Unfortunately, Jon’s voice is going to dictate the future of the band. If you don’t like what they’ve done post 2K, I don’t see it changing that much. The songs are written in a certain key. A safe key.

His voice used to be able to carry any song into brilliance. Prior to 97, there was no such thing as a bad Bon Jovi song. The Blaze album IMO is a perfect example. Just listen to songs like Sante Fe. It’s all Jon’s voice and great production. Listen to Bang a Drum and then the country version by Chris Delux. Is that even the same song? Jon’s voice on that album is so raw that even the imperfections make it perfect.

The magic question is, what makes a great song? Is it lyrics, production, catchy hook, vocals, the times itself?

If Bon Jovi want another big album, they will need to put the time in. They need to take their time recording it, stretch out Jon’s voice, rely on some technology, stop overproducing, and most important change their musical direction. I’d suggest go darker. Lyrically, they could remain optimistic but go darker in sound and production.

But it comes down to…..Does Jon want to put the time and money into any album if in his mind, it’s a “singles market” ? My guess is no, so we’ll continue to get repeat post 2k albums. He’s going to shoot for the big first single to drive the album and then overproduce the reaming tracks. He said Shanks is here to stay. I think with Shanks, they are cranking these albums out within a couple months which is wrong.

I love the solo idea of a lyric driven acoustic sound but I just hope Jon could pull it off. If this was 1995, I’d be counting down for this. I don’t care how good the lyrics are and what kind of hooks they throw in, if Jon comes across winey or nasally, it’s not going to work.