Aloha !

It's hard to make it a 12 track album, because there simply aren't enough songs that are worth it being on the album. Because the album contains so many slow songs, the b-sides that are rockers are easily overrated, just because they've got many guitars and are a lot harder. However, those songs just aren't good and don't live up to the rockers on Bounce itself.

Standing is just a rip off from Lenny Kravitz' Dig In. Just listen to that song and then listen to Standing. It's just a rip off. Another Reason To Believe is nice, but too many 9/11 references which makes it outdated now. Plus, a chorus that goes "Say haleluja baby, rise up" sounds just silly. It's a shame that it's got those cons, because the melody is pretty nice, and it contains the only real guitar solo from the entire Bounce era. Alive is one of those overrated rockers as well, it sounds forced. It sounds a lot like "Let's make a real loud guitar song" but it doesn't sound like that at all.

If it's up to me, Bounce would never have been released. Too many directions but unsure of which one they should take, so they tried to put as many in one album as possible. That just doesn't work. Only the rock songs on the album are worth mentioning, the rest is just shite.

About the singles: Undivided is a great song, but again, because of the 9/11 lyrics it will probably never be played again. Plus it would only have been a great one off single in the States after the terror attacks. Something for charity. It's a good song for that. But if Bon Jovi would've released such a song as a single in the rest of the world, not many people would've taken them serious. It would be seen as 9/11 overkill, which happened with the songs that were released at that time for 9/11.

Bounce would've been a great single. That's all. Hook Me Up is a great track, but should be the album gem. Those are the only rock songs that are great, however, Bounce can not be played live because of all the effects. For the rest, there are no great tracks on it, though many people like the Creed sound alike song The Distance as well. But only Bounce would've worked. No other song.

Bounce is just a failed project, no matter how many times you look at it, or from what different angle. They've recorded about 30 songs, and not even 12 songs are good enough. That makes me wonder how many good songs we'll get on the next album. If they keep on writing songs like that, only the silly teenyboppers will be buying their albums.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan