The mixing of What About Now

Agree, we have the technology to make better records but they suck and are more compressed than ever. The loudness war is killing the music.

Also, on one side we have people saying "mp3 @ 320 kbps is enough for anyone" and on the other side we have Samsung doing a 102' with 4K of resolution.

The last album to have any real dymamic range was probably Keep the Faith. The original CDs (not the remasters) sounds much punchier and the drums sound much more natural. These Days (loudness wise) is pretty much on par with modern CDs. And I'd say the first overly compressed Bon Jovi album was definitely Bounce. Still haven't got my copy of What About Now but I don't expect much of an improvement, mastering wise.

I don't really recall the mastering differences between KPT and TD but I remember they both sounded decent. Bounce was too compressed though not as extreme as HAND. not to mention that all tracks on the GH compilation got re-mastered as well and the difference is appalling.

I find These Days to be noticeably louder than Keep the Faith, though it doesn't sound "bad" as such. There's no audible compression or clipping as far as I can tell but it does sound quite "flat" compared to KTF.

Anyone else thinks that, when turned way up, the snare and bass drum sound awfully similar (like one "boom-boom-boom" beat stomping through)? Not even talking about the cymbals, which just sound like white noise to me at points...

And Jon sounds real unnatural on some words - too soft on "page" (more like "peige" or so, sorry, can't explain better) and like he had too much spit or something in his mouth, only to sound crystal clear the next second - very distracting...

Yep, the snare drum sounds like a tom-tom drum or bass drum...
I have no idea what is the point of making a snare drum sound so un-natural... It's Bon Jovi, not some freakin Kanye West! Awefullllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll