Maroon 5 is tossing fans a musical puzzle by slowly revealing portions of its upcoming album's cover art in five pieces across the web over several days.
The pop rock band's album, V, debuts September 2 and features the catchy "Maps" single and the yet-to-be-heard "My Heart Is Open" collaboration with Gwen Stefani and Sia.
[seealso slug="mtv-vma-nominations-snubs-snubbed-videos/"]
The album marks the return of keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, who was absent from the band's fourth album, Overexposed, in 2012.
It's not much, but here's the second piece, which Maroon 5 shared first with Mashable:
The first piece appeared Thursday over on Billboard:
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));
The pieces appear to be forming a pink letter V on top of an unknown setting. The third and fourth pieces will be released on Maroon 5's Facebook and Instagram accounts, while the fifth piece and full cover art will be unleashed widely Monday.
Update, July 21: The full cover art has been revealed on Facebook:
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));
Post by On Air with Ryan Seacrest.
This summer, the band has been riding the success of "Maps," a radio hit with brooding lyrics and Adam Levine's indelible falsetto. The morbid music video for it, below, has racked up nearly 10 million YouTube views since July 1.
With this puzzle stunt, Maroon 5 hopes to build online buzz for V, which credits Max Martin, Benny Blanco, Ryan Tedder, Shellback and Sam Martin as producers.
BONUS: 20 Songs Turning 20 in 2014
[nggallery id="14205"]