In 1995, Bon Jovi sold out three consecutive nights at Wembley Stadium...

In summer 2011, it was a ****ing great time to be a Bon Jovi fan.

That annoys me so much. It's as if the 90s never happened. A lot of media over in Europe are guilty of the same shit. Bon Jovi, while they had their critics, were massive internationally in that era.

That said, the band don't always discourage that sort of revisionism.

By the way, who the hell are Reef and what were those 'jibes' Jovi exchanged with them??

And you know what else is 'shocking' - it was only their 6th studio album. 6th?!? It's strange. It certainly feels like SUCH A LOOOOONG TIME away from Slippery When Wet, which was their 3rd. The transformation they had gone through was absolutely astonishing. I think this is why critics weren't able to take them serious. Because no band ever has gone through such a transformation, yet remained the biggest band in the world.

What I think is great about the transition from Slippery through to These Days is that each feels like a continuation but also manages to be a huge leap. For example I can see the reason why Slippery gave way to New Jersey and why New Jersey led to Keep the Faith, and then to These Days. I am talking only from a musical perspective.

to be fair u2 is the only band that managed that kind of transformation sucesfully with achtung baby. bj tried to emulate it with ktf but they didnt fully succeeded it.
these days is a masterpiece, but never got the credit it deserved...especially from the band...every single band strives to be succesfull first in the us and then in uk, the fact that these days wasnt succesfull there made them put down the album a little...anyway 94-95 was a great period to be a fan, and that was the time i discovered them as well...the first album i owned...the first music i really listened to...
ps.1.when these guys and especially jon wrote songs like these how come he prefer lost highway/wan/who says????
ps2.bj always had fillers, especially in their last records...whats puzzling me is this...with all that experience how come jon doesnt realise some songs are bad or mediocre???he puts them in the record and then he doesnt want to perform them live once...and in the last records is not about high vocals or anything, just jon who obviously doesnt believe in the songs...he obviously liked the song enough to record it and include it in the album, afterwards he doesnt give them one airing...

Thanks for the Kerrang! photos and text.

That same year, Bon Jovi won most (maybe all?) of the Metal Edge Awards too. That's a US rock magazine. They were really flying high on the success of Always.

Really? I don't think any band managed a transition from being a 'hair metal' band to being a full-fledged 'adult-oriented' band. U2 were always more of an adult-oriented band. Think of the differences between These Days and Slippery. There is no way there is such a difference between any two U2 albums.

I think they were very proud of it when it came out. They seemed very proud of Crush too. Then they stopped being really proud of their records. And obviously, the fact that it tanked in the US must have hurt their egos properly. And that's how things are in life I guess. Failure is often amplified while successes are forgotten. These Days hit the band's creative peak. Richie's guitar work alone is out of this world and can't be praised enough. And then every single instrument added something to the overall sound. Of course, Peter Collins had a big impact. He is a progressive rock producer and you can hear that all over the record. Rhythm changes are all over the place...instruments are layered very differently, breaks in vocal patterns, etc.

Because he is a moron!

Do you really ask yourself this? Albums like WAN are just put together to justify touring. The songs are embarrassing, no wonder he doesn't want to play them live. It's the whole 'We have a number one album, we are not nostalgia' argument that he plays back to himself. But let's face it, up to These Days they always said: "This is the best album we have ever done". They were very fond of Crush initially, but never really said it was the best album. Afterwards they/ Jon stopped saying that anyway. They know it doesn't meet the standards of their previous work, but hey, it sells, they are in the charts, so frankly, who cares? Some music critics and some 'die-hards' on a forum. That's not much in the grand scheme of things.

Auchtung Baby is as far from their 80's work as TD is from SWW. I agree with a lot of your other points though.

I remember during the making of the album Richie saying he thinks the album has some of his best playing, which is baffling.

i like u2 but i love bj, having said that i still consider the transaction from joshua tree/rattle and hum to achtung baby impressive and unmatched by other rock acts...slippery to these days has an 8 years gap and huge changes and albums in between...
i think jon said almost every single time that his current album is their best, i dont think he fully realises the distance between the quality of these days and lost highway...sth furstrating to say the least...i can get a fan who prefers new jersey or ktf but no lost highway...it has some good tunes but sounds like another band...
jon should put higher standards, at this point noones expects of him to release another sww-nj but they should try harder in the studio and ditch the whole approach with jon shanks/easy iml clones.i am not expecting miracles just an honest record they are proud of, a record they want to perform live again and again...jon releases many songs he doesnt believe in...what do you got...no apologies...and many many more...i dont believe he would record all these songs if they were just fillers...i just think noone in the recording process is honest to say him some songs are leading nowhere and shouldnt be included