1234. Bon Jovi / Bon Jovi. 1984. 2/5

The band Bon Jovi, like all bands throughout time, came together over a period of time and through the coming together of like minded people who were looking for the same thing – fame and fortune. Jon Bon Jovi, who started life as Jon Bongiovi, was no different, growing up and playing music as a teenager and being in several different school type bands along the way. Eventually by mid-1982 he was out of school and working part-time, and he also got a job at the Power Station Studios, a Manhattan recording facility where his cousin Tony Bongiovi was co-owner. Jon made several demos and sent them to record companies, without success. In 1983, Jon was convinced to allow his local radio station include the song "Runaway" on their compilation album of local homegrown talent. Though reluctant he eventually gave them the song, which he had re-recorded in 1982 (following a rough early recording in 1981) with local studio musicians. With airplay occurring it was picked up by other stations in major cities.
In March 1983, Bon Jovi called David Bryan, who had quit the band that they had founded together in high school in order to study medicine. While in college, he realized that he wanted to pursue music full-time, and was accepted to Juilliard School instead. When Jon called his friend and said that he was putting together a band, and that a record deal looked likely, Bryan followed Bon Jovi's lead and gave up his studies.
Bryan in turn called bassist Alec John Such and an experienced drummer named Tico Torres, both formerly of the band Phantom's Opera. Tapped to play lead guitar for a short tour supporting "Runaway" was Bon Jovi's friend and neighbour, Dave “The Snake” Sabo though he never officially joined the band. He and Jon promised each other that whoever made it first, would help out the other. Sabo later went on to form the group Skid Row. Instead Jon saw and was impressed with hometown guitarist Richie Sambora who was recommended by Such and Torres. And so the group came together, were signed to Mercury Records, and went in to the studio to write and record their debut album.

The album opens with “Runaway”, the song Jon had written some four years earlier and had been the reason that he had gotten his name out on the radio, and forged the way for the band to come into being. The version here is the one originally recorded in 1982 with only Jon himself from the now formed band actually playing. That seems to be an oversight, but there must have been a reason for this. “Roulette” can be considered the true start to the album, the one where Bon Jovi the band actually begins. It has the choruses backing vocals, and Richie Sambora’s guitar making its presence felt for the first time. Sure, it has the commercial attitude in there as well but it is a more solidly hard rock core to the track than the opener, whose key synth riff was its major musical base. This is followed by the god awful soft rock ballad “She Don’t Know Me” and is a big a disappointment as you would expect. I mean, it’s not even written by the band, it comes from Mark Avsec, and is the only song in the band’s catalogue that doesn’t have one of the band members as a writer. This is the song of a band who is looking for commercial airplay, not writing an album to give its new fan base an anthem to grab a hold of. Horrid, junky rubbish. A skip song if ever there was one.
“Shot Through the Heart” is the next song, and yes, there’s that keyboard riff again, almost the same one note for note that was used for the opening of “Runaway”. It follows a similar life span, though for me at least Richie’s solo saves the song. Then comes “Love Lies”. And ‘oh dear’ is very much the vogue saying here. It starts off just as you would expect, with the solo keyboard and Jon telling us his sad love story over the top. And it doesn’t get any better. Honestly, where’s that bloody skip button? This is another of that era’s radio click bait songs to draw in that small section of music listeners that they wanted. The end of the song is a relief. Oohhhh, there’s that keyboard synth start again in “Breakout”. You sometimes forget how important and overused this instrument was in 1983 and 1984, and it is very clear on listening to this album again. I’m only now remembering how little I have actually listened to this album, and the reasons why that is the case.
“Burning for Love” is next. The song titles are a dead giveaway for how this debut album is progressing really. This is stock standard for the album, following the same lines and lyrical content that has come before it. “Come Back” is, on the other hand, one of the better songs here, mostly for the tempo being in the right range, the vocals and lyrics in singalong mode and a little of that Sambora magic, but mostly the synth being the dominant ruler of the song again where more guitar would have been a better angle. “Get Ready” might just be the best song on the album. Faster paced, good beat, good vocals. The same downside exists with too much keys and not enough guitar, but at least the album concludes on the front foot.

Most of us in my age bracket had heard the single “Runaway” sometime around this time, as well as the main single from the follow up album. As to knowing this album existed, most of us, myself very much included, had no idea of its existence until the band’s third album came along and changed the world forever. It was the explosion of “Slippery When Wet” that eventually led to the question, “Wow, I wonder if Bon Jovi has any other albums?”, and then, at some time, the exploration of the answer to that question.
For me, I found both this album and “7800 Degrees Fahrenheit” at the same time, and had both recorded either side of a C90 cassette that occasionally got a listen. However, as I am sure most listeners would have worked out for themselves by now, the lack of love for just about everything done on this album pretty much always led me back to that aforementioned third studio album rather than messing around trying to find something laudable on this debut album. It really is a punish for the most part, unless you are a massive fan of this kind of song writing. Yes, it is tied to the music of its era, and it does merge into the music of that time – but it is missing some big pieces of what eventually turned the band into a super power. This is an album that is lifted by the vocals of Jon Bon Jovi, that are unarguably in fine fettle at this point of his career. They aren’t tested in their range like they are on future albums, but they still ring out fine. Richie Sambora on guitar shows glimpses of what he can do and when he does he lifts the songs that it occurs on. But there is not enough of it though, with the keys and synth being relied upon heavily to interact the songs, as was the way for the hair metal bands who utilised this instrument in their music. The development of Jon’s vocals, the greater influence of the bass and drums, and the arrival of Sambora’s guitar dominating songs, is what this first album lacks that makes their later albums great.
While I can say that having listened to this album a dozen times or more over the last couple of weeks it is what I would class as ‘listenable’, I rediscovered just why I don’t revisit this album very often, if at all. While I am of the opinion that it is probably more interesting than most of the recent releases of the band, you are best to ignore this if you want to listen to a Bon Jovi album and gain enjoyment from it.

1220. Bon Jovi / New Jersey. 1988. 3.5/5

By the end of 1987, everyone knew Bon Jovi, and most people also knew of the album “Slippery When Wet”, the band’s third album that had taken the world by storm over the past 12 months. You can check out the story of that album on the episode dedicated to it in Season 1 of this podcast. The album and the singles it had spawned had had commercial airplay for 14 months as the band toured the world in support of it, and once the tour finally concluded you would expect that the band would have been looking for a long rest.
Far from it, as it turned out. The story goes that after a month of the tour concluding, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora were back together again, and had begun collating new demos of songs for the next album. In all, 17 were put together over that period of time. As you could imagine, having had such an amazing run of success with their previous album, there was a measured amount of pressure on the band, and the main songwriters in particular, to try and match that success with the follow up album. The full stadiums, singing those anthems back at the band night after night, had left the band, and Bon Jovi himself, with the desire to again find that magic in the bottle, and be able to write songs that could match that atmosphere and once again bring that level of crowd involvement and love through. In interviews over the years about this album, Jon Bon Jovi admitted that for him at the time, there was a fear that he wouldn’t be able to write another song that matched “You Give Love a Bad Name”. He also spoke about how when he and Richie wrote a song in those initial demos, they were trying so hard to replicate the feeling of that song that they ended up coming up with the same chord progression, and had to set it aside as a result. Not long after, they began a second session of songwriting, this time including renown hit maker and previous collaborator Desmond Child into the mix, and it was during this period that they came up with songs that they felt were closer to the mark they were aiming for.
By the time it came for the recording process to begin, the band had a plethora of tracks to decide on, and in an increasingly differing number of styles as well. The final question to be answered during this studio time was exactly what direction did the band want to head with its music, and did they have the right material in hand in order to make that happen.

“New Jersey” goes in directions that “Slippery When Wet” didn’t go, and makes for a much different album, which given popular fan theory at the time suggested that they just used the same template from the previous album on this one is one at odds with what you hear on the vinyl. You could make that case for the main singles released from the album, but probably not the rest. The power ballad makes a more noticeable entrance to the mix of this album, as well as the dabbling into country rock as well which did become a bit of a fashion for them in the not-too-distant future.
The album opens with the money shots, the songs released as singles from the album to gain the maximum exposure the album could on both radio and music video shows such as MTV. “Lay Your Hands on Me” opens the album with the style you have come to know from the band, with solid rhythm and guitar and great chorused vocals to create the stadium atmosphere the band had come to garner. This is followed by their massive first single from the album “Bad Medicine”, which pushed the sales of this album with catchy vocal lines and on on-point music video that was played everywhere on constant rotation. Then comes the next single hard at you, “Born to Be My Baby”, giving the album the triple-threat to opening the album and have you rocking in style from the outset.
“Living in Sin” was the final single released from the album and is the full-blown ballad that was aimed at a certain sphere of the band’s audience. And while it may well be a fan favourite, it does very little for me, and indeed has the same effect that most ballads seem to do on albus, by halting the momentum of previous tracks and stalling the solid start. “Blood on Blood” is another one with Desmond Childs’s fingers all over it, but the keyboard dominated track only really seems to kick in the mid-section when Sambora’s guitar takes over and gives the song a bit of the power it really needed. Bon Jovi’s vocals soar impressively throughout which is the mainstay of the song. “Homebound Train” has more of Richie’s influence both in the solid guitar riff of the song as well as his solo spot, while mixing in interesting trade-offs between the keyboard and Jon on harmonica as well. Sambora is the star of this track though, getting an opportunity to truly show what he can do on the instrument. This is possibly my favourite song on the album, because it is so different from everything else here. It’s a beauty.
“Wild is the Wind” is caught somewhere between rock and power ballad, and for me the first instance of a country flavour to the music. The short and quiet “Ride Cowboy Ride” segues in to “Stick to Your Guns”, then next ballad track with acoustic guitar that again has a certain country flavour about it, one where you imagine being around a campfire playing it. Riding in on the back of this is “I’ll Be Tere for You”, the unashamedly second major ballad of the album, the third single released off the album, and one that still never fails to induce a gagging motion whenever I hear it. Sure, the big fans love it, and it sold millions, but honestly there are songs off the debut album that I like more than this, and that’s saying something.
“99 in the Shade” picks up the declining tempo and energy of the album and pulls it back in the right direction, before the closing track “Love for Sale” comes on. Now, honestly, this final track of the album, one that has acoustic guitar and harmonica and is basically a poor man’s country and western type of song, is the final straw for the second half of the album. After the excellence of the first side of the album, side B here is a disappointing average fare, lacking in the kind of energy that the band had been famous for to this point of their career. In listening to the back half of this album over the last few weeks, I’ve spent a lot of time pondering just what the endgame for this album was, given the apparent desire early on to be able to write a hit like they had several of on their previous album. Because I think all of the eggs went in the one basket, and the other was left empty.

I did not go out and immediately buy this album when it was released back in 1988. The lack of funds while at university was probably the main reason behind this, but I was also listening to different music at that time. I was however well aware of the album and especially the singles as they were released, and it was often on at friends' houses when I visited so I heard it often enough. I did have it taped on cassette from someone at some time, but it wasn’t an album I have dived into very often. In fact, it wasn’t until January this year that I found this on vinyl at Music Farmers in Wollongong, and I bought it. Because everyone should have a copy of this album, right?
There’s no doubt that this is a topflight album. It doesn’t copy the success of their previous album, and in fact there are a lot of people out there that prefer this to “Slippery When Wet”. The big difference for me between the two albums is the greater influence of the ballad and country infused songs on this album, and that’s what colours my opinion of this album over their previous release. I had my vinyl copy of “New Jersey” on my stereo at home several times in the lead up to this episode, and it still sounds great, and the atmosphere of those big songs are still as terrific as they were when the album was released. As a comparison, I then pulled out “Slippery When Wet” and put it on. And it blew it away. And that for me is the difference. “New Jersey” is still a good album and sound great. “Slippery When Wet” is iconic and has an attitude this album does not.
For me, as I intimated earlier, all of the energy of the album goes into the songs on the first half, and then the rest is a tired, lame collection of slower uninteresting tunes or shudder inducing ballads. Listening to this now on vinyl, I could happily just listen to the first side of the album and then place it back in its cover. And that probably has the purists shaking their fists at me.
I saw Bon Jovi live on the tour behind this album in Sydney, a live show that was as spectacular as you could imagine from the band at that time. They played almost every big song they had, and it was great... well, apart from “I’ll Be There For You”, but you knew that, didn’t you...

1122. Bon Jovi / Slippery When Wet. 1986. 4/5

By the time 1986 had come around, Bon Jovi had already been around for a few years, and had released two albums, the eponymous Bon Jovi released in 1984 and the follow up, 7800° Fahrenheit released in 1985. Both albums had been a moderate success and had managed to get themselves noticed by the, again, moderately successful singles, “Runaway” from the debut album and “In and Out of Love” from 7800° Fahrenheit. But the band was ambitious, and in their two main members, lead singer Jon Bon Jovi and guitarist Richie Sambora, they had a pair of song writers who had the ideas to get them there. But they decided that they needed some help to get them started on their next album if it was to achieve what they were hoping. They were looking for a more mainstream sound than they had had on their first two albums – though, from a personal perspective in this instance, what they were actually looking for was material that struck a chord rather than looking to be more commercial. So in putting together their new album, they made some, in retrospect, canny decisions. Bruce Fairbairn was brought in to produce the album, man who had already had success with Loverboy and Aerosmith, and would do so after this with bands such as AC/DC, Scorpions and Van Halen. Bob Rock, who would produce mega albums from bands such as Motley Crue and Metallica following this, was brought in to mix the album. And a phone call was made to the man known as “The Hit-Maker", Desmond Child, to help collaborate with Bon Jovi and Sambora on a few tracks to help them get the kind of sound and appeal that they were looking for. From all reports and interviews, the band put together something like 30 songs in the writing process, and eventually auditioned them to locals to judge which songs would eventually go on the album.Did hiring Desmond Child have an influence? Well, you would have to judge that for yourself I guess. Child co-wrote four songs on the album, the balladesque “Without Love” and rock ballad “I’d Die For You”, and also two other songs you may know, “You Give Love a Bad Name” and “Livin’ on a Prayer”. So yeah, I’d say he was worth whatever he got paid for helping out in the writing department.

Slippery When Wet became a template for the most commercially successful albums through the second half of the 1980’s, and one that most hair metal bands in particular tried to follow to replicate this album’s success. It is a combined selection of rock tracks and unashamed soft rock ballads, of harder songs that don’t always get the attention of the million selling singles, and of slower tempo tracks. Because of the mega success of the singles released from the album, many people don’t even know half of the songs on the album, even though they probably have a copy of it at home.

The timing of the release of the singles from the album kept Slippery When Wet and Bon Jovi in the music charts and on the stereos of people worldwide for an 18 month period from mid-1986 through to the end of 1987 and beyond. Four singles were released, each spaced roughly four months apart so as not to step on the toes of each other. You know them all, and you know the words to them all as well. “You Give Love a Bad Name” was brought out a few weeks prior to the album’s release and immediately caught on radio and MTV which set up the album’s release perfectly. This was followed by “Livin’ on a Prayer” which is the song everyone still knows Bon Jovi for. It is the anthem that never stops being sung anywhere in the world, by the young and the young at heart. We’re always halfway there. It stayed on rotation on music video shows for a year, and feels as though it has never left radio rotation for the last 35 years. Six months later came “Wanted Dead or Alive”, a completely different tempo song with the acoustic guitars which again caught the attention of the 16-30 years olds and made them swoon over Bon Jovi and Sambora all over again. And the fourth and final single was the rock ballad “Never Say Goodbye”, surely always tagged as being a single and one they would have hoped would be a winner. And it did well but given the amazing success of the album’s first three singles it was probably always on a hiding to nothing.
On the back of these singles, the album was a raging success. Both “You Give Love a Bad Name” and “Livin’ on a Prayer” went to number one around the world including the US and Australia, while “Wanted Dead or Alive” reached top ten. This meant that Slippery When Wet became to the first album of the metal genre to have three top ten singles on it.

But an album can’t be considered great on the singles alone, and as much as I enjoy those three main singles released from the album, they aren’t what just makes this album terrific – because if you were only putting the album on for those songs you would eventually be sorely disappointed. You have to take a look at the rest of the contributors to realise what makes this album so special. The opening blast of “Let it Rock” actually is the perfect set up for the album, the mid-tempo anthemic chanting draws you in from the start, making you feel a part of the crowd and the experience itself. Once the two multi-million selling singles follow this you have “Social Disease” which is just as important in the scheme of the album and not far behind them regarding great Bon Jovi songs. “Raise Your Hands” is probably still my favourite song from the album, it is the hardest track on the album as far as I’m concerned, and in regard to getting the blood pumping it is the winner here.
For the lovers of the soft rock ballads, the back half of the album is where they are hiding, and if you enjoy that part of the genre then this is the money shot for you. “Without Love” is very much in this category, for me a little whiny on vocals. “I’d Die For You” harks back to the early Bon Jovi years, and indeed reminds me constantly of their first single “Runaway” such is the dominance of the keyboards here. Then the final single “Never Say Goodbye”, where the band goes into full-on soft ballad mode. The album is then concluded by the hard rocking “Wild in the Streets”, concluding the album the way it started on a positive note.

The album spanned musical tastes and the generations. Radio listeners loved it, pop fans loved it, rock fans loved it, metal fans loved it. The album was loved by primary school kids and adults from 20 to 50. Everyone could find something on here to their musical taste, and once the album had that in, it was able to drag them into enjoying the rest of it.
On the other side of the coin, I doubt that the album has the same impact on those that didn’t grow up with it at the time of its release. It’s popularity today is based more on the blanket warmth of memories that it inspires rather than the relevance and timelessness of the songs the album produced. Many from the following generations indeed appear bemused when this album is brought up in conversation as one of the great albums, and you can see why that would be. Not only have parts of this album dated over time, anchored to the decade that it was written and recorded, Bon Jovi’s recession into an almost easy-listening act in recent times does nothing when trying to articulate just how huge and important this album was back when it was released. Perhaps today, on the 35th anniversary of its release, it is a day for reflection on that. Because in its time it was an album that almost every music fan of every genre of music owned a copy of. And that more than anything else showed its importance of its age.

Rating:  "Oooohhhh, we're halfway there..."  4/5

646. Bon Jovi / What About Now. 2013. 1.5/5

Wow... is this The Eagles for the 2010's?! What in the hell have we got here? Because from the opening bars of the opening track "Because We Can", this is a very uninspiring and bland as cardboard effort.

Bon Jovi can take a convoy-load of credits from their albums such as Slippery When Wet and New Jersey and even Keep the Faith. Those albums got them fans for life when they were released, they were that special. 
But they were real hard rock albums, the kind that got your blood pumping (still do actually). There is none of that left here. It has all been scrubbed clean with a metal wire brush, and all we have left is a very pop, ballad-like, almost country collection of songs that may not be dripping in sugar like the stuff that Def Leppard currently call music, but they aren't really that far off. The steel and acoustic guitars are in prominance here, and the drums just plod along to give Jon something to keep his lyrics timed by. There is no up-tempo tunes at all. In fact, the meandering pace of the album almost seems to stretch through every song, making this the longest ballad ever recorded. Where the hell has the Richie Sambora shredding gone? There is precious little of that to be heard here.
This is the kind of stuff that the 'easy listening' radio stations play. You know those stations, they are the ones that if you happen to come across them when you are tuning the radio in the car, you press SEEK as quickly as possible to get away from them!

OK, so a band and its members do not have to continue in the same vein or style for their entire careers, especially if they have enough money that they don't have to sell albums to make a living. And they are not the only band in the word to move away from the style and genre of music that made them famous. But even given their recent efforts, this is a real departure for the band. If not for Jon's vocals, this album would really be unrecognisable as a Bon Jovi album to me.
Having said all that, I guess there is little doubt that all of the... shall we say... mature... women of the world will be taken in by this, and conitue to fawn over the lead vocalist as they always have. Those that first discovered him in their teens and twenties are now in their forties and fifties, and this will most probably be right up their alley.

For me though... What About Now?... no more thank you...

611. Bon Jovi / 7800° Fahrenheit. 1985. 2/5

While the band had had inauspicious beginnings at a time when the marketplace was beginning to be flooded by bands that were going for the same sound and look that Bon Jovi was hoping to crack into, the hard work of the band and their manager Doc McGhee had brought them to the attention of Derek Schulman, leading to them being signed by Mercury Records. From here they had recorded their debut album, the eponymously titled “Bon Jovi”, and on the back of the top 40 single “Runaway” the album reached #43 on the US charts. This also led to the band getting some prime opening concert slots for some of the biggest bands of the day, including opening for Scorpions on their US tour and then for Kiss on their European tour through 1984.
After this, they returned to the studio in January of 1985 to start writing and recording the follow up to that debut album. And though the process took just six weeks, it appears that not everything was working as harmoniously as it could have. The album was produced by Lance Quinn, who had co-produced the debut album with Jon Bon Jovi’s cousin Ton Bongiovi. This album, on his own, seemed to cause some ructions within the group. On the release of the band’s next album, “Slippery When Wet”, Jon Bon Jovi was quoted in an interview as saying "All of us were going through tough times on a personal level, and the strain told on the music we produced. It wasn't a pleasant experience... Lance Quinn wasn't the man for us, and that added to the feeling that we were going about it badly. None of us want to live in that mental state ever again. We've put the record behind us, and moved on." He also added in another interview years later in 2007 that "I always overlook the second album. Always have, always will. We had no time to make it and we didn't know who we were... We did whatever producer Lance Quinn said. He was a brilliant guitarist and had made records with Talking Heads, so you listened."
Apart from this, the pressure on the band to follow up their debut album, as well looking to make a big impression on the music scene at the time, would have added to the tensions within the group and in the studio. The band’s style of glam hard rock and hair metal had found a footing especially in the US, and they would have been aware of trying to strike while the iron was hot. The end result of all of this was their album coming out within just two months of the start of recording, and the release of “7800° Fahrenheit”, a name that apparently references the melting point of rock. Could the album live up to the title?

The best way to attack a new album and capture the markets attention is to have a bouncy pop rock song that has all of the attributes required to get played on the radio and then drag in the audience from that point. And that is what “In and Out of Love” is, with Jon’s bright vocal call followed by the punchy chorus with singalong backing vocals, and replete with conversational lyrics in between, and then Richie Sambora’s guitar solo to top it all off. It’s the perfect opening track to this album. “The Price of Love” changes things up immediately, musically at least. This isn’t an anthem so much as a hyped-up rock ballad, looking to hit all the right heart strings to gain a song that draws the right fan group to the band. This goes into overdrive on the actual power ballad that follows, “Only Lonely” which has Jon’s vocals changing to the style required for such a journey, and the music softening with more emphasis on the keys and the chorused backing vocals. In the space of three songs, the album has gone from teenage rock groupies anthem through the delving deeper to a rock ballad into the actual rock ballad. It’s quite a journey to be faced with in the opening third of the album.
“King of the Mountain” climbs its way back into look for an anthemic tome, the almost chant like rendition of “Oh - King of the mountain!” looking for fists raised in rhythm with the drumbeat. It struggles to retain the energy of the opening couple of tracks but settles into the volume of the album.
Then we are back with the second power ballad of the album in quick succession with “Silent Night”, a real honest to goodness dive into the depth of that style of song. The tempo slows, Jon draws out his honeyed emoting vocals, the acoustic guitar and keys come out and even Richie’s solo mirrors the style of the gerne of the track. Through to this point of the album, classifying this as having anything to do with hard rock would be a slight error in judgement.
A bit of energy and enthusiasm creeps back in with the arrival of “Tokyo Road”, a more enthusiastic guitar riff and determined vocal line, still supported by the chorused vocals through those lines. Jon actually sounds like he is invested in his singing at moments through this song which isn’t always the case on this album. Even so, the child’s toy like tinkling at the start of the track and the breakdown in the middle of the song does tend to halt the momentum that builds within it. This is followed by “The Hardest Part is the Night”, and if Roxette didn’t have this song as the inspiration to their track “Listen to Your Heart” then I am a very bad judge. That song however possesses more energy and inspiration that this from Bon Jovi does. It follows a trend of the album, that really tends to reside in the 1980’s soft rock category of song than any pretence at hair metal or even harder forms of music. And none of the band members are extending themselves here. Everything seems to be comfortably set between the bookends without any danger of pushing them over to see what might be beyond that barrier.
“Always Run to You” settles into its mid-tempo from the outset, its mid-range riff and mid-sized vocals, finds its rhythm and clicks along until the end of the track. Richie’s solo break offers the only point of difference in the whole song. “(I Don't Wanna Fall) To the Fire” really ramps up the synth from the outset, which offers something different from this set of tracks through the middle of the album. It doesn’t last forever however, with the song caught in a loop by the middle of the track of lyric repeating and synth overload. “Secret Dreams” is the concluding song on the album, doubling down on the keys and synths here in a way that is heavily anchored to this era of music. Listening to this song makes you think you are watching a teen movie from the mid-1980's and this is the soundtrack. Because this is how all of those songs sounded in those movies. The soundtrack of the era, which is immediately noticeable and for the most part immediately shunned.

For those of us who were busy growing up in the 1980's, at least those of us that I was in the process of growing up with, this album passed under most of our noses. Sure, there was the catchy opening song "In and Out of Love" which most of us caught on the radio at some stage, but it was not an album or band that was on our radar. I know I didn’t become aware of Bon Jovi the band until their following album was released, and both it and the singles released from it caught the imagination of the whole world. And after it did, it was only then that I went back to find and listen to this album.
To be honest, that is probably this album's biggest problem. Because to go backwards after listening to “Slippery When Wet” and experience this album is a tough sell, even back in 1987 when it was still relatively new. The opening track is tolerable, and even into “Price of Love” is fine, thou9gh it does help if you are drinking or at a party while doing so. But once the very VERY 1980's keyboard and synth beginning of "Only Lonely" starts , you very quickly get brought back to reality. This song brings the truth to the equation, that this album is firmly anchored to the time by its very production and instrumental arrangement, let alone the background gang vocal chorus on most songs. Truly, this song is one that you expect to see cheesy bands playing at high school proms in bad teenage films from the mid-1980's. That’s the level we are at. And it doesn't really get much better. The synth at the start of "Silent Night" kills the song before it starts, not that it could have saved this soft ballad trash. And again, the start of "Hardest Part is the Night". Wow. So very very very 1980's soft metal. Tragic. Then the start of "(I Don't Wanna Fall) To the Fire". More of the same. Does it stop?!? No. Literally it doesn’t.
This really is quite an amazing album. Every trick that was being used in recording music in 1985 can be found on this album - overuse of synths and keyboards, terribly weak and doused-out backing vocals, a complete lack of real guitar strength, and Bon Jovi's lead vocals at almost a monotone level. In 1985 the hair metal scene was being dominated by Motley Crue, Ratt and W.A.S.P, and Poison and LA Guns weren’t far away. And they were all doing it better and harder than this. It was a lesson that Bon Jovi soon learned and rectified quickly. And it isn’t hard to understand why the band has written this album off when it comes to their live set lists and their discography in general. Because of everything I’ve pointed out here. It just isn’t great. To be honest, if someone in the modern day picked up this album, having never heard it before, and listened to it and got past the first couple of songs without already feeling as though they should turn it off, I’d be very surprised.
It is funny listening back to this album, especially when you think about the direction the band took in the 1990’s. Because the basis behind that music can be found on this album. “Silent Night” is the template for the power ballads the band produced after their hard rock albums of “Slippery When Wet” and “New Jersey” had succeeded and they were looking to write material for their next genesis. It is no wonder this album sold so many copies once they brought out “Keep the Faith” and further on than that, because they are very much based on what was being produced here.
I have spent the past week indulging myself once again in this album, and it has been a punish. It was one that I review for my blog some years ago and I found the same roadblocks to stumble over this time as I did back then. In the main, this is an uninspiring set of songs set in concrete of the era they were released and with no hope of revitalisation. And though I have not done a definitive ranking of Bon Jovi albums, this doesn’t make the top four but could well be a chance again the albums of the modern era, which are just as disappointing. The good news for now is, at least I can move onto something more entertaining to listen to than this. Practically everything.

197. Bon Jovi / Crush. 2000. 2/5.

After a brilliant start, this album really is a let down. Which is a shame.

Bon Jovi, when they are at their best, really mix rockers and ballads well. Here on Crush, they have gone a long way overboard. Most of the songs here are slow, reflective love songs, aimed squarely at the hearts of women between the age of 16-40.

This is a real shame. It's My Life is one of my favourite Bon Jovi songs of all time, and was an extremely successful single for them in this country. And yet it is the only song of its type on the album. Strange and disappointing.

Rating : Certainly should have been better. 2/5.

195. Bon Jovi / Cross Road. 1994. 4.5/5.

This is Bon Jovi's best-of album, and as such it contains all of their great hits as at the time of its release.
Along with that, of course, are great memories.

To me, you could almost have packaged Slippery When Wet and New Jersey together and you would have had the best of. The addition of Blaze Of Glory, which is Jon Bon Jovi solo track from the movie Young Guns is a little strange, but I guess when you are on a good thing, actual band or solo release can be successfully blurred.

Rating : So OK, why not full marks? Well, best-of or not-best-of, there are a couple of tracks here that I just do not enjoy. So you can't give it 100% can you? 4.5/5.

150. Bon Jovi / Bounce. 2002. 3.5/5

You've got to be impressed with Bon Jovi's ability to survive in their market, and yet continue to make diverse albums without alienating their fan base. It is remarkable that this band is enjoyed and followed by teeny-boppers, rock fans and metal heads – three different genres of music listeners, and yet bodies of each love Bon Jovi.

Bounce is another excellent mix of their rock headbanging tunes and their rock ballad tunes. It takes some talent to be able to write both types of songs, and mix them into the same album without losing the feel for the whole disc. Bon Jovi have been doing it for years, but not always as successfully as I think they have done it here.
My favourites here are Undivided, Everyday, Hook Me Up and Bounce.

Rating : Another easy album to listen to. 3.5/5