This Left Feels Right

Say wha na?

That's almost exactly how I might've put them. Well, the top 2 anyway. I would switch LYHOM and Bad Name with BOR and KTF. Then that'd be exactly how I'd put them.

What is wrong with Keep The Faith and Wanted?

Here's how I would rank them:

Passable:
It's My Life
Born To Be My Baby
Everyday

Listenable:
Always
Keep The Faith
Wanted

Absolutely terrible:
Bad Name
Prayer
Lay Your Hands On Me
I'll Be There For You
Bed Of Roses
Bad Medicine

On this album, Wanted has nothing. No atmosphere, Jon sounds like crap, there's no solo at all and my biggest problem, they took out the most iconic line in the entire song.

I understand they were intentionally doing something different but I cannot stand this version. I'd say it's my least favorite Jovi track ever, along with the remix of One Wild Night off the live album.

Faith is just boring and goes nowhere. Once again, no power from Jon at all and no guitar. It's inclusion adds nothing to the album.

It was kinda a brave move, and possibly would have come off A LOT better if they'd taken more than like 3 weeks to record it or whatever it was. It really shows ... too many of the songs are simply slowed songs with the same lyrics as the original songs, they're neither exciting experiments or looking at the songs in a brand new light.

As a whole, it's listenable, but it'll never stand up as one of the better things they've ever done. Actually, a lot of the songs are not too bad, but they are NOT Bon Jovi, and I think that's the problem most people have. That and, as I said, it's so obviously rushed ... stretching a few good ideas out across a whole album is never a good idea. And of course, I prefer none of the new songs to the originals (although a couple ... It's My Life, Everyday, and depending on my mood, Bad Medicine, come close), but then I don't think that was the point of it anways

I like:

Wanted
Bad Name
It's My Life
Born To Be My Baby
Everyday
Always

All of the above are songs which, IMO, validly present the song in a different light, and sound good to boot. Songs that try something new, but sound a bit iffy are, IMO:

I'll Be There For You
Lay Your Hands On Me

Conversely, Bad Medicine, isn't particularly ambitious, but still sounds good to me, mainly because of the way Jon contrasts the loud and quiet lines so well.

Then the songs that don't really add anything are Keep The Faith and Bed Of Roses. Prayer is alright, would be much better with someone else singing instead of Olivia D'abo. But then I suppose we've already got Prayer '94 for that.

So to conclude .... I dunno. Part of me would have preffered a straight up live acoustic CD ... the two bonus tracks, as well as the footage from the AOL sessions shows how good that would have been. But then, we never would have heard these songs, which some of us like some of. And I wouldn't have heard any version of Always until a couple of weeks ago But on the other other hand, US audiences wouldn't have had to hear the slightly less than good versions of IBTFY and BOR, although it seems they may have FINALLY stopped playing songs from it. I actually have no idea what point I'm trying to make, so I possibly should wrap this up now

Most of the stuff on TLFR isn't that bad. Actually I really like

Wanted (!) - so cool, I love how the drums kick in after the thirs verse, great groove overall
Prayer - I can stand Olivia d'Abo, while I hate the short-cut ending
Bad Medicine - again, great groove, just cool
It's My Life (!) - a classic
(Lay Your Hands)
Bad Name - again, cool, but the vocals could be better
Bed Of Roses - there is something about it...
Everyday - and again, cool groove...

(Born To Be My Baby - a bit unbdecided here, don't listen to it often)

while the last four tracks are just plain boring. "I'll be There For You" is the worst recording BJ have ever done, they completely ruined the grandness of this song. KTF is boring, and "Always" is nice but also disgusting.

The two new tracks would have made it much better, the album needs a fast track in the end, and "Thief Of Hearts" would've just worked fine.

Last Man Standing would have worked very well on that album. Wish it was on there