Aloha !

Every time Bon Jovi release something remotely interesting or different it's been a bit painful to see or hear it just wasn't their idea. I honestly hoped this would be an original. Don't get me wrong, I've no problem with artists stealing. Everyone does it. But stealing entire melody lines and/or chorusses like Bon Jovi have been doing? Nah... And unfortunately, that's the case with this one as well.

The melody of this song not theirs. Jon's mentioned The Killers several times now. Has played a song by the Killers in their latest webcast so I gave their recent singles another spin. And yes, there's Caution, a song released on march 12. Do What You Can was first put on youTube on March 20. It's got the same beat and the words in the chorus of Do What You Can fits perfectly.


Things like these put a damper on things for me. I'm an art teacher and presenting something as if its yours while it's made by someone else is the same as that kid coming up to my desk showing his artwork while he copied it of the more talented kid sitting next to him. I can't pretend and be proud of the kid for stealing something from someone else. I always tell them there's nothing wrong with stealing just as long as you give credit to the original or acknowledge you were at least inspired by someone or something else. It's how art has worked, how music has worked, there's nothing wrong with that. But that's not what Jon Bon Jovi does. Jon Bon Jovi is about "I wrote this" "I did this" "I had this vision". It's where he loses me with this. I don't think he minds, or maybe he does, considering the massive chip he still has on his shoulder?

Sure, the Bon Jovi song is catchy. Very catchy. It's easily one of the catchiest songs Bon Jovi have released in a long, long time. It also sounds upbeat and positive, a thing that has been lacking in Bon Jovi songs as well. But as for everything else? For every good lyric there's still a really cringe-worthy one and the production of the entire thing is awful. Nothing's the same this ain't a game we got to make it through sounds like an excuse lyric. No better words could be found, just put that one in.The same goes for "This ain't a prayer it's just a thought I'm wanting to send". It's lazy songwriting. And if you're going to steal things you wind up comparing to the original as well. While the subject of Caution is by no means better or worse, the way the lyrics describe the subject of the song are just so much better as there's no lyric that puts the song to a screeching halt, making you scratch your head thinking "now what was that?!".

The addition of Jennifer Nettles has clearly improved the song but also highlighted all that is missing in Bon Jovi nowadays. Obviously there's just no way of working around Jon's voice anymore. If anything, going by the way Jon sang the song at home and how he sounds in the studio it's kind of a showcase of all you can do with vocals even if you've got nothing left to give. But the constant slurring and mispronounciation of certain words make it hard to listen to the song. The thing Nettles has highlighted on top of all of this is that a song improves if you let the instrument just be the instrument. Nettles' voice is the one thing in the entire song that sounds organic, fresh and honest. She sounds like she's having a blast singing it and sounds like she believes in what she's singing. But she also sounds like she's giving her all to a generic tv jingle. Strip the song from Jon's vocals and there's nothing in there that'd make you think it's a Bon Jovi song recorded by an actual band. The soulless production and the way this thing was recorded has stripped the song from any emotion the instruments would originally be able to captivate. This could've been recorded by anyone but Bon Jovi. I'd go as far as saying you could sing Do What You Can over an instrumental of Caution and the song would actually improve over what's presented here. Because what's presented here is a really, really catchy melody put to waste over the most generic backing track the band could come up with. It's a TV jingle, and much like TV jingles, you'll eventually skip and/or ignore it.

I'm giving it a 5.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan