Oh no, Lost Highway...

15. Any Other Day
14. Walk Like A Man
13. (You Want To) Make A Memory
12. Put The Boy Back In Cowboy
11. We Got To Going On
10. Whole Lot Of Leaving
09. Lonely
08. Everybody's Broken
07. Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore
06. Lost Highway
05. I Love This Town
04. Summertime
03. Seat Next To You
02. The Last Night
01. One Step Closer

Well, I passionately hate this album because it has finally destroyed the rest of reputation Bon Jovi had in this country and appreciation from my friends. I was fighting hard to prove that Bon Jovi is a rock band so this was a major kick in the ass.

I really don't understand people saying that it is a regular BJ, it is not. I'm not saying that it is a country album. It is not. The major problem is that what is called in America as country is not country at all. It is just simple pop music with added violin or pedal steel and the interpret has to wear a hat. Sorry, but country music - songs sung with few guitars, sitting around a campfire - is something completely different! So Lost Highway is not a country album, no way. It also is not an American-so-called-country album but it was called so during the recording process and it effected the reputation a lot. On the other hand it is not a standart BJ album.

But come on - we don't need to categorize the music. The thing that matters is if it is good music or not. And this is the problem. The music is just not good. Usually there are few really weak songs on each BJ album (npwadays) but here are only a few good ones and the rest is so forgettabble. Whiny boring songs The only thing I can praise is the lyrical content here.

Some of the songs are examples of the bad collaboration between average BJ song and so-called-country elements. Lost Highway for example. Very average song with added fiddle. Remove the violin and you get what the song should have sounded on a normal album. It is the story of Who Says vice versa. We had the "rock" version and then violin was added and the "country" version was born.

Anyway, may opinion is that be it Nashville-influenced or not, this album is so weak and and had bad effect on the band's legacy and reputation. For me, from 8 down, it is just garbage. I'm also sure it has disgusted many die-hard fans from the 80s and 90s who were not satisfied with Bounce and HaND and this killed the rest of the hope..

The last note - I'd love to hear a non-so-called-country version of Whole Lot Of Leaving. I hated that song first few years but I've found some kind of love for it. I think it deserves a rock or a stripped down version with more melancholy feel. Now the song sounds too happy given what it is about. I'd be really interested how would it sound re-recorded. And I mean re-worked. Not the process of removing so-called-country elements as I've described above with the song Lost Highway.
On the other hand - I love Put The Boy Back In Cowboy because I feel a lot of irony in it. If all the "country" collaboration was this song (which actually quite rocks!), I'd appreciate it!!