Sloth!!! HAHAHAHA

I saw them in Denver 2 months ago and I liked the setup because the (core) members were all pretty visible, Dave was even in the spotlights a few times.

yeah well. ok perhaps not as whole. but country part is there. I never said it was anything like "real" country, more like something of a crossover of a crossover. Little by little sliding more and more towards meaningless nashville oriented chart & radio friendly easy-to-forget junk. Newer material, it may be arranged bit differently, but deep down everything they put out would suit, for example LeAnn Rimes perfectly. Besides, nowadays they do target same audience as "real" countrypoppers. From my point of view, it is understandable to water everything down and add less rocking elements. I just don't like it a bit.

Exactly - and I saw several Phil shows back in 2011 (and obviously I'm going to see more this time around). Phil was almost a welcome relief at that time, he was so much more "into it" than Richie had been for a while. Those shows were fine, better than fine actually but were missing the signature harmonies. Fix that and it would go a long way to making me happier.

They definitely have a bit of country in their sound now, probably in hopes to maintain whatever audience they gained with "Who says...". A little attention they got with that song and boom!!! - Lost Highway happened. That was the band's Nickelback moment, the most shameful part of their career. It's not over though. God forbid they ever colaborate with some rapper and the single takes off.... Next thing you know, Jon will be all like "Yeah, we were always influenced by hip-hop and rap so naturally our new album was influenced by the sounds of Compton". Yeah, Jon's gonna rap, and fans are gonna be like, "yay #1 album"! And I will die a little reminiscing about the band I really liked in 90s. But I'll probably buy a Bon Jovi Crips rag to wear in my back pocket.

Most shameful part of their career? Lost Highway is a masterpiece, it has great melodies with great lyrics and a nice production, more shameful is what came after it: The Circle and What About Now.

Has the sound really changed? There's zero difference live between Lost Highway (the song) and Hard Times Come Easy, and Saturday Night, and Destination Anywhere. I've never bought the "they've gone country" crud, they just changed what it was called.

No. It's not. And no, it has not. Production, well, can't save sh*t with sparkles.

Lost highway can't be marked as turning point though. Out goes rock and in comes.....whatever.

Perhaps the sound hasn't changed that much, I give you that. Songs and arrangements has. Too much and for a lot worse.

If posted elsewhere I apologize, (actually been earning my pay today at work!) Phil X appears to have changed his Twitter status/info.

Phil X
@TheRealPhilX

bio/detailed discography on philx.tv right now i'm playing guitar & touring the world with BON F#©KING JOVI. .... of course, only until RS comes back


Of course. :D

He always says in interviews how they remained true to themselves and didn't hire a rapper to bring on stage when that was cool and stuff. I know yours was tongue in cheek, but I just wanted to point that out.


I agree. I think the whole album may sound a little different, but it's definitely Bon Jovi. As they said, it's a Nashville-influenced Bon Jovi album. It's not a country album or even a pop-country album, but some people are obsessed with this myth so much that they'll even diss anything post-2007 as country-pop. It's silly.