Review: 1 - Bon Jovi
 

Here you go... Review the album, give your thoughts, and your likes and dislikes. Review the debut album, "Bon Jovi".

Ryan

Well, okay, I will stat that.

For a debut album from young boys coming from nowhere, I have to say its an excellent album. But if you compare it to their other works, (sww, nj, ktf...etc) you can clearly see they didnt know really well where they wanted to go and what style they wanted to play. One of my regrets is that in alot of the songs they are using the same chords, wich is making all the songs sounds the same, though they all have something different that makes you say: hey, they have talent.

Runaway is the song that made it first. A strong keyboard intro, a good storyline, great vocals and cool guitar works, and the song is on every radio station, good work overall.

Roulette keeps me wondering. The lyrics are cool , imo, the metaphor and all, I like it. but when it comes to the song, musically, im not sure anymore. maybe too much keyboards, i dont know, but theres something bugging me. but its a good song and im glad its on the album.

She dont know me is probably the song i dislike the most on the album. The band didnt wrote it, and you can see that, trough the lyrics AND through the music. I have nothing else to say on that one.

Shot trough the heart is a really good song. it shows their ability to put some simple lyrics on a great musical font and make it sounds awesome.

Love Lies and Breakout are kinda similar in some point. You can see in these songs that they werent really sure of themselves, so they took a song they like, and kinda repeat it

Burning For Love is good, thought not one of my favorites. Its in the same style as every song, though I prefer the other ones.

Come Back is one of my fave!!! I love that song. Energy, Emotion, Guitar, Voice, Keyboard......i dont think i have to name it all lol

Get Ready is one of the typic 'im-starting-to-get-big-so-I-wanna-show-my-rock n roll-side' if you know what I mean

Im pretty happy with that album, though there would be some song that I would take off. Anyway, hope you enjoyed my review

The first album, Bon Jovi, is one of my favorite, cause its all in all full of 80's rock sense and style, that I love.
I personally like it more than Keep the faith, Crush, Bounce, One wild night and This left feels right.
The songs are musically great, but lyrically they are really weak. too bad they dont play from this album anymore. i would really like to hear these songs live.

Runaway: I dont like the song so much, not that its a bad song, i just cant relate to it, the idea of the song is good, but they way its said is so bad.
also no Richie in the song, so i dont bother listening to it so much...

Roulette: one of my favorite of the album, the lyrics is stupid, but the song really rocks!

She don't know me: I like the song, not a real rock tune, but its a beautiful song, with a catchy lyrics. different from the whole album, kinda reminds me of Without love.
They should care about this song and play it, who cares if the band hasnt written it? there are other songs on the albums that jon isnt the writer, thought his name is mentioned.

Shot through the heart: I like the piano on this songs, the song is similar to Runaway and I'd die for you. good song totally.

Love lies: I like this song more than the other songs on the album, i think its so great. David does a really great job on the song.
I also really like the lyrics, and the guitar and bass work is also wonderful. and what can I say about vocals?? listen to the last chorus and see how great jon sings it.
everything about the song is so great, thats why its my favorite through the whole album.

Breakout: another good song on the album, nothing special about the lyrics, but guitars are good like other songs on the album.

Burning for love: great upbeat rock song, another favorite of mine from the album, though I dont like the lyrics.

Come back: My secend favorite from the album, nothing special about the lyrics, but its the guitar work that makes me like this song.
All of the riffs that richie playes, with a nice solo. i really like this song.

Get ready: probably the hardest song on the album, with a nasty lyrics ;) i like the song so much, another great guitar work from richie.

As a quick comment - this sound of this album always reminds me of the group Journey.

Kathleen

This is one of my favourite Jovi albums. Although some of the songs sound similar, it is a good debut and a good showcase for the band's talents. Way better than Crush.

I think it was a good debut for a comercial rock band. I love nearly all the songs on that record, even though a few of em may be cheesy. Favourate tracks are Runaway, Roulette, Shot Through The Heart, and Get Ready.

I think the lyrics are very meaningful. Have you ever played Roulette? It can be bloody addictive and many good people have come to ruin gambling in games such as Roulette. "Caught up in a game you can't win." That's really true. You can obviously win, but if you don't know when to walk away then you're never gonna be a winner. I think you should listen a little more carefully and perhaps play a little Roulette if you wanna understand more.

I 2nd that. :D

Dawn

First of all, it's an opinion. And you have to remember that Arash isn't a native English speaker and if I remember correctly he's been asking a lot about lyrics here, so it's no wonder if he misses a metaphore or two.

Ice

Aloha !

I don't understand why someone should play roulette to understand the lyrics from Roulette. :|

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

i havent played roulette, and i know what u mean, i just said its stupid cause i think it was stupid to make a song about Roulettes...

Rob, see what I mean?

Ice

It's a good debut, youthful and hungry for life; although it's lacking some of the confidence of later albums, and does sound a bit dated now. It's got some really good guitar work on it though. I do think it has a very 'street kids' kind of feel to it, it's quite tough sounding and gritty in places, but is also clearly an album by young people. Jon hasn't quite developed into his vocal style yet (although I have to say, I do quite like the extremely high notes that are all over the album :) ), and of course, they haven't yet discovered the fantastic Jon/Richie harmonies, so backing vocals tend to consist of 'all band members shout out single words" :roll: . Good solid heavy drumming on this album, and also Dave more prominent than usual, although the synthesisers do tend to sound a little, erm, dodgy after a while.

Runaway- Obviously a classic, but more a Jon solo song really, as he's the only one who plays on it (except for Hugh of course). Anthemic and pop-metalish.... a clue to where they were gonna go in 1986

Roulette- Nice riff, good heavy song, good backing vocals, and good lyrics.. tis a good song, not much else to say though.

She Don't Know Me- I admit to have a sneaking fondness for this song :oops: yah, it's quite poppy, but in a good way I feel, although Jon sounds really really young in it. The chorus works well, with the multiple voice tracks. Good drumming as well, especially at the beginning

Shot Through The Heart- Fantastically atmospheric, very spooky sounding piano at the beginning, great vocals and lyrics, fantastic guitar work... can't fault it, definetly one of the album's finest moments.

Love Lies- Pretty good, dark tinged song. I like the way the vocals are at a different tempo to the music in places, making it seem as though the music drifts underneath... I like the high notes as well! :D

Breakout- Pretty good song, but nothing special IMO. I like the backing vocals in places, and the chorus is quite good, but not really much else to say

Burning For Love- Nice pace on this one, rocks pretty good, I love it up until about the end of the first chorus, especially the way the first verse moves into the chorus.... then it gets a little repetetive. Still a good song though

Come Back- Great song! Brilliantly written, with a great hook, and fantastic riffs and vocal effects. I likes it :)

Get Ready- Uh... No, not a big fan of this one. Sounds pretty **** really, not much else to say about it. Worst song on the album

Overall, good debut, little patchy, and lack of really classic songs lets it down a bit. It's also not too experimental, just mostly straight ahead rock. It does have some good songs though, so I will give it a nice 7/10

Keep On Rockin'

Aye ok, fair enough, but if you'd played the game then you'd understand a lot more. This song became a little more meaningful to me after I had had my first experience of Roulette, and it is definately not a stupid song. I know its easy to think it's stupid though because the lyrics do sound a little cheesy, but they are meaningful if you listen a litter closer.

Memories .... not very many for this one I'm afraid:

Listening to it for the first time just while getting ready to go to my High School Leaver's Ball

Hearing Runaway for the first time on One Wild Night Live after playing the video game The Bouncer, and being struck about how the lyrics seemed to apply to that game

Hearing the opening of Runaway at Hyde Park, and hearing my friend (a casual fan) scream in recognition

Listening to the album at night, on a long car journey, the day before I split up with my girlfriend at the time.... the songs took on a new meaning after that

Keep On Rockin'

It's fair as debuts go, but nothing special. The album does have its moments with songs like Roulette and Shot Through the Heart, but mostly it's the same thing over and over again. It's not a bad album, but it's not stellar either. I'll just say it's a nice start for a great band.