Best produced album?

These Days has my vote as well.

Always and Saturday Night are well produced too, but they still sort of sound like "early 90s" (Aerosmith-style), whereas with These Days I think most people wouldn't have a clue where it came from. Because it's timeless. I know music being timeless is a cliche that Jon always tries to achieve, but in terms of the actual sound and instruments, it is still the most fresh-sounding Bon Jovi music out there. And that's what good production is to me personally. Other albums have good-to-great songs, but they all do sound like they're from certain era. Except for These Days.

Everything up until and including Have A Nice Day. I think they started to get stale after that and played it too safe by keeping the same producer. Previously to John Shanks the band had never used a producer for more than two records which I think kept them sounding fresh and more creative. Personally I think Bon Jovi may do better creatively if all of them sat in a room and wrote and played together rather than the current process where David, Tico and Hugh come in for a couple of days recording. Probably the best album is Richie's Aftermath of the Lowdown due to its freshness and rawness.