King Of The Mountain – Just when you think you’ve got the album figured, along comes the bass and drum intro to this song with a funky guitar riff to match, and what you have is Bon Jovi’s first attempt at funk-rock. Musically the particularly striking thing is that, aside from the aforementioned riff and an inventive guitar solo, the driving instrument on this song is actually the drum, with fills all over the place. The call to arms to the downtrodden theme is far from one that the band is unfamiliar with, but this is the first time they really tried it out, and it seems oddly over-earnest and out of place here; the song seemingly trying to be both meaningful and fun, but mainly coming across as a bit awkward. What also doesn’t help is that the production on this song seems to be even worse than on the previous songs, especially on Jon’s vocals; as ever he puts in a fine performance but is left sounding rather flat. It’s not a bad song by any means, but is something of a “culture shock” … the poor production and attempt to experiment in two different directions at once coming off a bit overbearing.

2+/5