rock fan who's neutral or hostile to the 5, you shouldn't be; Songs About Jane slaps.)

At any rate, Watt co-produced "Can't Leave You Alone," featuring Juice WRLD, from 2021's Jordi. Critics disparaged the album, but showed Watt's facility straddling the pop and rock worlds.

5 Seconds of Summer

When it comes to Andrew Watt, the Sydney pop-rockers — slightly more on the rock end than Maroon 5 and their ilk — are repeat customers. He produced a number of tracks for 5 Seconds of Summer, which spanned 2018's Youngblood, 2020's Calm and 2022's 5SOS5.

Regarding the former: Watt has cited Youngblood as one of the defining recording experiences of his life.

"I had started working with 5 Seconds of Summer, and a lot of people looked at them as a boy band, but they're not," Watt told Guitar Player. "They're all incredible musicians. They can all play every instrument. They love rock music. They can harmonize like skyrockets in flight. They just were making the wrong kind of music."

So Watt showed 5 Seconds of Summer a number of mainstays of the rock era, like Tears for Fears and the Police. The rest, as they say, is history.

Elton John

A year after Britney Spears was unshackled from her highly controversial conservatorship, it was time for a victory lap with the God of Glitter. What resulted was a curious little bauble, which became a megahit: "Hold Me Closer," a spin on "Tiny Dancer," "The One" and "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" that briefly launched Spears back into the stratosphere.

"Britney came in and she knew what she wanted to do," Watt recalled to The L.A. Times. "We sped up the song a little bit and she sang the verses in her falsetto, which harkens back to 'Toxic.' She was having a blast."

Blink-182

Watt has also worked with pop/punk heroes Blink-182 — but not after Tom DeLonge made his grand return. He produced "I Really Wish I Hated You" from 2019's Nine, back when Matt Skiba was in the band.

Where in the rock world will this tender-aged superproducer strike next? Watt knows.

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Updated Friday Oct. 13, 2023 to include info about Kendrick Lamar's most recent GRAMMY wins, as of the 2023 GRAMMYs.

A GRAMMY veteran these days, Kendrick Lamar has won 17 GRAMMYs and has received 47 GRAMMY nominations overall. A sizable chunk of his trophies came from the 58th annual GRAMMY Awards in 2016, when he walked away with five — including his first-ever win in the Best Rap Album category.

This installment of GRAMMY Rewind turns back the clock to 2016, revisiting Lamar's acceptance speech upon winning Best Rap Album for To Pimp A Butterfly. Though Lamar was alone on stage, he made it clear that he wouldn't be at the top of his game without the help of a broad support system. 

"First off, all glory to God, that's for sure," he said, kicking off a speech that went on to thank his parents, who he described as his "those who gave me the responsibility of knowing, of accepting the good with the bad."

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He also extended his love and gratitude to his fiancée, Whitney Alford, and shouted out his Top Dawg Entertainment labelmates. Lamar specifically praised Top Dawg's CEO, Anthony Tiffith, for finding and developing raw talent that might not otherwise get the chance to pursue their musical dreams.

"We'd never forget that: Taking these kids out of the projects, out of Compton, and putting them right here on this stage, to be the best that they can be," Lamar — a Compton native himself — continued, leading into an impassioned conclusion spotlighting some of the cornerstone rap albums that came before To Pimp a Butterfly.

"Hip-hop. Ice Cube. This is for hip-hop," he said. "This is for Snoop Dogg, Doggystyle. This is for Illmatic, this is for Nas. We will live forever. Believe that."

To Pimp a Butterfly singles "Alright" and "These Walls" earned Lamar three more GRAMMYs that night, the former winning Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song and the latter taking Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (the song features Bilal, Anna Wise and Thundercat). He also won Best Music Video for the remix of Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood." 

Lamar has since won Best Rap Album two more times, taking home the golden gramophone in 2018 for his blockbuster LP DAMN., and in 2023 for his bold fifth album, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers.

Watch Lamar's full acceptance speech above, and check back at GRAMMY.com every Friday for more GRAMMY Rewind episodes. 

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If the name Jon Bellion sounds familiar, it's probably because of his 2016 single "All Time Low." With its relentless "low-low-low-low-low" chorus, the electronic-fused pop confection scored Bellion his first major hit — as a solo artist, that is.

Prior to Bellion's breakthrough with his debut solo single, he'd already made a name for himself behind the scenes by writing and producing songs for the likes of Eminem, Jason Derulo, Zedd and CeeLo Green. And in the seven years since "All Time Low" became a top 20 hit, he's celebrated plenty of other smashes with some of pop's A-listers from Christina Aguilera to Justin Bieber.

This year alone, he worked with the Jonas Brothers to executive produce their statement-making record The Album, helped shape Maroon 5's "Middle Ground" — which is expected to be the lead single off the veteran pop-rockers' forthcoming eighth studio album — and teamed up with Switchfoot for an orchestral 2023 update of the band's 2003 breakout single "Meant to Live."

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Bellion's most recent work can be heard on Tori Kelly's new self-titled EP tori, which dropped July 28. Along with producing the project, Bellion joined Kelly for a magnetic, electro-tinged track titled "young gun." Upon the EP's release, Kelly herself noted Bellion's impact, calling their collaboration "the start of something really special."

In honor of Bellion's latest project, take a look at nine songs you may not have known contained Bellion's signature touch — a roadmap to his becoming one of the most in-demand producers of the moment.

Eminem feat. Rihanna — "The Monster"

One of Bellion's earliest smashes came courtesy of Eminem — well, and Bebe Rexha. The pop singer penned the track's dark hook while working on her debut album, but it later made its way to Eminem and eventually shapeshifted into his fourth collaboration with Rihanna. The song became the duo's second No. 1 collaboration following 2010's "Love The Way You Lie" and remains one of most monstrous hits in Bellion's career.

Jason Derulo — "Trumpets"

Jason Derulo worked solely with Bellion on this top 20 hit from his 2013 Tattoos, which was later re-packaged as 2014's Talk Dirty. Built around an irresistible horn line of, yes, literal trumpets, Bellion and Derulo concocted a bouncy, flirtatious symphony to smoothly objectify the R&B singer's lady love, and manages to name drop Coldplay, Katy Perry and Kanye West over the course of just three minutes and thirty-seven seconds.

Christina Aguilera feat. Demi Lovato — "Fall in Line"

Bellion handled production on Christina Aguilera's fierce 2018 team-up with Demi Lovato, "Fall in Line," off the former's 2018 LP Liberation. Behind the boards, Bellion effectively captured all of the feminist rage and empowerment that the two vocal powerhouses lit into their lyrics, pairing their sneering vocals with a vamping strings section, rattling chains and a robotic male overlord futilely demanding, "March, two, three, right, two, three/ Shut your mouth, stick your ass out for me."

"Fall in Line" scored a nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 2019 GRAMMYs, marking Aguilera's twentieth career nod and Lovato's second. 

Maroon 5 — "Memories"

To kick off their seventh album, JORDI, Maroon 5 enlisted Bellion to co-write lead single "Memories." The gentle ballad found frontman Adam Levine mourning the loss of a friend, pouring one out over a lilting reggae-pop line that cleverly samples Johann Pachelbel's "Canon in D Major." While the heartfelt song is dedicated to the band's longtime manager (and namesake of the LP) Jordan Feldstein, who tragically passed away in 2017 due to a blood clot, the relatable sentiment of "Memories" helped it peak at No. 2 on the Hot 100.

In addition to "Memories," Bellion also worked with the band on two other songs from JORDI, co-writing fourth single "Lost" as well as Anuel AA and Tainy collab "Button." Three years later, he would reunite with the band to co-write and co-produce their latest, equally delicate single "Middle Ground" alongside the likes of Andrew Watt and Rodney Jerkins.

Miley Cyrus — "Midnight Sky"

Miley Cyrus came raring into her glam rock-inspired album Plastic Hearts on the back of "Midnight Sky," an unapologetic statement of independence following her split from longtime love Liam Hemsworth. Dripping in sultry synths, the power ballad took a page from '80s rock icons like Joan Jett, Debbie Harry and Stevie Nicks.

The sound was an entirely new one for Cyrus — which is one of Bellion's tools when working with a new superstar for the first time. In a 2023 Billboard interview, he likened his approach to inventing a new kind of ride for the given A-lister. "They have already built an amazing theme park: millions of people go to it and experience their roller coasters," he said. "They put me in charge of revamping or creating a new section of the theme park, and they let me be the foreman of it all." The new style worked in Cyrus' favor, and earned Bellion yet another top 20 hit on the Hot 100.

Justin Bieber — "Holy"

Bellion's fingerprints are all over Justin Bieber's 2021 album Justice, starting notably with its Chance the Rapper-assisted lead single "Holy," which he both co-wrote and co-produced. The superproducer contributed to six other songs on the pop-driven LP — including the pop radio No. 1 "Ghost," which was inspired by Bellion's late grandmother — as well as three deluxe tracks. And though Bellion didn't have any credited features, his voice can still be heard: he offered background vocals on seven of the songs.

Justice earned Bellion his very first GRAMMY nomination, as the project was nominated for Album Of The Year at the 2022 GRAMMYs (Bieber also received seven other nods). 

Selena Gomez — "My Mind & Me"

Bellion first collaborated with Selena Gomez on Rare album cut "Vulnerable" alongside Amy Allen, Michael Pollack and The Monsters & Strangerz. Two years later, the entire team reunited for the title track to the pop singer's Apple TV+ documentary My Mind & Me.

Bellion and co. helped Gomez tap even further into the most vulnerable side of her psyche to date. "Vulnerable" saw Gomez letting her guard down with a new flame, but "My Mind & Me" allowed her to completely lay bare her mental health journey. "Sometimes I feel like an accident, people look when they're passin' it/ Never check on the passenger, they just want the free show," she sings. "Yeah, I'm constantly tryna fight somethin' that my eyes can't see," over spare guitar and piano.

Jonas Brothers — "Waffle House"

After the success of their 2019 comeback album Happiness Begins with producer Ryan Tedder, the Jonas Brothers recruited Bellion to helm the boards on their 2023 follow-up The Album. The producer helped the hitmaking siblings tap into a new facet of their pop-rock sound, finding inspiration in the '70s music their dad raised them on. (As Joe Jonas told GRAMMY.com upon the album's release, Bellion "was saying exactly what we were hoping for" when they first met to mull over ideas.)

While Bellion had a hand in every song on The Album, second single "Waffle House" is the latest to earn both him and Jonas Brothers a top 15 hit on pop radio. Bellion also serves as the one and only featured artist on The Album, coming out from behind the boards and into the vocal booth for bombastic closer "Walls."

Tori Kelly — "missin u"

Tori Kelly first linked up with Bellion thanks to Justin Bieber, as the pair worked together with the Biebs on tender bonus cut "Name" from the Justice sessions. So, when it came time to launch a new era with her self-titled EP tori, the songstress turned to Bellion to help bring her vision to life.

On lead single "missin u," the two-time GRAMMY winner throws the guitar-driven singer/songwriter vibes of her past work out the window in favor of a sleek R&B sound reminiscent of the early 2000s. The sonic gear shift is a natural fit for her lithe voice as she replays a romance that "was rainin' purple skies in my room." Somehow, Kelly even manages to outdo the vocal acrobatics of "missin u" with a deliriously brilliant "R&B edit" that adds even more layers, soul and vocal flourishes to the single.

"When I first started working with Jon Bellion, we were just beginning to scratch the surface on a new sound that truly felt like my own," Kelly explains in a video celebrating the release of her self-titled EP tori. "I know that I'm gonna look back on this collaboration as the start of something really special." As for Bellion's thoughts on his latest project? "Tori Kelly's the greatest vocalist of all time!"

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