All we’ve really heard on two albums with Phil is two flashy solos (BAT and BD). I’m not his biggest fan, but he’s a very accomplished guitarist and should be given the chance to be the solo player instead of Shanks, who is mediocre at best. Similar to Richie? Maybe the post 2000 watered down Richie Samboring as Phil once called him.

Shanks’ best was on Burning Bridges, Phil should Have taken over and should be putting a lot more into Bon Jovi.

True but Shanks had to fight like hell to get BD to sound like it did. To say "all we've heard from" isn't really accurate, it's more "All that sounds closer to the style he plays". I hear him throughout the new album and here and there on THINFS but he's doing what he's paid to do, serve the song and be in the background.

I absolutely agree about Jon's assessment about Shanks's style of bluesier playing at times. When he's not trying to replicate U2, Pink Floyd and The Killers, a song like Fingerprints is pretty much in Richie's wheelhouse.

Just to amuse myself I'm going to reply without reading the other posts first and make the prediction that nobody will agree with me. The love for this song is unreal :p

So, let's start by saying that I'm still unable to rate this song. I'm usually very good at this, because unlike many fans (*wink*wink*) who rate an album as the best one since TD with every subsequent release, I know my limitations and I know when I'm going to get tired of a song pretty easily, when it will grow on me and well, that when I hate a song it will stay in that status forever, and I'm almost never wrong. BITW is a weird one, I guess because it's part of a weird album but also because my brain is saying YES! and NOPE at the same time and I just don't know.

The song is 80% greatness. The intro is truly beautiful (I wonder if the Dire Straits vibe is a cheeky reference or just a weird coincidence, my older kid *pins proud parent badge on* said that it reminded her of Another Brick in The Wall, so who knows), the first verse starts off good then deflates a bit and veers into cheesy/heavy-handed territory, then the chorus kicks in and OMFG THIS IS PURE PERFECTION. The music, the lyrics, the delivery, I JUST WANT TO LIVE IN THIS MOMENT FOREVER.
The second verse is good stuff too, not mindblowing but pretty strong, then again the chorus WHICH I ****ING LOVE IN CASE YOU DIDN'T GET IT THE FIRST TIME and then... the solo, which I don't mind but it tries too hard to be Dry County and Phil is not Richie (I'm assuming that's Mr. X playing) and he shouldn't even try. Phil is good at fun songs and 80s sound when it comes to his contribution to Jovi songs but that should be it. I know it's not Phil's fault, Jon wrote this song to be pretty much a bookend to DC, lyrically, thematically and musically so the solo had to be in the same vein, but it doesn't wow me. It's not bad, it's just... not Richie and I just don't want to be reminded of Richie, which this solo does. Minus points.

And then the bridge ruins the song. I'm not going to go into detail because I've already rambled enough about this particular part of the song, but it's just such a ****ing shame that the song had to end on a whimper. The lyrics in the bridge just take me out of it completely, like coming off the best high and crashing into reality hard. More minus points.

In any case, I'd give it a 7-8 as my initial verdict, if only because the chorus deserves 10000 at least. Maybe my final verdict will be an 8 because it made me realize that I didn't make a mistake in marrying my husband when he recognized DC thirty seconds into the song and was even able to hum it a little bit to prove he knew what song he was referring too (hubby only knows the big hits and I certainly don't force him to listen to BJ) and that made me very proud of him. I'm kidding of course about the marrying part, but I thought it was very cute and made me go awww for a second so plus points for that.

Edit: Of course y'all love it, wasn't expecting any less. I stand corrected about the solo though... where did the info come from? I thought Phil was the lead guitarist in all songs except for the Fingerprints copycat solo, isn't he?

I really like that you wanted to hear what other people thought about the lyrics instead of just asking about the song.

As I've already wrote about the lyrics in another thread I don't want to bore anybody with more of my analysis. I think the lyrics are a mix of pretty straightforward references to Trump's run as president and some of his politics (clear reference to immigrant struggles) and more "poetic" references to the very similar themes in Dry County, hence the swimming in the water (instead of sand), the devil, etc. I think the good lyrics are superbly written to weave all the threads (the real-life references, the metaphors and the callbacks to DC) and work seamlessly. But that's my interpretation of course, to me the fact that DC was chosen as a blueprint is not a coincidence, it's as I said a callback to let the listener know that not only that world didn't improve, it got even worse (more references to the devil instead of God, the water being tainted by blood, etc).

Or it could be just political lyrics and nothing more.

Curious to hear what others have to say :)

It's unconfirmed who does the solo on what, we're as far as we are based on song credits from the booklet. Phil didn't play on Story of Love and one or two others, forget which.

Wow ! Wow ! Wow ! What a song.

The intro is beautiful, and as soon as the first chorus kicked in, I jumped from my bed yelling “YEEES”. You can actually hear Tico playing on this one !

I didn’t expect a song as good as this by today’s version of Bon Jovi.

These Days and Dry County are a 10/10 for me. I rate this a solid 9. Maybe I’d rate it a 10 if there was an outro solo. But I must say I’m impressed. Fantastic tune ! I don’t like the rest of the album, but this might be one of their best efforts post 2000.

Cheers

Eduardo


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I'm struggling a little with the lyrics in terms of which point of view it's being told from. For the first two verses, I interpret it as an illegal immigrant talking to Trump and basically saying that he'll be out of office soon and describing his background of living in the shadows and being afraid of deportation. From there, I'm not sure. For the part "They say the noose fits like a necktie Sir, you're gonna fit right in", is that maybe the devil or someone talking to Trump before he gets involved in politics? And at the end is it being told from Trump's POV and he's calling himself a "Russian hack by trade"? I think that's my best guess but it's kind of confusing, and I think the song is told from multiple perspectives.

In an interview with USA Today Jon explained some references.

«Question: What's the first song you wrote for "2020?"
Jon Bon Jovi: "Blood in the Water," and that was over two years ago. That's the one song about the current administration, and two years down the road, the story still holds up today. I can tell you the references: "Your shadow sold your secrets." Michael Cohen. "They say the noose fits like your necktie." Russian ties. "A storm is coming." Stormy Daniels or impeachment or the election.
Without taking sides, these are the facts and so I wrote it down. You know, "There's blood in the water. They're comin'. How you gonna deal with it?" I enjoyed being this narrator, this voyeur. And throughout this record, I sort of feel like that.»

I barely post anything and haven't done for a long time. For years, Bon Jovi has been off my more immediate radar and taken a backseat in favor of other music though I still keep me updated.

But this song?

I can't help it but this is what Bon Jovi is for me. No matter how I twist or turn it, this is everything I want from this band and I had no idea they had it in them to do another song like this. It fits right smack into the 90's Bon Jovi. The feeling, the heart, the bluesy guitar. It's not without fault, but almost. Not gonna nitpick, this is just great.

A strong 7 from me, definitely one of the better recent offerings but loses a couple of points as a direct copy of Dry County and not being as good obviously.

2020 has surprised me, there is more quality than I expected. The 4 previously released songs don't reflect the album overall.