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...
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