Have A Nice Day (the album)

Complicated is a steaming pile of turd

'I Want To Be Loved' is stunning, in my opinion.

I used to hate the album, but I like it now. My opinion changing on the title track being the reason I guess. Love the song now. 'Have A Nice Day', 'I Want To Be Loved', 'Bells Of Freedom'...top three on the album for me.

I have to agree. I'll always have a soft spot for this song. It was the one song on the record apart from Have a Nice Day that I instantly fell in love with. It's always been in or around my top 30 favourite songs by the band.

I love the lyrics.

It's the other way around for me. I used to like the album a few years back but I never really listen to it anymore. I really can't stand Story Of My Life, Complicated and Wildflower. WTWYA doesn't really do it for me and I never really understood the love for I Want To Be Loved. Last Cigarette, HAND and Novocaine are the only songs I listen to from time to time, Bells Of Freedom was a pleasant surprise in Munich last year and in Düsseldorf 2006.

The sound of the album hasnt aged all that great already, but the songs are still good for the most part. I really wish they kept the sound of the demo version of HAND, as it had a really rough edge to it that sounded great.

HAND... Hmmmm..... Ok, here it is


First off, Who Says got Bon Jovi their first Grammy, first hit since IML 5 years prior, and they were also the first Rock Band to get a #1 Country Hit. As a fan, that period had significance and I can appreciate the album overall because of that.

For me, it was also the bands last "young period" meaning, Jon still had the TD style and they didn't stick out as the older act compared to other artists.

I've heard different opinions of the Hand tour but I actually liked it (and I mean being there, not on YouTube). I thought MSG was awesome when Jon opened with LMS center audience (I just happened to be 20 feet away too). All the songs really worked live for me as well.

I liked getting to know the songs when the album first came out. After Bounce, TLFR, & the Box Set, it was what I needed.

However now, I think every song on HAND sounds exactly the same. It's like one long continuous song with twists and turns. People always refer to Shanks as being Overproduced. Yes, I will agree but IMO Overproduced isn't always a bad thing. Every song from the 80s was Overproduced. I think it's just Shanks' production style that bothers us. I will say he does miracles on Jons vocals though. A song or two in Shanks' style is a good thing but Two Albums and the GH songs is overload.

For me, It's the same song with different lyrics played on different speeds.

On the flip side you got Bounce. It's all over the place. Under on some songs, over on others. Jon sounds like a cat in heat on certain songs, and then there are songs where he sounds like he just woke up and got instantly jabbed in the throat.

(I'd take the Cat in Heat voice vs the Jabbed in the throat one. The latest song Nothing Can Turn You Loose off NYE soundtrack, once I heard the Jabbed vocal on the first verse, that was it. Song Over and haven't listened to it since.)

In summary: song for song, excellent. If I made a Bon Jovi mix, I'd love a song or two off HAND to be in there. As an Album, it's just overloaded. You listen to the album cover to cover once every two years and then you put it away.

One more point. I actually like The Circle. For me, it's the better sequel to HAND. Every song does sound the same but not to the same annoyance of HAND and it has better diversity.

Just throwing this out as a general thing, John Shanks didn't produce all of HAND.

Thank you. For as much as people "Blame" him for making the band sound like they do, his first full album was "The Circle".

I loved HAND when it came out and still love it. I was in university when it came out and many songs had special meaning to me at the time.

well, I think HAND is a good album but nothing better than that. Like someone said before, it would had been a great album if Nothing, These Open Arms, Unbreakable and DLS had made the album instead of Wildflower,Complicated and Novocaine. Some songs could have been better like the title track (its previous demo version is actually much better than the album version) and WTWYA single mix is better than the album version (with the keyboards shining over the guitar). Jon's voice (IMO opinion) are just too rough, I prefer the vocal style used on Crush and TD.