Could Bon Jovi do it anymore?

Right.

BUT-the band isn't even evolving anymore (it would appear)! Crush was what it was, and everything since has been a rehash of that. So they've made more Crush-esque albums than SWW-esque ones now. I agree that we should try to evolve with the band, but you can only do that it the band keeps evolving, and preferably in a way other than to keep in the market.

What albums have you listened to? Other than It's My Life-Everyday-Have A Nice Day (as single tracks) I don't think that Crush, Bounce or Have A Nice Day do sound much alike at all.

Well, you're right, Bounce did have a different-ish sound to it. BUT-songs like You Had Me From Hello sound just like songs from Crush, and songs like say One Last Cigarette (which I by the way like) have the same basic sound as say Captain Crash.

I suppose it's down to personal opinion, I don't think there's really many similarities like that across the 3 albums.

Yah. If by Last Cigarette sounding like Captain Crash, you mean it's a fun song, then yah! It's the same formula for, say, 99 in the shade. It's all opinion. In my mind, the band aren't as creative as they were in the 90's but CERTIANLY better writing than they were in the 80's. Maybe not so much musically, but lyrically. Everyone should just rely on their own ears, I think, and not speak for others. Meh.

Yep, I was going to say the same thing. I don't think the 3 records are really similar at all. Yes, IML, Everyday, HAND have somewhat of a similar theme but beyond that, like them or not, the records are quite different.

deb

I guess the bottom line is -

From the 80s to the 90s up until These Days, the band were maturing.

Crush saw a massive backwards step in their lyrics and songwriting in general. They immatured their songs to fit the teeny pop era better.

i wouldnt call it holding back, more like looking at it in a different light

lets take novocaine for example, they could hvae easily rocked that one up a level or two but chose not to and take a different perspective, yet novocaine is still slightly rock to me it aint a full blown guitar blazing song which i thought it would be when i first read the lyrics

You also have to consider that rock music in the 90s was more "serious" - the 90s was the big time of "alternative rock", and TD has a lot of undertones of that (they even tried to do a grunge song with "Prostitute!"). So lets not all "blame" it on maturing. IML definitely had a boy-bandish sound to it, that was 2000. In 2006, "Unbreakable" only made it to b-side status.

Apart from that... I Could Make A Living Out Of Loving You, One Wild Night, Undivided, Hook Me Up, Alive, Dirty Little Secret and Last Man Standing are all hard rock songs. One is pretty poppy (OWN) and one sucks (Alive), but still, they're hard rock songs.

About "not being able to write a rock song anymore": Of course you can lose "it" - "it" being the need to write one. If you don't feel like writing one, you can stil force it, but it won't really be convincing. All of the songs listed above had co-writers. Sad but true.

A complete coincidence. I dont think it's fair to insinuate the only reason they rocked was because the co-writer had a hand in MAKING it rock. A good chunk of those were co-written by Desmond Child and Billy Falcon, neither really known for writing giant rock songs, Mr.Falcon especially.

The rest, I do agree with.