New Jersey review: They say that to really free the body, you've gotta free the mind

Don't worry you'll find your technical ear someday. Sometimes I feel like I overanalyse songs and just want to switch off my musical thinking and enjoy, so you see there are disadvantages too You can always PM me if something we say confuses you and I'll try to answer.

You've done some great kickass reviews. The Lay Your Hands On Me review was really great. LYHON is one of the best Bon Jovi songs of all time, hands donw. The other reviews were great too, especially the Blood on Blood one. I enjoyed reading that one the most.

Meh, it's just the way that your first post came across as pretty agressive ... anyways yeah, it's not too important, just enjoy the music and hopefully these reviews too!

Ride Cowboy Ride / Stick To Your Guns (I always count them as one song) – Ride Cowboy Ride serves as a pretty simple introduction to the main song, setting up the cowboy theme. The song is recorded in mono; and basically all it is is a minute and a half of acoustic guitar, a vocal duet between Jon and Richie, and the constant crackle of dodgy recording equipment. And yet, even from just this, it still manages to capture something: the vocal performance is powerful; the harmonies great as usual; and the mono recording evokes the image of the two sitting around a campfire in the dead of night, like cowboys on the run from the law. Just one of the many stunning uses of atmosphere and imagery all over the album; and it also gives the album more of a complete feel, as if it is more than just a collection of songs, as if they somehow fit together. Just a point to note, a friend of mine thinks this song is largely a sexual innuendo, and looking at some of the phrasing (“Ride, cowboy ride”, “backdoor to heaven”, “to the other side”, “kiss at midnight” etc.), you can see that this might be the case.
Another major purpose of RCR is to musically kick the listener in the teeth when it immediately moves into the massive opening chords of Stick To Your Guns. Contrast is really the name of the game here: from the quietly recorded RCR; to the slashing guitars in the opening, pre-chorus and chorus of the main song; to the quieter acoustic guitar and synthesized strings combo in the verses. The guitar work here is pretty impressive in general: there are loads of nice little licks all over it; and all the different parts fit together well. Similarly, the strings and synth effects which are all over it work nicely too; and the way that the synths and guitars vary in prominence in different sections serves to add colour. Lyrically, although some of the metaphors are pretty good (“Ain’t nobody riding shotgun in the world to night” springs to mind), generally it’s a bit of a retread of typical Bon Jovi themes of cowboys and not giving up. And that’s pretty much all I have to say about it …. Jon’s vocals are good but not spectacular; neither the drum or bass are particularly interesting; and as a whole the song pales in comparison slightly to Wanted Dead Or Alive. Coupling it with RCR was a great idea, and it’s not a bad song by any means, but lacks the greatness of most of the album’s other songs.

3+/5 for the two songs together

I really like STYG, and I even like it better than Wanted which never did too much for me. The guitar riff is just incredible IMO, especially combined with the nice synth layers that, as cheesy as it is, sound like the breeze of wind in a clichéd western city. Plus the woahs at the end of the song don't hurt either!

Goddammit, I knew there was someting else I wanted to say about the synths ... actually, looking back on it, that review wasn't too great in general, I blame tiredeness and talking to people on MSN at the time of writing!

Mind you, that synth effect was earlier used on Wanted, so it's not like it was something new

This one's a bit long, apologies ... I had some trouble articulating what I wanted to say, so I suspect I've probably rambled more than a little

I’ll Be There For You – Do you know what I love about the two ballads on this album? It’s that they both have a completely different character; in that they bear the different trademarks of the band’s two main writers. Living In Sin was obviously Jon alone, and it displays his storytelling style; whereas I’ll Be There For You, despite being a co-write, is clearly Richie’s baby; and is indeed one of his favourite of the band’s songs. It doesn’t so much try to tell a story as capture a feeling: everything that a person feels, regrets and wants to say as they watch someone they love walk away. What distances this song from the band’s other ballads is its hard blues sound: noticeable from the very beginning from the tone of Richie’s guitar intro; and the way it then disappears for Jon to practically whisper the opening line before all the instruments begin simultaneously. The main rhythm of the song is derived from a laid-back bass and drum pattern; with the bluesy edge coming from the fact that Richie isn’t constantly riffing over it; but instead plays several intermittent blues licks during the verses at the end of each line. Instrumentally, what stands out most about this song is that there is a lot going on in it (including about a million different synth layers: standard synth noises; strange beeping effects; strings; piano), but that different sounds appear and disappear at different places; giving it a constantly changing and developing sound, although always underpinned by the rhythm section. Tico’s drumming also stands out, with him contributing several fills in order to kick the rhythm section up a notch at various times, most noticeably in the outro. Vocally this is stellar: Jon showing a stunning range, moving from a whisper at the beginning to a chill-inducing scream at the end of the second bridge; the crowd pleasing “woah-oh-oh”s in the outro; and of course the stunning vocal harmonies between Jon and Richie in the bridge are among the most powerful they’ve ever committed to record. The only real criticism I have of this song is that lyrically it is incredibly clichéd (and sometimes has lines that aren’t really clichés but sound like they should be .. “I heard your suitcase say goodbye” anyone?); but the power of this song comes not from its lyrics, but its soulfulness. The legacy of this song speaks for itself: for one it is to date the band’s last US number 1 single; and with its more blues based sound would come to provide an early glimpse of the direction the band were heading in the next decade.

5/5

I've said it before Warlus and i'll say it again!

Im loving your review(cant wait for others) the depth that you go in to each song is unbelievable!

Loved the analysis of I'll be there for you was brilliant.

Like you i always thought it sounded very bluesy,Definitely seems more like a Richie song than Jons.

Keep up the excellent work.

Thanks, much appreciated

99 In The Shade – The first point to note about this song is that it’s very Slippery When Wet sounding. Specifically, it sounds a lot like Wild In The Streets: big fun party rock song; mixing 80s pop-metal with elements of earlier rock n’roll; basically telling about how life is a big party for its large cast of characters (including the return of Tommy and Gina). It does however have some things that separate it from WITS. Noticeable from the beginning is the Beach Boys / early Van Halen style vocal harmonies which bring to my mind images of beaches and surfing. The screechy guitar is cool too, particularly leading into, and during, the chorus; the piano and weird synth effects combo is fitting for the hybrid 80s/50s nature of the song; and the handclaps in the bridge are particularly effective. Lyrically it manages to be fun without being too dumb: phrases like “Senorita Margarita” and “Sons of beaches” (the working title for the album) are actually quite clever; and lines like “Gonna tell every girl / hey baby / you’re the one” and “Life ain’t so tough” encapsulate a devil-may-care, to-hell-with-the-consequences attitude. The best thing about the song though is probably the infectious sense of fun that you can hear from Jon: it’s there in his adlibs (“I can almost taste it!”); in his laughter; in his adlibbing during the lengthy outro; and in his Elvis impression, also during the outro. All this comes together to make a song that is definitely good fun; but that both doesn’t represent quite as significant a step away from SWW as a lot of the rest of the album; and also sounds a bit light when compared to some of the rock monsters elsewhere on the album.

3/5

I've always really liked 99 In The Shade, and a lot of it has to do with its placement on the record, after several rather heavy, serious tracks. It's a much needed "upper" right after I'll Be There For You! Excellent, powerful party track and Jon is just so into the vocals, almost as if he was *acting* the song. Though I'm in no way a car loving person, I can always picture myself driving some fancy convertible with this song blasting at full volume -and I don't even have a driving licence lol.

Just one more to go, Walrus -don't disappoint me now, Love For Sale has always been dear to me

Right, lets put this bad boy to bed .....

Love For Sale – Rounding out the album not so much with a bang as with a “huh?” is Love For Sale. Recorded during what the album’s liner notes refer to as “one hell of a party”, the band are obviously in high spirits … for which, read probably drunk (listen to Jon saying “Let’s just say the record’s done” at the end … he can barely get his words out). The song itself is a bluegrass sounding jam with Richie tossing out blues licks and a solo on an acoustic guitar, Tico using a brush to provide the percussion (and some extremely deep backing vocals), and Jon (I assume) contributing with the harmonica, also treating us to a solo (which by the sound of it impresses Richie). The song itself is a madcap, witty, meaningless story of a man being tricked by his wife. The masterstroke of the track however is the adlibbing: with Jon and Richie having a conversation ranging from the blues to Jon’s family to shotgun weddings (complete with sound effects from Tico, which make Jon do his trademark goofy laugh), and finally about how Jon needs to go home to his woman. It’s great, after all this time we could finally hear our favourite rock heroes just messing about with each other. The whole thing is so full of character, goofiness and fun; yet it’s still a great display of musicianship not being buried beneath a mountain of production and glossing. It all has a improvisational and one take vibe about it (although I know it’s not completely improvised, obviously Jon didn’t make up the lyrics on the spot; and I don’t even know if it really was just recorded in one take, the fact is though it sounds like it). One thing that’s odd about it though is that from the sounds of it neither Dave or Alec play on it (I guess they could be doing backing vocals though). On the whole then, putting a bluegrass jam recorded while drunk at a party at the end of an album full of glossy, professional stadium rockers may seem odd; but it also seems strangely appropriate; and all in all is an ingenious end to the party.

4/5