Originally Posted by DevilsSon

nickolai. First of all, let me get all the non-important stuff out of the way.

1. Yes, I am an arrogant asshole!
2. No, I don't care even the slightest if you lost all respect for me (whatever that may mean)
3. I am well beyond the 'groupie' age of 16.5 when I may have thought that accusing someone of not being a 'real' or 'true' fan meant anything at all
4. 7800 Degrees Fahrenheit might not be the best of Bon Jovi records, yet the guitar work on it is the most complex and ambitious Richie has recorded, song in song out. The reason I enumerated those songs/ albums was to highlight everything that made Bon Jovi stand out and everything that is lacking in this particular song! I was not even asking for all those elements. Just one would have been enough...but...no!

Having clarified this, let's focus on the gist of it!

I don't want Bon Jovi to be "sounding all 80s & 90s again" in the sense you phrase it. I don't want them to re-release Slippery, or Jersey or Faith or These Days. They should simply sound like themselves. Great bands transcend decades and fashion, and make music that is first and foremost their own music, maintaining a certain level of quality. I admit, there aren't that many who are still relevant but I can start enumerating a bunch.

Extremely successful ones: Bruce Springsteen. AC/DC
Very successful ones: Pearl Jam. Iron Maiden
Moderately successful ones: Alice Cooper. The Scorpions

These are NOT nostalgia acts. Go to any of their concerts, listen to any of their recent records. NONE sound like it's 1985 - yet they all make honest genuine music that represents them as musicians in the 2010s. Do they get radio airplay? Some do, yes. Do they top the charts? No, they don't. Do they care about those aspects primarily? I don't know - but certainly, it is NOT mass appeal that they aim at when they release these records. Yet they remain extremely successful. Again, knowing the way you think, you will say: "if Bon Jovi sounded like Bruce Springsteen, they would be accused of blah blah blah!". And no, I am not saying they should sound like Springsteen either.

All I am saying is that Because We Can is a manufactured song that sounds like it has come from a song-factory where they mass-produce songs that make no sense, yet are consumed, because that's 'what works' today.
It sounds as if a bunch of untalented musicians came together and recorded some sound in a gutter, copied lyrics from a Scientology for beginners hymn book, recorded a guitar solo using one finger only on a piano keyboard, while the singer was not quite sure whether he was drowning or whether he should have used nose drops to breath better. When the 'product' was finished, they stamped BON JOVI on it and put it on itunes. It's like writing Ferrari on a Toyota (without insulting Toyota who make great cars).

And I was neither trying to insult anyone or act condescendingly. I do apologise if it did though.