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Maroon 5's Levine expands his wardrobe

It's not just a new look, but some different directions.

Beyond winning best new artist Grammys and breaking week-of-release iTunes records for Maroon 5's

It Won't Be Soon Before Long,

there's Adam Levine.

The lilting jazzy singer; the guy who not only dueted with raunchy hip-hoppers Ying Yang Twins but sang on rapper/producer Kanye West's Late Registration (Levine's the sweetest part of "Heard 'Em Say").

Levine just paired with Andy Samberg and Fred Armisen during Saturday Night Live, clowning Iran's prez, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in song. Which does he think holds more sway over Maroon 5's minions? "Aw, man I'm new to comedy, so I think my cred with the hip-hop crowd is strongest," Levine says, stifling a chuckle. "I love trying different things."

That includes turning Maroon 5 from T-shirt-wearing grungers during the rise of their last album, Songs about Jane, into suit-wearing dandies in accordance with "Won't Be Soon's" chic funk.

"We spent four years on the road living out of a duffle bag wearing the same three T-shirts, we just wanted to clean up," Levine, the son of a Los Angeles clothier, says of the sartorial sensibility that extended itself into the sleek sound of new songs like "Makes Me Wonder." That was the first tune written for the new album, whose soulful rolls and catchy choruses glean inspiration from Levine favorites the Police, Stevie Wonder, the Beatles and Talking Heads. "It wasn't so much a sit-down-and-write song," he says of "Makes Me Wonder." "It just had the tone that the late '70s/early '80s had when disco was dying and rock bands were taking over again but still stuck in that dancey vibe."

What was old hat then was like a new suit to Maroon 5.