This House Is Not For Sale: Album Reviews

Greetings Jovi friends/fanatics.
Please everyone read the Asbury Park Press review. So much insite from the author in the most positive of ways as well as diving into why Bon Jovi is misunderstood by the media masses yet beloved by many of us hardcore fans.
Cheers.

Allmusic has a positive review for the album, they gave it 3 and half stars, the last time they gave such a positive review (4 stars) it was for Crush...

http://www.allmusic.com/album/this-h...e-mw0002976901

The audience rating is doing pretty good as well, with 4 stars


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So, a few thoughts on THINFS the album from me. Now that I listened to it about 3 times after picking it up this morning.

- This House Is Not For Sale: THINFS is THINFS. Afaik, I gave it a rating of 7. And I'll stick do it. It does its job and, well, I guess it's better than most of WAN.
- Living with the Ghost: Has great emotional lyrics, an energetic song overall. Piano and drums sound good. The only downside is the synthetic sound during the solo. Sounds too "programmed" imo.
- Knockout: A bit dull, but with lots of energy. Does its job fairly well.
- Labor of Love: I know it's like by many here, but it doesn't really do anything for me. Fits on this place on the album, though.
- Born Again Tomorrow: A great track, still would have liked it a bit rawer (actually prefer the live version, but not enough to swap it). Bold songwriting, catchy melodies, nice solo.
- Rollercoaster: Slight electronic vibe, which doesn't have to be bad, although the lead vocals on the chorus are so robotic. Louder backing vocals would have helped a lot (live version!). Still takes you with it, like the ups and downs of the song.
- New Years Day: Don't like the sudden beginning that much, also everything seems to "fit" a bit "too well", if you understand me. Plus some "New Years Day"s sound a bit too robotic for my liking. Like the sound of the cymbals, the lyrics and the songwriting in general. It's a bit like water + more guitars.
- The Devil's in the Temple: Pure genius, imho. Great energy and lyrics. Wonder what even a little, well-crafted solo (by Phil, preferrably) could have done to it.
- Scars on this Guitar: I actually like the production on this one, voice, the acoustic guitar and the backing vocals sound especially good. A nice track overall, with a significant country touch. What I don't like are the Burning-Bridges-style backing vocals towards the end. Don't fit the song at all.
- God Bless this Mess: Great energy, catchy melodies, like that punchy, defiant mood. Especially like the bridge. With a small, well-made solo it would be better than THINFS imo.
- Reunion: WLOL part 2, so I hope they switch that out for this, as Reunion is something fresh at least. Like the drums and the ending. Still, it's nothing special and that repetitive guitar motive with that strange sounds bother me a bit.
- Come on up to Our House: A good album ending song, for sure. WIth a slight Christmas touch. A sweet little song with nice guitar licks, also like the "new" more organic drum sound Tico has on this and on a few other songs compared to the electronic-sounding ones you could for example hear on WAN.

- Real Love: Blind Love part II, a bit more refined. With better string arrangements. I find Jon's voice on the bridge (the loud part) a bit strange. Speaking of voice, I would have loved Richie's backing vocals, they could have improved this so much.
- All Hail the King: I really love that one, the rhythm, melody, instruments, sound, even though it's a bit too synthetic at some parts. Still, it could have been better for me, if there wasn't that Soul Kitchen reference written over it (as someone already pointed out on here - there could be so many great interpretations of this one).
- "New" We Don't Run: Overall preferring the old, "rawer" version. The only improvement is the bolder bass guitar during the solo, imo.

- I Will Drive You Home: DA written all over it. With a certain modern vibe, of course. Solid effort overall, although I think that it stays a little bit below its potential (bridge), don't know what to think about the ending - don't hate it, but don't love it either. Let's just say: it fits.
- Goodnight NY: Mediocre at its best, maybe to be rated "Mediocre-Minus". Super-superficial song writing. Cringeworthy garbage truck beep line. I have the feeling to have heard this somewhere before. Besides this, the verses are a bit of a mixture between "We Didn't Start the Fire" and "Hail Hail" (by Pearl Jam) for me, don't ask my why
- Touch of Grey: To stay in the field of Billy Joel comparisons, I would say the lyrics remind me very much of his "Shades of Grey" (notice the similarities of the titles). And it's obviously very reminiscent of "Wake Me Up When September Ends", but I guess I'm telling you nothing new there. It's very catchy, especially the chorus melody and the "hey hey hey" part, and it's got a really nice bridge. Still, it reminds me of shopping mall music, but at least good shopping mall music. And I can't help myself but like it.

So, my overall verdict? 9 out of 10. It's not perfect, mainly because I would prefer a slightly rawer sounds at some points. And as to the next album: I would welcome another album of a similar vein, but would wish that Phil would be allowed to stay a bit longer on board during the creative process and add a few more solos, fill-ins and licks to the songs. Maybe he could even co-write some stuff (Jon didn't exclude this possibility when asked).
Back to THINFS: It's got no definitive filler or even skip tracks for me, and although I might sound negative at some points, I really like the album and think it will stick with me for some time now. I'm not so much a fan of the quiter tracks, but they do their job, they earn their place, and I know that it can be exhausting to listen to upbeat, energetic tracks for 45 minutes since I have been to a concert with the Dirty Thrills as opening act

Edit: i forgot to write this, so here is some more
Regarding We don't run: yep, bleeding purist is right. The voice in the chorus Sounds more organic, if you actually dare to use that expression to describe it. At least it Sounds less like it was glued together.
And to the Album in General: i think from the Perspective of a fan It's Kind of a rebirth of the band. Musically We don't Get so much New, but energy, feeling, (Most of the time) honest lyrics. Thinfs keeps the roots of Bon Jovi Music, especially Post-2k Bon Jovi, but That's alright with me, because it is an honest and heart-driven Album. We already saw this with BB, at least partly, but although I liked that a lot, thinfs is the rockier and more energetic an surely more diverse Album of the two, so I would Say It's slightly better. What I doubt, whatever, is that it will attract many New Fans. Some, for sure, but I don't think they Sound "fresh" enough of "rocky" enough to do so. But We will See, and maybe, with the right Marketing... Would love to see a growing fanbase again

Well done Manbou!!
Very objective and fair review with plenty of knowledgeable insight.
We agree on many aspects on THINFS. We differ on a few.
For example, I'm really digging Goodnight NY, yet I understand why some fans would not necessarily be as high on this track.
About to head to Target to pickup the exclusive version.
I'll make my full indepth review sometime next week.
Just a heads up. I believe this is primarily the "media driven" album review section so you might want to repost it in the appropriate thread. Cheers.

The fact that the chorus sounds more natural as if it were done in one take versus the BB version is another improvement.

Review by The Times: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/po...sale-l8njx60fw

Since I think it's subscription only I'll paste it here:

"ALBUM REVIEW
Pop: Bon Jovi: This House Is Not For Sale
Will Hodgkinson
November 4 2016, 12:01am,
The Times

Bon Jovi are too long in the tooth to appeal to a younger generation
★★★☆☆

Vast success in the 1980s means that Bon Jovi will for ever be associated with big rock and even bigger hair. Living On a Prayer is just too enormous an end-of-night anthem to consign to history and those lustrous manes of man-curls won’t be forgotten in a hurry. Yet Bon Jovi have for the past two decades veered towards the unadorned heartland rock of their fellow New Jerseyite Bruce Springsteen, and now comes This House is Not For Sale, an unpretentious paean to resilience with more than a touch of the Boss’s heroic spirit to it.

The album comes in the wake of testing times for Bon Jovi. Their guitarist Richie Sambora walked out midway through a tour in 2013, there was a huge altercation with Mercury Records and the band found themselves in a difficult in-between spot: not yet up there with the untouchable heritage artists of the 1960s and 1970s but too long in the tooth to appeal to a younger generation.

All of this helps to give the album a bruised and battered feel, from the spirited, soulful defiance of This House is Not For Sale to the middle-aged moaning of God Bless This Mess. “My voice is shot, I’m going grey, these muscles all ache,” grumbles Jon Bon Jovi, falling short only of complaining about his knees and wondering why they have to play music so loudly in pubs these days. There’s a passionate, roughshod feel to it, but you do miss the all-American vitality and confidence with which Bon Jovi first made their name. (Island)"

Ultimate Classic Rock have updated their ranking of all Bon Jovi albums here
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/bon-j...worst-to-best/

They think that THINFS is the second to worst album (just ahead of WAN) which I think is totally unfair.

Every review basically says (in a roundabout way) that the band should go back to their old sound as that's what their known for.

This is pretty much how I feel about the album:

http://www.music-news.com/review/UK/...Album/Bon-Jovi

Thank you very much! So glad someone Took the time and actually read All of it

Afaik, the original Post Says that own Reviews are okay too. So I didn't Post this into the Album Rating section which seemed pretty dead to me.

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