Review: 1 - Bon Jovi

i havent played roulette, and i know what u mean, i just said its stupid cause i think it was stupid to make a song about Roulettes...

Rob, see what I mean?

Ice

It's a good debut, youthful and hungry for life; although it's lacking some of the confidence of later albums, and does sound a bit dated now. It's got some really good guitar work on it though. I do think it has a very 'street kids' kind of feel to it, it's quite tough sounding and gritty in places, but is also clearly an album by young people. Jon hasn't quite developed into his vocal style yet (although I have to say, I do quite like the extremely high notes that are all over the album ), and of course, they haven't yet discovered the fantastic Jon/Richie harmonies, so backing vocals tend to consist of 'all band members shout out single words" . Good solid heavy drumming on this album, and also Dave more prominent than usual, although the synthesisers do tend to sound a little, erm, dodgy after a while.

Runaway- Obviously a classic, but more a Jon solo song really, as he's the only one who plays on it (except for Hugh of course). Anthemic and pop-metalish.... a clue to where they were gonna go in 1986

Roulette- Nice riff, good heavy song, good backing vocals, and good lyrics.. tis a good song, not much else to say though.

She Don't Know Me- I admit to have a sneaking fondness for this song yah, it's quite poppy, but in a good way I feel, although Jon sounds really really young in it. The chorus works well, with the multiple voice tracks. Good drumming as well, especially at the beginning

Shot Through The Heart- Fantastically atmospheric, very spooky sounding piano at the beginning, great vocals and lyrics, fantastic guitar work... can't fault it, definetly one of the album's finest moments.

Love Lies- Pretty good, dark tinged song. I like the way the vocals are at a different tempo to the music in places, making it seem as though the music drifts underneath... I like the high notes as well!

Breakout- Pretty good song, but nothing special IMO. I like the backing vocals in places, and the chorus is quite good, but not really much else to say

Burning For Love- Nice pace on this one, rocks pretty good, I love it up until about the end of the first chorus, especially the way the first verse moves into the chorus.... then it gets a little repetetive. Still a good song though

Come Back- Great song! Brilliantly written, with a great hook, and fantastic riffs and vocal effects. I likes it

Get Ready- Uh... No, not a big fan of this one. Sounds pretty **** really, not much else to say about it. Worst song on the album

Overall, good debut, little patchy, and lack of really classic songs lets it down a bit. It's also not too experimental, just mostly straight ahead rock. It does have some good songs though, so I will give it a nice 7/10

Keep On Rockin'

Aye ok, fair enough, but if you'd played the game then you'd understand a lot more. This song became a little more meaningful to me after I had had my first experience of Roulette, and it is definately not a stupid song. I know its easy to think it's stupid though because the lyrics do sound a little cheesy, but they are meaningful if you listen a litter closer.

Memories .... not very many for this one I'm afraid:

Listening to it for the first time just while getting ready to go to my High School Leaver's Ball

Hearing Runaway for the first time on One Wild Night Live after playing the video game The Bouncer, and being struck about how the lyrics seemed to apply to that game

Hearing the opening of Runaway at Hyde Park, and hearing my friend (a casual fan) scream in recognition

Listening to the album at night, on a long car journey, the day before I split up with my girlfriend at the time.... the songs took on a new meaning after that

Keep On Rockin'

It's fair as debuts go, but nothing special. The album does have its moments with songs like Roulette and Shot Through the Heart, but mostly it's the same thing over and over again. It's not a bad album, but it's not stellar either. I'll just say it's a nice start for a great band.