"This Love" helped Maroon 5 win the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist and was the third-most-played song of 2004.

The live version of the song won Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 2006 Grammy Awards.

In an interview with MTV News in August 2002, Levine revealed that he wrote the song the day his girlfriend moved away after they broke up.

[12] According to Johnny Loftus of Allmusic, the music featured in the song has "a slick channeling of vintage R&B rhythms into punchy pop dynamics".

[13] Loftus felt that the song features "Levine's wry falsetto around strutting, bottom-heavy piano and percussion both programmed and live; chirping backup vocals and washes of sunny synth and flute acted as counterweights".

[13] Loftus also noted that the band has a "sexual charge" with the lyrics, "I tried my best to feed her appetite / To keep her coming every night / So hard to keep her satisfied".

[13] The Boston Globe's Steve Morse described the single's sounds as "a rocking yet soulful tale about the breakup of a relationship".

[14] Meghan Bard of The Daily Campus adds that the song has "Stevie Wonder-esque vocals and a funky R&B beat".

[7] In the extended version of the song, which is 4 minutes and 26 seconds long, the chorus of the band's next single, "She Will Be Loved", can be heard from 3:21 to 3:42, during the outro.

[16] In an interview with Rolling Stone, when asked about the lyrics "Keep her coming every night" and "Sinking my fingertips into every inch of you", Levine said: "Yep, that's sexual, all right.

In the Rolling Stone review of the album, critic Christian Hoard wrote: "Adam Levine's urban-romantic swoonings work best when his band really gets up on the good foot, as on 'This Love', which uses piano and James Brown-like guitars to create a foundation on which Levine can obsess about beauty (including his own).

"[17] Jason Thompson of PopMatters noted that on the songs "This Love" and "Must Get Out", keyboardist Jesse Carmichael "manages to conjure up both the productions of Britney Spears and The New Radicals respectively".

It might make a foot tap, a head nod or even a booty shake if played at a loud volume.

"[19] In May 2004, musician John Mayer told Rolling Stone that he liked the band's album Songs About Jane.

[24] The track's Junior Vasquez Mixes remix topped the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.

[32] Directed by Sophie Muller, the video combines performance footage from the band in a courtyard built at Mack Sennett Studios and scenes of Adam Levine parting ways with a woman.

"[33] The music video also features Levine and his then-girlfriend, model Kelly McKee in a few intimate scenes.

The video used creative camera angles, in an effort to avoid action from the Federal Communications Commission for television broadcasts.

[33] Bass player Michael Madden, asked to comment on the video's reception, referred to the controversy as "an absurd over-reaction.