That actually explains it. I was wondering what the deal was. A song should grab a listener from the first line. This song fails to do that and actually does the opposite.

I hate this production too. It's not that pounding sound that once existed.



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Much much better than i expected, i like it.

Still would not see him live while he sounds like he does, but not a bad song at all

So now even in the studio they cannot fix his voice anymore. Time to retire. The song is godawful.

As much as i hate the thought, I'm now convinced that they only way they can make him sound decent is to use AI, and the only way he's going to be able to tour is to mime. The song itself is OK at best. I'm not sure we needed another Bon Jovi Christmas song if I'm honest.

Cashgrab from who? It's just a marketing song. The band was on a hiatus for quite a while and things were silent for a long time. Given it's Christmas (almost) it's a good way to grab media attention, fan attention and prepare for the launch of your next album after a while. Nonetheless both Island Records, Bon Jovi camp and even Live Nation / AEG has some very good marketeers to push through.

IF it was done in the vein of the album being recorded, I blame them for the little effort. If you listen to it with headphones or just decent sound boxes (first listen was on mobile phone speakers on the road yesterday), you hear that it all sounds somewhat cheap and made in a hurry. Even if it ain't part of an album that's no excuse for me. Things like I Wish Everyday Could Be Like Christmas or Please Come Home For Christmas, as seasonal songs, were well and nicely produced too.
And I agree that the start of the song sounds so bad vocally it throws people off. The song has a decent melody, that's something Jon's still good at I believe.
And what people call rasp is hoarse voice in 80% of the song here.
Have Jon record a song at his best capabilities and then use some slight AI (not to create lines and melodies he never sang, but to smooth it out by having the machine learn his pure vocal tracks from like 2007 to 2016 or so). That way we could still get a decent studio result. Live is off the books for me by now.

Looking through the comments of the lyric video, I can't help but think they filter/delete comments.

Was looking through the comments earlier as well and thought the same thing. Almost exclusively positive comments about Jon’s voice. Either they’re deleting negative comments or we’re just too close to it while causals/the general public don’t actually notice the issues as much as we do.


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It’s Number 5 on the UK ITunes chart at the moment

Sadly, that's the way the Bon Jovi camp used to do things for at least a decade by now. Big promises they can't keep anymore.
Or to say it with the original Rosie bridge:
Promises are promised so they're meant to keep,
some are meant to break because you're in too deep