Make or Break for Jovi ????

your right
the last 2 albums (bounce and Hand) havent made it to the number 1 album slot (kept of by david grey and elvis) - and this one wont either.
i bet it will go top 10 - then dissapear out of the charts.
The reason MAM isnt getting airplay maybe, is that the single comes out 1 week after the album - which is strange.
Real Jovi fans want an album that doesnt sound like Jersey but has those kind of rock songs on
Ever since These Days was released the standard has dropped.
I have a little info on the Greatest Hits 2 album - its all songs from These Days - Lost Highway - IMO that make it a poor album compaired to Crossroads.

Do we really want to be in that boat???

For the topic: They were very big ein Europe in the 90's and post Crush big in US. The Times They Are A-Changin'...

Edit: And by the way. I've been playing Make A Memory to some friends who have a neutral view on Bon Jovi, and they really like the new song(s). So, there might be a chance for brand new fans with this new album

I think that if there was a make or break for this band it would have been before the last album. Their contract was up for renewal for one. Bounce didn't sell well and TLFR bombed. The box set was never going to be a best seller.

They needed a hit and whether or not you like the entire HAND album - it was a hit. The tour was huge. They have now signed their new record deal and I think at this point they are practically untouchable. If a few more albums bomb - they might be back in the same boat - but I don't think they are there yet.

Kathleen

I don't think they're ever going to have any MAJOR commercial problems, but they're really not doing themselves any favours with their godawful promotion.

What I'm really interested is where they're going to go from here musically. They've done 3 albums of pretty much modern rock since 2000. Now they seem to be going off on a bit of a tangent. So what's next for the band after LH and the Greatest Hits 2? Stick with the country influence? Revert back to modern rock? Do something totally different? Time will tell I guess

Maybe they will do a Hoe Down album like Springsteen..Yee Haw

Its Ironic because the boxset was the best thing theyve released since These days.

To me Bon Jovi are becoming another Rolling Stones over here, no-one takes any interest in the new stuff but rush out to see them live. Its a shame becos they still have alot to offer.

I think this new album will be, unfortunately, another TLFR sales wise. They need a massive, commercial hit single to get them back in favour, maybe something used in a big box office smash.

if it was a make or break album jon wouldnt have said: hey lets write country record, that sounds ike a goo idea.

personally i think the band are stuck in a rut and alot of it has to do with the fans.

how often do we hear people sayign they need to do another slippery when wet, they need to go heavy etc... it's not going to happen

they did these days and it was a big change and sold phenomenal amounts.

then they had a hiatus, came back with some pop rock and sold a shitload

people start complaining that they're just doing it to sell records

they come out with tlfr which froma musicians point of view i thought was outstanding even if i dont listen to it often

no one buys it, people hate it,

they go back to the pop rock avenue

people moan

they decide to do a country influenced album

people will still moan that there's no bee in a can guitar solo's and ball squeezing falsetto choruses.

As far as commercial success in the UK goes I don't think they have a make or break album left, I think they've already broken. The performance of HAND was so dissapointing. The tour was huge, especially pushed along with them being the first band to play at Wembley but the album did nothing. I think it was down to a combination of shockingly bad promotion (lip-synching on TOTP and an appearence by Jon on Frank Skinner) and poor single choices.

Bon Jovi have become so focused on the US market that they release songs they feel will work there and expect the same everywhere else, but it's the complete opposite. Commercial sounding songs don't work here. If they had released songs like Last Man Standing or Novocaine in the UK they would've really helped their reputation over here, which isn't exactly steller. Releasing crap like Welcome does nothing for them.

I can't see how Lost Highway is going to reverse the trend. The album is out in two weeks and I haven't seen the video once on the music channels. It's not surprising that they're not getting radio play but their videos are usually in heavy rotation but I don't know if the video stations even have it and I don't expect they'll do any sort of additional promotion for the album other then the O2 show. Besides, given the fact that it's a "country album" it's probably best that it goes completely under the radar a-la TLFR and then they can maybe come back with a bang with their GH2 and follow up album a-la Cross Road/These Days.

I have very little complaints about their post 2000 releases. I do however see your point about them playing it safe and I think that's all down to the dissapointing performance of Destination Anywhere. Jon as a songwriter and musician had progressed so far at that point and when that album didn't turn out to be a huge success he seemed to regress to a much safer and less challenging style which is dissapointing. I can't help but think if he had a Damien Rice mentality what sort of albums we could've got.

Jon is obviously desperate to stay commercially successful and I'd love to see them stay in the U2 bracket but with their reputation that's never going to happen and I wish they would just embrace their Springsteen bracket. They'll always sell out stadiums but chasing the hit and chasing the young audience is only going to result in them making substandard albums and alienating their loyal fans in the hopes of attracting a large group of fickle fans for a short time. If Jon let go of his desire to be commercially successful and totally embraced a desire to be artisticly successful it would obviously go a long way to them fufilling their potential and it might well bring them back to the top of the music industry.

Also, it's good to know that the GH2 will be TD-Lost Highway only!

Aint that the truth!!

One of the better things i have heard in a while..
Good one if only they could read it and agree with it