In September 2010, Maroon 5 also played "Misery" live during their appearances on Live from Studio Five, Late Show with David Letterman, The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, respectively. The band continued with the song in MTV's The Summer Song concert in Naples, Italy, on September 18, 2010. On July 2, the band performed the track on The Today Show, at Rockefeller Plaza in New York. On July 1, 2010, Maroon 5 performed "Misery" for the first time at the Empire Hotel in New York City, as part of the Vevo Summer Sets concert series. MTV Buzzworthy also reviewed the video positively, saying: "Adam Levine and model Anne Vyalitsyna make a love-hate relationship look so sexy in Maroon 5's new video, "Misery". Robbie Daw from Idolator called director Joseph Kahn a "visual maestro". I was like, 'Man, even thinking I got my ass kicked feels like getting my ass kicked.'" Reception Although, by the end of the day, even not being hit by things is such a physical thing that I was really kind of beat up. Levine added: "I did a lot of stuff, a lot of stuff is me! But most of it wasn't very dangerous. The shoes were, like, falling off his massive ankles." This dude who was Jesse 's stunt double was, like, really buff, and he has Jesse's little low-top Converse and skinny jeans on. the stuntmen were so great, but they probably weren't too happy because they had to dress like us, which was hilarious, because we aren't the most masculine dressers. "Because it kind of turns the whole idea of the sexual energy between two people – a guy and a girl, a music video, you've seen that a million times – that exists in this video, but it's turning it on its ass and having the girl be the more domineering one who's trying to kill me." Levine admitted to MTV News: "I'll tell you a little secret. "The cool thing is, when Joseph wrote the treatment after reading a few sentences, I thought it was really amazing," he said. Levine told MTV News about the Joseph Kahn-directed video. This version censored the majority of the violence with cartoon-like graphics, and adds shots of the band (wearing the same outfits as they do in the rest of the video). Tyler would later directed with the band's "Hands All Over" music video. The UK version of the video was released on August 11, 2010, also co-directed by Kahn with Don Tyler did with the animation. The various members of the band appear as bystanders or passersby who get variously hit by cars, etc., as they wind up becoming casualties of the female lead's violence towards Levine's character. The music video stars Russian model Anne Vyalitsyna (who was Levine's girlfriend that time). Levine stated to MTV News that the song's music video, directed by Joseph Kahn, focuses on violence, rather than sex, where the female decides to assault, assassinate, kill, rape, maim, humiliate, injure, and bruise her own significant other. from a police line-up of Maroon 5 songs." Music video Background Rolling Stone reviewers called the song a "funk-rock singalong" that "some people might have a hard time picking out. The New York Post stated that the single was "exactly the kind of up tempo, falsetto-filled single we've come to expect". MTV Buzzworthy stated that the single was "pretty classic Maroon 5", and "a buoyant, poppy affair that has a dark underbelly." AOL Radio stated that it was a "falsetto-pleading, yet upbeat, keyboard-popping track" with a chorus similar to Maroon 5's 2004 single " This Love".
'Misery' is instantly the best mainstream pop single of 2010 so far." Quite possibly a key reason for this step forward is the presence of the by now legendary Robert John 'Mutt' Lange in the producers chair. However, this time the band takes it all a few steps forward into the category of pop perfection. Bill Lamb from, while reviewing the single, awarded it with the maximum of stars (5 out of 5), saying: "All of the usual elements of a Maroon 5 hit are here, from the perky pop-soul sound to lyrics of intense conflict in a relationship. The song received positive reviews from music critics. Relationships are difficult, and it's good therapy to write about them." Critical reception I'm not treading on new ground, but I think a lot of people – including myself – deal with that all the time. Kind of what all the songs I write are about. Frontman, Levine told MTV News: "'Misery' is about the desperation of wanting someone really badly in your life but having it be very difficult. The song documents the decay of a relationship, familiar territory for the band. "Why won't you answer me? / The silence is slowly killing me / Girl you really got me bad," he states in the lyrics. Written by Adam Levine, Jesse Carmichael, and Sam Farrar, the song is about the narrator finding himself in a difficult situation when a relationship fades.