| Bon Jovi | 1984 |
| 7800 Fahrenheit | 1985 |
| Slippery When Wet | 1986 |
| New Jersey | 1988 |
| Keep The Faith | 1992 |
| Cross Road (compilation) | 1994 |
| These Days | 1995 |
| Crush | 2000 |
| One Wild Night (live) | 2001 |
| Bounce | 2002 |
When the radioactive explosion that was grunge killed off pop/hair metal in the early 90's, Bon Jovi were one of the few bands that managed to play the role of cockroaches and escape with their huge popularity relatively intact. And while many hard rock fans who cringe at this thought, claiming that the more 'talented' bands in the scene that kept the want for fun in commercial music were swept away, may have a point to an extent, it's pretty easy to see why this New Jersey outfit (hey, one of Jon's influences happens to be fellow Jersey dude Bruce Springsteen - what a coincidence! Not!) has managed to survive. Essentially, with the exception of Def Leppard, this group was the ultimate singles outfit in pop metal, creating accessible, but enduringly catchy, pop metal anthems that both hard rock fans and housewives could love.
Plus, unlike many of their contemporaries, they weren't entirely based on image alone. Sure, Jon's looks probably did contribute, but they also had a better sense of melody than many their contemporaries (at least, when it wasn't arena rock obnoxiousness like New Jersey), and the lyrics weren't always entirely cliched either - like I said, frontman Jon's main influence happens to be Springsteen, and he did allow that kind of lyrical storytelling into his songs on several occasions. And it also doesn't hurt that guitarist Richie Samoura was (or maybe even still is) one of the more tasteful players at his instrument, as his often bluesy style seems especially welcoming pretty often within the band's output. In fact, he's probably one of the more underrated axemen of the 80's.
The flaws of Bon Jovi, of course, are obvious. Like I said before, they are primarily a singles outfit, and aside from these songs the albums are often cluttered with generic filler (with maybe the rare exception of Keep The Faith), and as a result a few too many of their songs (even some of the hits) are way too much on the cheese, blatantly crowd-pleasing side for my liking. I mean, it's not a coincidence that a few bands have covered "Wanted Dead Or Alive" as a joke - it ain't like it's a serious musical statement or anything. But regardless of their status as very much a hugely popular, though very minor, band in rock history, I will say that these guys did have their virtues, no matter what some naysayers might think, even though I'm a bit skeptical of them myself. But some of it is good! I'm serious! On to the reviews to see just what.
--Nick Karn
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: Runaway. LOW POINTS: Love Lies, Shot Through The Heart, Come Back, Get Ready.
If you were to pick up an album that basically defines the concept of 'write a teriffic hit single and pad it with filler' and also shows us how bland mid 80's corporate rock can be when it tries, Bon Jovi's debut effort wouldn't be a bad place to start. Not that you would actually be insane enough to do something like that on this sort of recommendation, unless you're a crazy hair metal historian, but you get my point. Anyway, this thing showcases a band that hadn't hit their stride in making those big, irresistibly catchy arena rock anthems yet. True, most of these songs aren't particularly bad while they're playing, but if you're going to create a good album in this genre, if it's not both energetically produced and catchy, it's usually thoroughly disposable. And that's exactly what the album is - pleasant backing music, but completely devoid of any substance whatsoever (not unlike most Bon Jovi filler).
The one obvious exception would be the opening track "Runaway", a simply excellent single which could probably count as one of the early fusions of pop and the 80's metal vibe - listen to the way that distinct keyboard line and heavy guitar play off each other over social commentary lyrics that actually sound affecting for once. Catchy chorus, too. Unfortunately, it's a song that sounds like it should come near the end of the album, but since it was the hit, the record company probably felt the need to place it at the beginning, which is unfortunate, because no other tracks here can even hope to come close to the quality of that single. Sure, a couple of that try to recreate that exact same feel, but you know how pale clones like that are. If you don't, just listen to "Shot Through The Heart" and "Come Back". Now do you get it? Good, and if you're bored, don't say I didn't warn you.
Alright, "Roulette" is probably the only other song that has a sort of attractive hook, and even that one just screams out 'that's not something I ever want to hear again'. The other 'notably' memorable song here is, of course, the cover tune "She Don't Know Me", but this is really a sort of hollow sounding, fake pop song, and that melody is an obviously derivative, cliched one. "Love Lies", meanwhile, proves that a sound like this shouldn't mess with limp, slow tempos, as there's no feeling or life to it. "Burning For Love" and "Get Ready"? Don't these sound exactly like corporate rock songs you'd hear on the radio in the background working while at a restaurant in 1984? Like I said, this stuff isn't awful at all - the songs aren't unpleasant and offensive like on New Jersey or anything like that, but this is still an annoyingly formulaic album you should pass on, especially with its' one great song already on the hits compilation.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: None. LOW POINTS: King Of The Mountain, Only Lonely, Hardest Part Is The Night.
Ehh, they're not progressing too much here now, are they? Basically, this is Bon Jovi II, only without a terrific standout poppy track like "Runaway" and a more obnoxiously overblown vibe throughout. Apparently, the band was going through some rough times romantically, as quite a few of these songs are 'heartbreakingly personal' lost love songs, with overblown, overdramatic chord progressions and lyrics that could basically come from anyone. On the other hand, the melodies are a little bit better (though still not to the point where you'd actually be able to sing along with them or anything), there's nothing really offensively boring on here and there aren't songs that are clones of each other, so I think it's only fair that it gets a slightly higher 4 than its' predecessor. Not that it makes any sort of difference in the big picture, but I will say the potential of Slippery When Wet is more apparent here than before.
What song could I actually call a highlight on here, though? The opening lead single "In And Out Of Love" is theoretically the obvious choice - it's more memorable and catchy than anything else, but the arena simplicity and the dumb spoken middle section takes away from that effect. "Silent Night" is nice, too, as it has an excellent guitar solo in the middle (Richie Samboura's soloing is the only major strength on the album, actually - he's always been my favorite member!), but it's got a completely generic overblown symphonic feel to it, and part of the verse melody rips off the infinitely more substantial U2 classic "Bad" from the previous year. "Tokyo Road" has this neat Japanese-style lullaby opening to it, which is actually pretty haunting and captivating, but the rest of the song? It's just a plodding midtempo anthemic rocker that does absolutely nothing.
And the rest is pretty generic - assembly line fast rockers ("Price Of Love"), unmemorable dull ballads (the closing "Secret Dreams"), extremely pedestrian and obnoxious rocking chants ("King Of The Mountain"), a boring joint ripoff of "Love Lies" and "She Don't Know Me" (the just as mediocre "Only Lonely"), more totally faceless romantic stuff ("Hardest Part Is The Night"), unconvincing techno-ish keyboard soundscapes (the somewhat good by comparison "To The Fire", which might be the best song here, though maybe not), and uhh... "Always Run To You", the most substantial piece of music ever written in the history of mankind. Well how can you be sure of that until you actually hear the album? How?? Anyway, they'd get more focused and better on the next one, probably due in no small part to outside songwriting, though that's not saying much. Like the last one, this album's hardly awful or anything - there's just no reason for its' existence, even in Bon Jovi's own history.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: Livin' On A Prayer, Wild In The Streets, You Give Love A Bad Name. LOW POINTS: Without Love, I'd Die For You, Let It Rock.
And now we hit one of those 900 million selling pop metal albums of the mid 80's, and one of those potential 'flash in the pan' success stories in which a huge selling album makes a relatively unknown band household names. Of course, they were a relatively unknown band for a reason, but let's not get off the subject. Slippery When Wet was, to at least some extent, deservedly huge - especially when concerning 1986 quality commercial hard rock, the singles here have quite a good dose of catchiness, anthemic power, and big, fun production. Plus, Jon was kind of attractive to the women, eh? Not that the album is a particularly great representation of the era - essentially, it's a total singles record, padded with blatant filler and huge amounts of cheese, and it did serve as a prelude for more unpleasant things to come in this style, like Danger Danger. Now that is reason enough to hate this kind of stuff.
But to stop the complaining for awhile, there are actually at least three, maybe even four, songs on here that are "Runaway" quality or better. You might know "Livin' On A Prayer", a nice story song about about a couple desperate to make it out of their seemingly hopeless situation against all odds - I happen to think it's a very solid number musically and melodically - the vocal melody is irresistibly poppy, and I just have to tip my hat off to the cool bassline, wah-wah guitar, and keyboard lines thrown in. We've also got "You Give Love A Bad Name", a booming arena pop number that's just as catchy, one that showed these guys could hold their own with Def Leppard, the standard for which these type of songs are set. Speaking of arena pop, "Raise Your Hands" is certainly stupid in theory, but sometimes I just like to sing along with these crowd pleasing things, especially when the melody and guitar work is so fun.
Not that it's all too great, though - when we get to actual album tracks, only the closing "Wild In The Streets" (where the Springsteen element really sets in) is really a highlight, mostly because of its' awesome enthusiastic chorus and dramatic build. Elsewhere, there's a really stupid, obnoxious dinosaur plodder in "Let It Rock" (with an overdramatic organ intro to boot), an actual horn-filled number reminiscent of Aerosmith's direction a year later in "Social Disease" (a rather so-so groove), and three very ordinary, uninteresting ballads ("Never Say Goodbye" is at least a sort of acceptable prom number, but "Without Love" and "I'd Die For You"? Blah). And the final hit I didn't mention ("Wanted Dead Or Alive") was, fittingly, the biggest one here, an extremely cheesy cowboy tale only redeemed somewhat by its' solid melody and excellent guitar solo. In all, a decent album thanks to the hits (and the one surprisingly excellent album track), but once again, that's why it would be better to instead invest in Cross Road, unless you see this really cheap, which probably shouldn't be hard at all.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: Blood On Blood. LOW POINTS: Bad Medicine, Wild Is The Wind, I'll Be There For You.
Based on the quality of the singles and album tracks I'd heard, I expected to absolutely despise the sequel to Slippery When Wet (I also just noticed that Bon Jovi seem to really remake their albums in pairs), which led me to put off the review for a long while. And I listened to it a few times straight through and realized that it's not as bad as I remember it being - sure, it is a weaker remake of the last album, and not only that, it actually combines more generic arena rock than before (man, some of these hooks on here are just boneheadedly dumb) with Springsteen-esque pretentions that are just taken way, way too seriously at points, and sappy balladry. But yet when I actually judge the quality of the songs, the album still sucks, but it's not quite atrocious crap! The songs are all catchy and memorable (which is more than you can say for the first two albums), and most are at least listenable, which is the only thing saving this album from absolute disgust from me.
Quite a bit of the disgust I have, actually, comes from the hits this time around, whether it be "Bad Medicine" and its' extremely dumb Kiss-like crowd pleasing vibe with extremely stupid lyrics (plus I hate it when he goes 'wait a minute! I'm not done!' near the end of the song and repeats the entire chorus again), "I'll Be There For You" with its' astoundingly overdramatic and cliched lyrics that almost make "Every Rose Has Its' Thorn" look profound ('I'll be there for you, these five words I say to you, when you breathe I wanna be the air for you') and "Lay Your Hands On Me" with its' stupid booming drums and 'HEY!' chanting, repetitive song structure, overblown gospel vocals and Peter Gabriel ripoff melody. But there's still more cliched crap in the 'anthem' "Wild Is The Wind" (with more obvious melodies and lyrics) and catchy but still dumb stuff like the really straightforward 'na na na na na...' chanting in the strip mall rock of "Born To Be My Baby" and the Danger Danger by numbers (but better) of "99 In The Shade".
Most of the rest of the album, though, isn't that bad! After complaining about the Springsteen pretentions, which I do have to admit Jon does a good job with in general, my favorite of the album actually turns out to be the most like him (the slightly inferior but still mildly gripping "Wild In The Streets" rewrite "Blood On Blood", which has a nice anthemic melody and subtle piano touches, and doesn't have overblown backing vocals in it!). There's also passable ballads like the 'atmospheric' and generic, but mildly pleasant, "Living In Sin" (a minor hit), generic fast Van Halen rockers like "Homebound Train", and the off-the-cuff, entertaining acoustic closer "Love For Sale" (again, generic as hell, but also lighthearted and fun, and probably the second best song here), not to mention more 'we're taking this stuff really seriously' type of songs like "Stick To Your Guns" and the artsy vinyl effects intermission "Ride Cowboy Ride". In short, an overblown, overproduced, utterly cheesy burst of mediocrity... but yet salvaged by the hooks (which are all memorable, though to varying degrees of good memorable) and lack of material that really makes me sick. Still not good at all, though.
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COMMENTS
[email protected] (John Schlegel)
For starters, I'm definitely NOT a Bon Jovi fan, and it really irritates me how VH1 ballyhoos them to death. With that said, this is the one Jon Jovi album I heard a lot as a kid, and I don't actually think it's as bad as you do. Maybe Slippery When Wet blows it away, I don't know; not sure I've heard that album all the way through, and if I have, it's been over 10 years. Actually, I think it's been 10 years since I heard New Jersey all the way through as well. But as much as I dislike Bon Jovi, I think this album is decent for what it is. Most of it's almost unforgivably dumb, like you said -- "'99 in the Shade" and "I'll Be There for You" I find especially annoying. But even those loud, corny, '80s poodle-hair anthems like "Bad Medicine," "Born to Be My Baby" and "Lay Your Hands on Me," with all their generic melodies, knuckle-headed lyrics and embarrassing backing vocals, are still reasonably catchy. And it's a consistent album if you ask me; it has solid album tracks like "Stick to Your Guns," probably my favorite song on here. You've gotta be in the right mood for it, though, because MAAAAAAANNNN is this stoopid music!!! A guilty pleasure that isn't all that pleasurable, but good for hair metal, and not as boring as Bon Jovi's later output. 6/10.
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: Dry County, Fear, Keep The Faith. LOW POINTS: I Want You, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead.
After a four-year gap between the previous album (which saw extensive touring and the band just trying to get away from it all) and this one, Bon Jovi finally returned to the studio to make their more 'mature' fifth record. Predictably enough, it wasn't as much of a success in terms of commercial acceptance as before, but still a fairly substantial one by any standard. And it's good! After writing songs that might as well have been performed by any anonymous pop metal band on New Jersey, it's nice to see them actually put care into stuff like musical arrangement and non-generic, semi-interesting melody into stuff other than the singles. Not that it's a particularly earthshattering album, of course, but by Bon Jovi standards, this is the ultimate reachable songwriting peak! Their not-too-artsy pinnacle! Their listenable masterpiece! Rejoice! Can't you tell I'm really friggin' bored of reviewing these midrange bands?
Alright, enough of that - there are some genuinely solid, respectable compositions here. As far as the hits go, the title track is basically a more mature, not too overproduced, version of the more arena rock stuff they were doing before, with the main hook actually coming in the bassline (probably not played by Alec Jon Such, as it was around this time he seemed to have lost his actual, um, talent for reproducing his parts adequately in the studio and on stage) and nice piano part. Catchy, well written, tune. The mandatory piano ballad "Bed Of Roses" treads toward more serious territory in its' atmosphere, yet it's still pretty grounded in generic soft rock. I think it's a nice slowdance sort of number, but it's more like a pleasurable listen than anything of actual substance. And hey, neither one of them is actually the best on here! The bass-driven rocker "Fear" is a really kickass burst of catchy energy with a neat kind of night vibe. You can tell they're trying to go for something serious here, and it actually works.
Though not nearly as well as the grand Springsteen sort of statement in the nearly 10 minute "Dry County". Man, I would surely have guessed they'd have fallen flat on their faces here, but surprisingly, the construction of this thing is perfectly fine - nice 'piano ballad' opening, provocative storytelling in the lyrics that actually doesn't come off as cheesy, various melodies that build throughout, and best of all, a really, really great Richie Samboura guitar solo - if you want to get a great picture of what kind of talent this guy possessed, come here. And the song itself, if you ask me, is probably the big highlight of the album. Meanwhile, "If I Was Your Mother" successfully melds overdramatic violins with hard rock in a convincing poppy way, and "In These Arms" is honestly one of their likeable ballads, as it has some sort of epic sweep to it, and the melody doesn't come off as too cheesy for once. And "I Believe" is another solid anthemic tune that has enough vocal and melodic power to prevent it from being a tossoff.
As for the rest of the album, well, there's nothing else that much better than just decent (such as fun, but ultimately passable, midrange singalongs like "Woman In Love"), and there's really not enough solid material to justify an over hour long running time (cut this thing down to 40 minutes, though, and you've got yourself something quite, quite good), but of all the tracks, I count only two that I would count as obvious throwaways here. "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" is just a dumb sort of groove that just about any bar band could have written (I'll take the similar-styled "Blame It On The Love Of Rock And Roll" over it any day), and "I Want You" is basically a flat, generic ballad that doesn't do anything other than attempt to cater to the band's female audiences (even though the actual hook of it isn't bad). But hey, numerous flaws on Bon Jovi albums are a given - thankfully, this one's definitely the least flawed of their studio stuff, and certainly at least worth a listen if you come across it.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: Livin' On A Prayer, Runaway, Keep The Faith, You Give Love A Bad Name. LOW POINTS: Bad Medicine, I'll Be There For You.
Oh yes, a singles band like Bon Jovi was about due for a collection like this one, and Cross Road does indeed show that this band works much, much better in a compilation setting, where the stupid filler from the original albums is eliminated. Other than the hidden gems from the more album-oriented Keep The Faith (which I would also recommend if you find it so necessary to start a collection from this band, especially since it's almost impossible not to get cheap), this covers just about all the high points from their career up to this point. Whatever I might say about the quality and tastefulness of this band's music in general, I can't deny that they made some fantastic pop metal singles in their day, especially the songs I listed as high points here - it's hard for me not to resist singing along to "Livin' On A Prayer" and "Runaway", especially, cool songs that they are.
However, even though this non-chronological collection does cover a lot of the highs, there's some stuff here that's not really that great. I realize that they just had to include several songs from New Jersey, since it was a hugely popular album (probably their second most popular after Slippery When Wet), but I'm not a fan of any of these really brainless arena rock numbers (and in the case of "I'll Be There For You", beyond sappy ballads) here. Plus, "Wanted Dead Or Alive" and Jon's solo hit "Blaze Of Glory" proves just how stupid his little cowboy tales could be (though the latter one, I must admit, has a somewhat stirring chorus, and I already praised the former's guitar solo before). Nevertheless, the inclusion of these things almost makes me think that my rating here is a little high, but I'm sticking with it, just because, when you're taking into account the usefulness in relation to compilations from other bands and its' relevance to casual Bon Jovi listeners, it seems about right to me.
Oh, and for the dedicated fans (the few of you that may be out there), this also includes three new songs, none of which quite match up with the best of the hits in quality, but they're all good. The melodramatic ballad "Always" can get overly sappy at points, but the melody and epic sweep is well done enough that it's more enjoyable than not. Plus, the acoustic-flavored "Someday I'll Be Saturday Night" is a good introspective, slightly folksy, and undeniably catchy tune, and "Prayer '94" is a hauntingly moody remake (in a slowed down atmospheric way) of the original "Livin' On A Prayer" that works surprisingly well in contrasting the original, and in the context of the album. Speaking of that, although this compilation isn't in chronological order, this is one of those hits collections that really flows like a regular studio album in its' execution, and that adds to its' overall enjoyability despite the weaker inclusions. Hmm... maybe my rating isn't so high after all...
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: These Days, My Guitar Lies Bleeding In My Arms, Something For The Pain. LOW POINTS: Hey God, (It's Hard) Letting You Go, Diamond Ring.
Well, it looks like "Always" becoming a huge hit was a bit of a foreshadowing of things to come, because with this album, it appears that Bon Jovi have settled into the 'adult contemporary' role that many of their ballads aspired to. In a way, it's also a continuation of the mature styles explored by Keep The Faith - a few songs still have the epic-styled arrangements and rely on smartly crafted hooks instead of obvious arena rock bullshit, and there's also a hint of diversity, as they cover not only the usual pop, hard rock and Springsteen-esque epics, but also blues and world music, to name a couple areas. Ultimately, though, it doesn't cover this similar territory quite as successfully as before - sequels tend to get somewhat weaker, and this is no exception. Unlike the previous album, there's way more filler here than I would prefer, and most of these songs on this, again, over hour long album, don't really deserve to crack the 5 minute barrier, and it also gets excessively ballad heavy as it goes on.
It does have its' virtues, though - despite the album starting out on a decidedly unimpressive note with the thoroughly forgettable plodder "Hey God", there's a very nice stretch of songs on side one (three of them hits). Probably the biggest one commercially was "Something For The Pain", a lively Eastern-tinged pop rocker with a vintage Bon Jovi chewy hook-filled chorus and a very inventive music video to match, but the ballads "This Ain't A Love Song" and "Lie To Me", while undoubtedly wearing slightly thin after several listens, have nice, somewhat memorable yearning melodies, especially the latter song, which is at least on par with its' predecessor "Always" in epic scope, with a good majesty in its' chorus. And finally, the storysong title track proves that Bon Jovi are usually at their best when they pull off great working class epics like this - the lyrics are honestly very well-written and thoughtful in a bombastic way, and the vocal melody is equally as dramatic. Who knows, it could be the most emotionally resonant song Jon's ever written...
Unfortunately, a lot of the rest of the album kinda drifts off into nice, but fairly mediocre and safe, territory, but to be fair, it only really gets dull on extremely overwrought ballads like "(It's Hard) Letting You Go" (you don't even wanna know what kind of sillyness is contained in the lyrics here), dull slow blues bits like "Diamond Ring" and the non-descript but not bad rocker "Damned". But even the other filler is either saved by a catchy chorus ("If That's What It Takes") or is just nice to listen to while it's on ("Hearts Breaking Even"). And there's even one more big highlight I didn't mention in side two's best track, the awkwardly-titled but finely crafted epic "My Guitar Lies Bleeding In My Arms", another excellent showcase of how Richie Samboura's great soloing builds off Jon's typical melodrama. It's songs like those which make it difficult to dismiss Bon Jovi just yet, especially since, despite all the filler here, they can still write strong poppy material at their very best, as this album demonstrates.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: Just Older, It's My Life. LOW POINTS: Save The World, Thank You For Loving Me, One Wild Night.
Wow, it's been awhile since these guys have put out an album, hasn't it? And I suppose that, to remind listeners who they once were, they gave the lead single for this one, "It's My Life", a really similar feel to both the tempo and melody of, you guessed it, "Livin' On A Prayer". That obvious formulaic rehash may be indicative of the initial listening experience - at first, it sounds like an utterly boring, formulaic, predictable and pedestrian affair that's highly derivative of not only past successes but also their influences, which is true to a big extent. But what ultimately saves this album from being such an awful disaster is the very same thing that's saved them their whole career - a sense of very respectable and infectious hook writing, enough to the point where many of the songs are at least enjoyable to listen to. Sure it's not substantial in music history by any means, but what Bon Jovi album is, really?
The aforementioned lead single and opener, for instance, manages to transcend its' "Prayer" ripoff status on account that, musically, this song probably qualifies as the rawest and heaviest song they've written, and it does, in fact, have its' own unique verse melody. As does the fine anthem "Just Older", whose subject matter dealing with being content and thankful for your current situation, really resonates in its' refrain in an uplifting fashion. Uptempo rockers like "I Got The Girl" and "Say It Isn't So" also have solid hooks all their own (the latter more for its' guitar part), and even homages like the Bowie/glam rock inspired "Captain Crash And The Beauty Queen From Mars" and "Next 100 Years" (an overdramatic "Hey Jude" wanna be song, with horns and 'na na na' chanting and all) come off as semi-respectable, particularly the way the latter breaks away from that coda with a fast-paced ending guitar solo.
Unfortunately, I'm kinda damning this album with faint praise here, since none of these songs are really among the band's better ones, enjoyable as they might be, and there are a few outright stinkers. "Two Story Town" and especially the closing "One Wild Night" are pedestrian, tiresome rockers that we've already heard done a zillion times before (though at least the former is naggingly catchy), while "Thank You For Loving Me" and the truly embarassing social statement "Save The World" are overly cold, commercial ballads marred quite a lot by Jon's oversinging. Oh well - at least their other two 'mystery' ballads ("She's A Mystery", "Mystery Train") have an atmospheric, mildly memorable quality about them that prevent them from being dispensable. Regardless, I can't really give this album anything less than a high 5, mostly because of the fine hooks here, and you might enjoy it if you lower your expectations enough.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: Undivided, Misunderstood. LOW POINTS: Open All Night, Right Side Of Wrong, Bounce, All About Lovin' You.
Yeah, I know the album title's an obvious reference to the country's 'bounce' back from September 11th (not to mention there are lyrical references to that throughout), but I know I'm not the only one who thinks it's titled an awful lot like a rap album. In any case, I've heard this record being called among Bon Jovi's most consistent efforts and a rebound from Crush, but I can't really buy into that idea. I will give them this - they've finally figured out how to be more concise, as Bounce clocks in at 49 minutes (over 12 tracks) as opposed to the excessive hour-long marathons of the last few efforts. Plus, it's a very professional sounding record, the melodies are memorable, it has a touch of convincing heaviness, and Jon's figured out how to write material to suit his obviously declining voice. But on the other hand, I have a really annoying feeling with this album - that I've heard every single one of these melodies before, whether it's because of their generic nature, or even that they recall songs in their own catalog.
That isn't the only major flaw I have here, of course, but it is the one that prevents me from enjoying it anywhere near as much as I could. A couple examples would be "Everyday" (the lead single) and "Hook Me Up", almost prototypical optimistic rockers that end up sounding like a hybrid of everything in this style the band has done in the last 10 years. Another one would be the sweeping orchestrated epic "The Distance", whose ballad melody is just too familiar in the context of Bon Jovi's career to ignore, despite the nice sentiments (plus its' vibe and melody gets rewritten very obviously six tracks later in "Love Me Back To Life"). They even go as far to rip off "It's My Life" (which in itself ripped off "Livin' On A Prayer") on the totally lame title track, a tiresome, gimmicky number - the closest one to arena rock on here - where Jon seems to think it's funny censoring himself in the chorus. Plus "Right Side Of Wrong" recalls the balladeering style of Elton John and Billy Joel way too obviously in an overlong tale of some sort that I don't even care to describe.
Besides the boring sappy balladry in "All About Lovin' You" and especially the closer "Open All Night" (an area which the band seems to have fallen off most obviously), the rest of the album is decent, if hardly great. My favorite here is the opening "Undivided", which continues in the raw Crush vein to good effect, with well-versed lyrics on overcoming odds and such, the catchiest chorus on here, and a nice acoustic transition at the end, while the smoothly flowing introspective acoustic song "Misunderstood" (another pleasantly infectious gem) comes in at a close second. The first 'story song', "Joey", is also kinda endearing and decently written, and another acoustic number, "You Had Me From Hello" has a nice late period Clapton-ish tone to it. All of these melodies are very familiar, of course, though at least they're pleasantly so. But not when it comes to a whole album, as that same midrange tone to Bounce just gets on my nerves after awhile, even more so than Crush, so I rate it a bit lower.
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