Soundtrack or a soloalbum?
Soundtrack or album? Well, these days at least Jon says he thinks of this album more as a soundtrack for a movie more than his own solo album. This album is however very controversial to what any Bon Jovi fan had expected. The past years every Jovi fan had gotten used to the big anthem rock with songs like "Livin' on a prayer", "Bad Medicine", "Lay your hands on me" and many more. This would surely shake up their world..
What I see in this album is that Jon really tried to show that he felt like he needed to do something else. It all started out with him meeting his friend Emilio Esteves and he invited him to the movieset of the movie "Young Guns II". As a side-note is that this is when Jon started gaining interest in the acting field. While Jon was watching Emilio act in this movie he got very inspired to write a little music about it, and a short time after that they wanted him to write the music for the entire movie.
When I listen to this album I'm often amazed by Jons different sides. He finally showed that he could do more than just write rock music. This is more laid-back, easy feel soft cowboy music. Very far from what Bon Jovi was all about, and part from Jon's motorcycle ride in the US backwaters this is what he needed to fuel up the process again.
I'm not actually going to do a song by song review this time, but just speak a little about some of the songs in short context. I think that when someone talks about this album I think that the song that first comes to mind must be "Blaze Of Glory", but for me it's not. The first song I think about is "Miracle" and definitely the song I like best on this album. Part of why I like this song the most actually has to do with the excellent video. What I find the undermeaning to be in that song/video is that all you need in life to be happy is good friendship. Cause the fact is, all the money in the world can't buy you happiness..
Another song I like a lot is the ballad "Santa Fe". It speaks of a man who tries to find a way of redemption for the wrong things he has done in life. And no matter what way he looks at it, he knows that it's too late for him..
This is very self-imaging album and when taking a deeper look into the lyrics as well as really listening to the music, you can hear that Jon is mostly just talking about himself in these songs. A very good album that you must learn to appreciate.. The only reason why this album doesn't get a 10-rating is that why put the orchestral piece "Guano City" on it? Not a good way to finish everything off. But despite that little intermezzo I really like this one..
Rating: 9/10
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