Bounce - not convincing

Well I must say what a good discussion. Personally I like the heavier songs on this album more the ballads. I generally love the ballads, but not tooo hot on these ones this time, but having said that no doubt the ballads will grow on me over time. The guitar riffs on some of the songs like Undivided and Bounce are just awesome.

Bon Jovi = hardrock??

You gotta be kiddin' me.
I think I will have to agree with littlebitofsoul, they've never really been in that category IMO.

At least in my country, Bon Jovi are listed under hard rock in every store that sells cd's. And have you heard the first two albums?

Hm... On my copy of Bounce are only 3 ballads.

Yes I have heard the first two albums. I think it's kinda hard to define what hardrock is.
Maybe some songs can be called hardrock but I think Bon Jovi albums as a whole are rock

I've played Bounce a couple of times now, and to be honest it's too much like Crush for my liking. Yes, Bounce is a fantastic song, Undivided, The Distance and Misunderstood are all really good as well, but too much of the album is paint by numbers chart fodder which, I'm sad to say, just passed me by. I'm listening to These Days at the moment, which IMHO is far and away BJ's best album and it's like listening to a different band. These Days is a proper, grown up, rock album worthy of any band of the last ten years, while Bounce, it's one or two exceptional moments apart could almost have been written by anyone.

Does anyone think Jon and Richies decision to bring in different songwriting partners is responsible for this?

I worry that Jon and Richie seem to have lost confidence in their ability to write a contemporary tune on their own. If this is the case, then it's a massive shame as Bon Jovi are still one of the best rock bands around...

I don't really like the fact that they bring in different songwriters more and more. The only songwriter that would pop up frequently on the older albums was Desmond Child and he's great.
Songs written by Jon, Richie, Desmond and David. That's what I like to see, not too many collaborations.

You're right about These Days but I have the feeling 'Bounce' will do better than TD.

The album sounds awesome. It's my favorite.

THERE ARE ONLY THREE BALLADS. THE GUYS SAID SO THEMSELVES.. GET THAT THROUGH YOUR THICK HEADS.. Jeeeez.

Bon Jovi are a modern rock band. (Which, I mean, they are are just a regular rock band with some mellow songs and MOSTLY harder songs..)

You people are way too negative. "I don't like this.. I don't like that.. This is the worst album.. This album sucks.." and blah blah blah blah. I'm starting to hate this board.

Captain Crash, your right!
Bounce is a great mic of upbeat (not real hard rock) - mix tempo - and ballads (5/6, well I would say 3 and they are different from previous!)
BJ never produced an all around hard rock album. In my opinion Bounce is the best since NJ - emotional and a great story telling - which I missed since NJ. TD had good story telling but was much too slow and depressiv in my opinion. Crush was much too popish, emotionless and had poor lyrics.
Bounce is what all long time BJ fans love about their music: great mix of rock and emotion with great story telling!
Welcome back to Bon Jovi!

You don't know what the "outsiders" contributed. Think about the case of It's My Life and Max Martin... he didn't really write the song, but made a contribution. You know Jon is VERY careful about writing credits. He'd rather credit someone and let them get money than risk being sued over it. As he's said... if someone is in the room with him when he writes, he gets a credit whether he contributes or not.

Becky