This House Is Not For Sale (2016) - Post First Single Release Album Discussion

It does. Although I would feel more confident if the songs were broke down musically. I remember months before KTF came out, reading in depth about the title track and about Dry County. I think it was a Kerrang piece.

They gave references to both songs musical style. (guitar parts, keys, drums)

It was exciting. I knew that Dry County was 9mins long and had "exhilarating" guitar work from RS!

Labor of Love is what piques me the most. With its description, it may be the softest track on the album but also the most organic (read: without the Shanks wall of sound) among the 12.

Here you go! I broke it down and posted it here: Lyrically, the album sounds great but it all depends on the vocal delivery and the production...

-Living With The Ghost - After the clear announcement of the title track, the record continues with “Living With The Ghost” in which Jon Bon Jovi deals with the subject of loss: A man tries to wash his feet in the holy water of the church, but then continues –
“then he worked up to his knees
from his arms to his neck
and said I’m in over my head.
He was crying trying to get some relief,
I’m just trying to get some relief.
I had this dream.
That man was me.”
A moving dream, a cry for help, and Jon confesses: “People know me as storyteller and barely know this hurt side of me. We’ve often enough sung anthems about graceful life, about integration into society.”

- Knockout is a head-up-high-chest-out-anthem, the way it’s known for Bon Jovi. It starts with the back against the wall –
“every day I wake up with my back against the wall”,
and ends with the knockout, where the lights of the opponent turn out:
“here comes the knockout,
my time is right now,
turning your lights out,
I’m throwing down.”
“The song is about the fight with one’s own hope”, says Jon. “It’s about that fighting spirit, that we all feel – in so many situations.”

- Labor of Love feels as if one is sitting with the band in the studio: recorded live, the guitar track and Jon’s much deeper voice, feel incredibly close and intimate. And of course, it’s about love: The rock star, who is known for his lasting relationships, alludes to exactly these ties that don’t break even after decades.

- Born Again Tomorrow - Would you do it all over again the same way, or change something – “relive every moment” vs. “tear out any page” – that is the subject of “Born Again Tomorrow”,a song in which Jon devotes himself to “the decisions, the answers that you yourself have found.” Following impressive lines like
“bones grow stronger where they break, who says scars don’t fade?”,
his own answer couldn’t be any clearer:
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
He doesn’t want to

- Rollercoaster - is a metaphor for his own life, the love, the low blows on the way: Life is not a children’s carousel, but rather a roller coaster – but precisely because of that, one shouldn’t close their eyes:
“time flies by… don’t close your eyes.”

- New Year’s Day - The subject of time and the same Carpe-Diem message reappears in “New Year’s Day”:
“Let’s toast to new beginnings, raise up a glass and say,
‘for all of our tomorrows, and what was yesterday’.”
An ode to the cohesion of the band, this track was initially in 6/8-time, planned as waltz, so to speak. In the studio, it turned out quite different after Tico counted the beat and the band jumped in: “It was just fantastic to see the band together like that,” Jon remembers. “This one is a piece that just happened in the moment – and the whole band was involved.”

- The Devils In The Temple”: - The changes in the music industry are finally addressed openly and bluntly in “The Devils In The Temple”:
“There are thieves at the altar,
a snake wears the crown,
handing you coal, swearing it’s gold.
Look what they’ve done to this house of love.
It’s too late to turn the river to blood,
the savior’s come and gone,
we’re out of time,
the devil’s in the temple,
he ain’t no friend of mine.”
“Yeah, when I’m talking about a temple, I mean the label,” says Jon. “I’ve always had only one dream: To write songs and to present them in this church. It wasn’t easy to put away the changes in the industry, which led us to change our relationship with this former ‘home’ after 33 years. Fortunately, we have left this chapter behind us now.”

-Scars On This Guitar” - As a songwriter, who has spent a third of a century on tour, Jon steps to the mic with “Scars On This Guitar”:
“Another Friday night I’m somewhere,
a little drunk and worn out from the show”,
begin the lyrics,
“It’s a hallway to a hotel room,
the truck’s already rolling down the road”,
and then she comes, his guitar:
“she’s been with me late at night
when I was drowning in the dark,
she heard my every word
when I was pouring out my heart.
So I thank my lucky stars
for every crack, scratch and scar on this guitar…”
If there is one thing that really stood the test of time, then it’s her: His scarred guitar.

- God Bless This Mess - Other scars and cracks are the subject of “God Bless This Mess”which begins a capella:
“I got some blood under my nails,
I got some mud on my face”,
he sings, and joined now by the band the story goes on – the voice is gone, the hair turns gray, the muscles hurt. And while many simply hope to pull through a storm, others rise in such situations: This is the mess that Bon Jovi celebrate here because they are not alone, they can rely on each other.

- “Reunion” is about the spirit of discovery, that Jon even linked to his speech, that he delivered before graduates, when he accepted his honorary doctorate at Rutgers University: At the time, he gave the audience the advice to paint their lives in pencil, provisionally, because there are always other variants:
“this is not how the story ends, my friend,
it’s just a fork along the road.”

- “Come On Up To Our House” is the final track of the album, and Jon knew exactly when the new album was finished: “I just knew that nothing is missing, when the songs began with an ‘I’, and ended on a ‘We’.” The line
“All Are Welcome at Our Table”
originates even from one of the Soul Kitchen restaurants that are operated by his own foundation: “Inclusion is incredibly important to me,” says the head of the band.

All those lyrics are useless unless they are accompanied by a great melody and a production that rise up.

Waiting for some kind of breakthrough. I guess next week we will hear something new.

Jeez....

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Getting excited now, nice little break down of descriptions some great titles! So.. if any when can we expect some promo?

Should release more details next week, and sometime in the next two weeks, possibly launch a full song on itunes. It happened with What About Now. But I guess shall put first some kind of piece, snippet. I remember the snippet of This Is Love and No Apologies, it was exciting.

They also did the snippets on Lost Highway. I hope we at least have an idea of song styles if we don't get snippets this time. The lyric teases were good but it would have stirred the imagination better if they had referenced the music too.

The early early Lost Highway snippets fans founs accidentally and weren't ment to be found. Usually official album snippets come a month before. I May go back to past album threads here to see at what point they came out.

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Interesting. I didn't know that. I remember the official site previewing them. I do wish the band/JBJ were more forthcoming when interviewed. I distinctly remember during the build up to KTF how open Jon was. I've several recorded radio interviews somewhere were he talks about the forthcoming album and tour, even going as far as talking about a stage design they were thinking of using. (They never did)