BOUNCE - under-rated

there are so few albums from any artist that i listen to all the way through. keep the faith has some absolute gash on it.

slippery-social disease.

a true masterpiece of the genre is Poison-FLESH AND BLOOD.

not a bad song on it. amazing!

It's my least favourite album of theirs. It has some songs I like on it Undivided and the Distance are pretty good. I do enjoy a couple of the other songs as well.

I think some of the songs that didn't make it on that album should of.

It seems to be influenced by Ally Mcbeal - was Jon doing that around that time? I got a feeling some of the love songs were from and influenced by that.

I don't like Joey its bit nails on chalkboard for me that one.

Kat

I haven't listened to Bounce all the way through in ages. For me, it's an album that has very definite ups and downs, and thus I can either consider it a more enjoyable or a less enjoyable listen depending on what stands out to me most at that particular time. First time I listened to it, I thought it was my new favourite BJ album. Pretty quickly I realised it wasn't, but I still called it my favourite post-2000 album. Now oddly, years later Crush is beginning to grow on me, and I realise how much more I play HAND ... and I'm no longer sure.

Good points:
- Without a doubt, the best thing about the album is how experimental it is. There's a sense of fearlessness of the mixture of the heavy hard hitting songs, the more epic yet still heavy songs, the epic ballads, and the mellow ballads (and if you count the b-sides, the Crush-eaque pop songs and the more laid back semi-acoustic pop-rock). It does make it a tad schizophrenic, but in comparison HAND sounds positively safe and pederstrian
- I actually like the effects on most songs, I know a lot of people don't like them, but I think they help to flesh out songs like Everyday and Bounce. Plus, the slow down on the guitar solo on Love Me Back To Life and the noises in Hook Me Up are cool
- The album opens really well IMO, the one-two-three punch of Undivided-Everyday-The Distance and then into Joey really works
- The heavier guitar, probably the real defining point of the album, helps to set it apart from Crush well

Bad points:
- The production. Mainly the fact that it is too murky, muffled and dense. With a better producer it could have been better.
- The songs are, in general, far too short. 7 / 12 songs that are less than 4 minutes, and only one at more than 5 minutes? Oh, for the days of Keep The Faith ...
- The shizophrenia in the second half gets a bit much. Alternating ballads and harder songs does not make for a good flow.
- A lot of the songs are a bit poppy, simplistic, "by the numbers"

Things that are both good and bad:
- Misunderstood. Good pop song, but doesn't fit the album at all. Clearly on there just to be released as a single.
- All About Loving You. Again, not a bad song, but pales humongously in comparison to past BJ ballads.

From what I remember, Open All Night is influenced by Ally Mcbeal

Yep, Jon admitted to writing that one with the Ally character in mind.

deb

Ahh thanks, I thought so just couldn't remember which song it was.

I am just listening to the album and there are some good songs on it. I do really like it. I just never crave to play the album or need those songs for some reason. All the other albums I am always wanting to hear the songs.

Kat

you jest right? ley it play, and that awful blues song. it is poisons best album but its not all good.



Quote:
Originally Posted by p34semm
Explain?
Undivided,

Undivided = good rock song with dated lyrics. Unless you just lost your family in an earth quake or in the 9/11 tragedy, the verses mean shit to you. That was my brother lost in the rouble? [/HTML]

i have to say - this is the strangest thing i have ever read?
do you not like Hey God for an example? unless you have "son born into the ghetto in 1991" then this song surley means shit to you?

Aloha !

No, you're wrong. There's a difference between "she's a working single mom" and "that was my brother".

The first situation is a singer describing a situation many people have heard of, and are aware of. The second situation is a singer singing about his brother or someone else he knew who died in the 9/11 tragedy.

The entire "United we stand" thing that was going on at the time in America was not something that the entire world felt. It was something that was going on in America, and Undivided is the song that describes it the most. Therefore, the lyrics would be alright for someone who directly or indirectly be involved into the tragedy. Otherwise, it means shit to you.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

That's kind of a ridiculous statement because the situation with 9/11 is something everyone has heard of and is aware of....

If you have any human empathy at all, you should be able to relate to it - if not to that particular situation, certainly anything that makes you want to stand up and be counted with others.

However, lyrically I don't think Undivided is the best song. As someone else said, Bruce Springsteen on The Rising certainly captures the mood of the moment much better than Undivided does. In fact, the lyrics to a whole host of other Jovi songs would fit the situation better than that one does.

The whole Bounce being a post 9/11 album thing is a bit of a myth I think. They had the album half written when 9/11 happened. I think they took some of the songs they already had and in some cases tried to mould them to fit this new subject, which is why I reckon it sounds like a botched together effort with no flow. It's like an album with 2 halves.

What sort of experiments, out of interest, would you suggest Bon Jovi do without alienating their entire fanbase (although, obviously the jury is out on whether Bounce did just that). A number of the songs on Bounce sound unlike anything the band had recorded before, and while subject matter might have been similar, I'm talking experimental in terms of sound. They'd never done anything that springs to my mind quite as piano-heavy as Joey, or quite like Undivided or Hook Me Up or The Distance etc