I've rediscovered These Days!!!!

i'd say the song "these days" is in my top five bon jovi songs , if not at the top. It's brilliant , i'd love to hear it live and i wouldn't care if it was richie or jon singing

Heard it twice live

Finally I have something better than you gig-wise!

Hmm, I must be missing something with this song then. I get the lyrics are quite deep, and I agree with them. But, I dunno...it hasn't got something for me that is like "WOW" Something's missing? Might have to listen to it again now.

lmao , dam you! i'd say how did it sound live but i know it sounds brilliant this tour rub it in a bit more why don't you lol

See, I'm kinda the opposite, I got into These Days very slowly ... along with One Wild Night, it was my first BJ album, back in 2001, and as you might imagine, I was a bit like "It's got none of the big hits that I know on it, laaaaaame ... oooh, but this live album does, I'll listen to that instead". Eventually I began to listen to it (probably helped on by Something To The Pain and Something To Believe In being on OWN), but it didn't hit me as instantly as most of their other albums later did. In fact, I can remember thinking for a while that I preferred both Bounce and Crush to it

I can't remember for sure, but I can imagine it was possibly the "novelty" of being broken hearted that made me appreciate it more. Like a lot of people, the title track, Diamond Ring and If That's What It Takes were my "I'll do my best to make this relationship work!" songs; Damned and Something For The Pain were my angry at love songs; Letting You Go, My Guitar, and This Ain't A Love Song were my break up songs; and finally Something To Believe in and the title track again were my getting back on my feet songs. Of course, there were other songs that helped me through these times as well, but I think very few albums have felt quite as entirely connected to my life as These Days has at various points, and for that I will always love it

I bought it at the end of the nineties after buying Crossroad, and like you, i was originally put off a little by not recognising any of the songs and by how different the album sounds compared to the SWW tracks that i loved on Crossroad.
But it quickly became my favourite album, ever. It just 'connects' with me on so many levels. There's something on there for every mood. I don't think there's another Jovi album that covers so many bases so well (see 'Bounce' for an example of how NOT to do it), pretty much every song is a winner. I love how the whole album feels really 'low key' and 'live', like its being played there and then just for you.
The title track is by far and away my alltime favourite Jovi song, it's perfect. Great meaningful lyrics that don't sound too cheesy, fantastic solo, and tremendous vocals. It just brings back great memories for me of leaving school/leaving friends behind/moving away, i love it.

I like 3 songs out of it (title track, Something For The Pain, This Ain't A Love Song).
I don't mind 3 other songs (Hey God, If That's What It Takes, Hearts Breaking Even).
I absolutely hate the rest with a passion.

I'm intrigued, what is it about Something To Believe In, Lie To Me, (It's Hard) Letting You Go and My Guitar Lies Bleeding in My Arms that you hate with a passion? I could understand maybe Diamond Ring not rating as highly but to dislike those 4 to the level of passionate hate is bewildering, to me at least!

.....crazy.............

Not to me, I find those songs horrible! I hate them musically and lyrically, everything about them.

Not all "die hard" BJ fans are fans of this album. Some people may find that strange but it's really not.