2020: The New Album
 

JBJ hinted that there's a Bon Jovi album coming up next year and John Shanks posted a photo from the studio recently. I guess there's work to be done and the new record is the making.

Dread to think how it sounds with Shanks on guitar.

and the crowd will go mild

While I don't doubt that there gearing up for another album, today's post from Phil X clearly indicates that they're just rehearsing their standard material. Jon said at some point this year that they keep rehearsing on a constant basis to keep the band in groove.

Saw the pic on Shanks' IG stories this morning... there's Hugh, there's the white mic stand, so they're not working on the new album but rehearsing for the upcoming Japan and OZ tour.

Yeah, my bad, I misread that, it's a rehearsal still the news about the album is out :P

No offense but the news has been out for a long time they're considering having another ready in time for next summer.

at least now here's a proper thread about it -_-

if they rehearshe for a couple of days i m sure jon will be tempted to try a couple new songs.
when phil x was asked 1-2 months back his repsonse was...i guess there will be a new record since jon is a workaholic...from which i assume he is nt part of it yet... i d like to know the relationship and the dynamics in the new line up...how come he doesnt push to be more involved?? in a recent phil x interview he also stated that he has declined one call from bj because he wasnt available and afterwards he was a bit worried if his gig is at risk..
ps. i love the band, i ll travel from greece to see them in europe, i get excited with new releases but without riche isnt te same for me

Hell, at this point I'd even be excited about the band playing something like Open All Night in Japan or Australia... with the exceptions of Endicott, Sao Paulo and Montreal night #2, the set lists on this tour have been unacceptably bland. Even Jersey night #2 was very vanilla until the encore.

Shanks' guitar playing is all over Burning Bridges and THINFS, possibly even earlier albums as well.

You could take away something away for Steel Horse to complain about but he'll find another.

Shanks ain't a bad player, what he's playing is the problem.

Not a fan of his soloing, to be honest. Then again, we got Bobby doing solos when Richie was still in the band.

I mean 1 for sure, the rest I'd bet was all Richie with the rhythm work a mix of Shanks and Richie. I kind of wonder if their are tracks Richie didn't play on at all. I've suspected Thief of Hearts for years.

I like Shank's solos when he has a chance to let rip. Same with Richie. Too many single note pluckings doused in echo with the part repeated twice an octave apart. Boring.

I'm With You's solo was better than any of Shanks' or Phil's ones, IMO. For Bon Jovi, that is of course.

Have A Nice Day part 5

I've always thought that Richie didn't really play on Fast Cars for some reason.

If we'd get another album in the vein and with the quality of HAND, I'd honestly be happy at that point. It's by now means my favourite, but it had a freshness and energy to it that I sorely miss nowadays.

I just want something that's different and doesn't sound like it was put together in 5 minutes. I'd much rather them try something cool and not hit the mark instead of THINFS mk2.

I'd never though I'd say this, but at this point I'd rather have them try something as far left or right field as TLFR. Sure, that didn't go over too well, but it was a brave effort. Something that doesn't sound like we've had a few times already.
I've no problem with Jon not utilizing Phil in the songwriting process, maybe that wouldn't work (didn't work with David either). But if they come together to rehearse for shows every few weeks anyway, I sincerely hope that they start to flesh out the new songs together in the way and the combination that they're gonna play it on stage afterwards. Like New Year's Day, but with a proper guitar playing :)

Something genuine is what I'm looking for, a bit of imagination as well.

Aloha !

He gets a chance to let it rip during Keep The Faith every night and he still sounds like ass with his pointless noodling. I'm not denying he's a great guitar player, but so is Phil X yet every single guitar solo he does sounds off. It's why I don't understand why people are insisting he could deliver in the studio. His style of playing doesn't fit the Bon Jovi sound but then again, the entire band doesn't sound like Bon Jovi anymore so what's the point, really? These guys have yet to come up with something memorable.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

In the context of new material, I'll take it. His KTF solo lacks energy but as far as new songs in the studio, Fingerprints shows he can play bluesy solos not far off from Richie's framework. Live classics, absolutely, keep him away.

If the band is going to continue I'd rather it be as something new but it's not like they're going to drop 2/3s of the setlist. :(

Aloha !

I don't get the praise for Fingerprints. Sure, it sounds bluesy, but that solo is a prime example of something that's just not going anywhere. It feels like it's building up to something and then eventually doesn't deliver. It's with all the guitar solo's these guys are doing. No start, middle and end. Just noise.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Ive been sent the new album name by my contact at universal. Stays on here............

These days in New Jersey its Slippery When Wet at 7800F. That temp will Crush and Bounce the Lost Highway so much This Left Feels Right but we all have to Keep The Faith so we can Have A Nice Day.

Please. It must stay on here....

This is completely right, of course, but is it really any different to what Richie was doing for 10-15 years? I think Captain was saying Shanks sounds like he could do something interesting but the framework of Bon Jovi prevents him, as it does Phil and even Richie.

Perhaps the only person with no blame for this situation is Phil, as he just does what he is told.

Bingo bango. They can change producers, change guitarists, add new writers, this is how they want it to sound. Every one of them is CAPABLE of better but it sounds phoned in. Richie's guitar playing got more and more watered down from Crush onwards. Bounce was double tracked guitars with baritones tucked underneath. It sounded heavy but technically it wasn't anything special.

I listened to These Days in full yesterday and picked up on a lot of new things. On most of the songs Richie's backing vocals is panned slightly left and it sounds like you're standing in between them sometimes. The first half of the album I noticed the last chord of the songs would be close to the start of the next song. Work was put into guitar parts that sounded raw and didn't need five distorted guitar stacked playing a single echoy note.

The raw swagger, any bluesy sounds have been sucked out of them. But hearing Fingerprints and Who Do You Die For to me tells me they have it in them to do a bit different and veer from the formula. We me have to agree to disagree, Fingerprints is one of the better post 2000 solos.

Im not talking bout the quality of the album,Im talking about the sound of the album.
I have the feeling of being listening to the same album since 2005

Can't think nothing worse than a HAND sounding album...other than a THINFS, WAN , Circle or LH sounding album!

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Lost Highway was the most decent sounding album post-2000.

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Well sure, of course!

nicely said these days for me is a masterpiece!!! so many great great songs, melodies,harmonies, performances. its a tragic irony that a band so popular managed to have its best work tragicaly overlooked. for me its to this day impressive how jon and richie took 3-4 of the most common chords in rock and wrote a masterpiece like these days. i could talk for hours for this record. love it from start to finish.
regarding phil xs and shanks guitarwork...listened to the ktf performance. sth is off, i agree with seb its not climaxing..its mostly shredding while richie, when he was on, he took the song and lifting it to the next lvl. phil xs skill is obvious but he isnt doing the songs real justice...a small example i notice every time...the bed of roses lick just before the last chorus repeat...richies is so essential and musical(2-3 notes and a bend) while phil x simply CANT nail it, i ve seen through you tube the song 20-30 times in various concerts...he simply cant(which makes me angry to jon who used to give rich stink eyes with every opportunity while now the guitarists sound like a coverband...i m confident the guitarists of kings of suburbia would play better some of the songs..)
i was impressed by shanks in 2 occasions, his fretwork in a teardrop to the sea and we dont run...nice phrasing and tones.reminds me a bit bobby guitar work in destination solo record...it fitted the songs, it was fresh, it was welcome

Steel Horse once told me I was too negative on twitter. It's quite amusing to think he's probably the most negative on here recently.

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I think HAND and LH are both very well produced albums, for different reasons. The songwriting has its ups and downs, but the sound itself is clear, consistent and achieves the most out of those songs. Come at me mf'ers!

TC/WAN/BB/THINFS, on the other hand...

Blame it on the bands recent output

I know nothing about production, but I LOVE Lost Highway. Maybe because it was the first album they released after I started following them or maybe because of what you said, that made it good in ways I don't know enough to consciously pick out. Whatever it is, I like it from start to finish. The LH DVD is one that I can watch again and again.

HAND is one that I haven't listened to as much since I bought it. I probably need to listen to it again. Lately, since somebody started the thread about WAN, I've had that one on repeat in my car; and I still don't get the hate for it. It may not be one of their best; but I like something about every song on it. This is probably sacrilege to some, but I realized the other day that I actually think "Amen" is a better song than "Hallelujah" - and it's definitely one of Jon's best 'solo' songs, imo.

I honestly don't think any of their albums are bad. In fact, I don't think any of their songs are bad.

(Except WFTWM. That one's pretty bad.) :)

No it's you constantly beating a dead horse in conversations that have nothing to do with it. Obviously you're not happy with it, at some point you gotta move on and let people enjoy it who do.

Dead horse? That’s Guns N Roses. Wrong band.

Who Would You Die For actually is a great song which was wasted in a forced album in order to complete their contract with Mercury/Island.

Fingerprints is also very nice. I personally loved We Don't Run from that album. Could be easily a lead single in any other album in 2000s/2010s