THE BEST SONG: There's no question: Runaway is a Bon Jovi classic. It is far above all other material, for example it is the only song with decent lyrics and it's the only song that has stood the test of time. After Runaway, Get Ready and Roulette follow - they're both alright.

OVERALL: So how does the album fit together overall? Bon Jovi is a promising debut album. But it's full of flaws and naturally it's nowhere near on a par with the band's few great later albums.

Lyrically, musically, anyway you want to see it, the songs lack huge things. It would be a lie to say that the lyrics are even OK. Runaway has good lyrics that are actually about something, but apart from that one song the lyrics on this album are pretty awful. They are more than similar in all songs; the same vague mush in every song somehow distantly related to love and relationships. It's like all these lyrics are different sketches of some crappy Bryan Adams or REO Speedwagon song. The songs aren't particularly rocking. A few songs are though - and especially Breakout is an attempt towards a little heavier material - but mostly the album is very typical 1980s soft rock. It sounds much like an album of its time, and that it is not a compliment for this muzak.

But still, this is not an awful album. It has the stand-out track Runaway and some other good songs as well. Moreover, this is the band's first album. It would be thoughtless and unfair to criticize too strongly a debut album of a band that was formed only a short while before making the record. The band are naturally on their developmental stage - and even early on that. And that is also why I would not give any track on this album the "one-star" rating, although there are some rather terrible songs here. And probably the best thing about this album is to see the band in their starting point - where it all began. But I would never in a million years recommend this album for anyone else but the most devoted fans of Bon Jovi; for anyone else, there is nothing that this album has to offer.

All in all, it's a nice album: it's a promising debut, it has Runaway and some other good songs as well, and it is an interesting look at Bon Jovi at their beginning.


OVERALL SCORE: 11 OUT OF 20