An alright start
Hey,
Someone said that I could post some Bon Jovi album reviews here on the tour forum, so I'm now posting one - I hope you don't mind. I'll post my review of the first Bon Jovi album and if someone happens to like it, I could perhaps share some more reviews.
Although they're rather poorly written, my Bon Jovi album reviews have taken such a long time for me to write that I would hope that someone out there might find it interesting to read them. There's no denying that the reviews have been written from the point of view of a fan of the band, which may on a few occasions annoy the reader, but I have tried to maintain a fairly objective perspective in the reviews. I have rated each Bon Jovi album track with a rating from 1 to 5 "stars", and here is what the ratings mean:
*****(5): Superb. Brilliant. A triumph. These songs are simply the very best of Bon Jovi, and in some cases, even of all music around.
****(4): Excellent. Songs gaining this rating stand high above most of the band's music. These are great songs and far better than the so-called "average" Bon Jovi songs, but they still don't quite reach the level of the "five star" songs.
***(3): Good. These songs could be categorized as the "average" Bon Jovi songs. While hardly among Bon Jovi's best, they are good and mostly a fine demonstration of the quality of their music. But while they are good, they are not more than that and compared to their best stuff they are very mediocre.
**(2): Poor. These songs are quite simply not up to Bon Jovi's usual fine standards. Whether it is because of too shallow lyrics, too strong and tacky clichés or whatever the case, these songs are of noticeably low quality.
*(1): Crap. 'Nuff said.
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BON JOVI (1984)
The first Bon Jovi album was released in the USA in January 1984, and in the rest of the world in April 1984. Without getting into the earlier stages of the band, Bon Jovi were formed in 1983. At the time of founding the band they already had a record deal in their hands, so they went instantly into making their first album. The album was recorded in 1983 at the Power Station studios in New York, and it was produced by Lance Quinn and Jon's second cousin Tony Bongiovi. An original but thankfully dropped title suggestion for the album was "Tough Talk". The final decision of calling both the band and the album "Bon Jovi" was made by the record company money-men at Polygram. The music on the self-titled debut album is lightweight pop-rock accompanied with lyrics that deal vaguely with love and relationships. The debut album, which features a rather ugly cover of Jon and some woman posing in the middle of a street in a sloppy picture, was never a big hit. It reached number 43 in the US album charts and number 71 in the UK album charts, and did earn them their first gold record though.
Runaway
Written by: JBJ, George Karak
Status: The first ever Bon Jovi single released in January 1984, peaked at #39 in the US, did not chart in the UK
The song that created Bon Jovi. Because of Runaway's airplay in the radio in 1983 Jon finally got himself a record deal, then gathered up the other band members and they were on the way to record the first album. It was never any kind of breakthrough though; Runaway was only a minor hit, reaching US top 40 in February 1984, but it's more than fair to say that Runaway is where it all started. Runaway was written in 1982 with George Karak for "The Wild Ones", which was a sort of an early incarnation of Bon Jovi. Runaway was their first song. The Wild Ones never made it but Runaway stayed, and in 1983 the song started a life of its own, eventually landing Jon a record deal.
Runaway is built around a repetitive and catchy keyboard riff and lung-bursting choruses. Runaway has now and had even early on "hit" written all over it, and in fact, had it been made by a well-known band it could've perhaps hit the top of the charts. Unlike pretty much all other songs on the first two albums, Runaway actually has good lyrics. And unlike all the other songs on the first two albums, it hasn't suffered at all with time - it still sounds good. The song is very energetic and also unlike all other songs on the first two albums it is the only song that remained in the band's live set beyond the 1980s. Runaway is no less than a Bon Jovi classic and the best song of the first two albums.
Rating: ****
Roulette
Written by: JBJ, RS
Status: Album track
Written by Jon and guitarist Richie Sambora, this is the first fruit of a collaboration that would later on bring us many well-written classics. Roulette suffers a little from having to follow Runaway, however, the song still manages to sound pretty good. The song is catchy and leans clearly more towards rock than pop. Richie's guitar solo is good and overall this is one of the best songs of the album. This was also a part of the early live set and a fine live song in those days.
Rating: ***
She Don't Know Me
Written by: Marc Avsec
Status: Second single from the album released in May 1984, peaked at #48 in the US, did not chart in the UK
Written by someone called Marc Avsec, this is the only Bon Jovi song ever not written by any members of Bon Jovi, and written in 1980, this is also the oldest Bon Jovi song. She Don't Know Me is a good pop song; it is somewhat catchy, the lyrics are simple and easy enough and the song is instantly likeable. This is probably one of my personal favourites on the album. It was released as a single too, reaching no. 48 in the US.
Rating: ***
Shot Through The Heart
Written by: JBJ, Jack Ponti
Status: Album track
Shot Through The Heart was co-written by Jack Ponti, who was the guitarist and songwriter of "The Rest", a punk band Jon took part in for a while. That was in the early '80s and lasted only a short while; the band fell apart soon after Jon had been fired by Ponti. However, Shot Through The Heart survived and ended up on the first Bon Jovi album.
Lyrically the song is very reminiscent of You Give Love A Bad Name, in more ways than just the name which is a line in the chorus of Bad Name - the themes (if you can call them that) of both songs are the same. Bad Name borrowed from this song, and unfortunately, that didn't remain the only time when this band recycled their own material. Anyway, this is another catchy and good sing-along song, again an okay effort and one of the better tracks of the album.
Rating: ***
Love Lies
Written by: JBJ, David Rashbaum
Status: Album track
The first actually really bad song on the album. Written by the nowadays more than unusual combination of Jon and keyboard player David Bryan, Love Lies has rather weak lyrics - even for this album - and the song sounds like very typical '80s pop. The chorus is annoying and the whole song is very forgettable.
Rating: **
Breakout
Written by: JBJ, David Rashbaum
Status: Album track (also released as B-side to She Don't Know Me)
Another song written by Jon and David, this is better than Love Lies but still not really a good song. The lyrics are very similar to Love Lies. Breakout is a rock song, and clearly not as heavy as it was probably meant to be - the album version is a bit boring but this was much better live; the more rocking live version used to launch their shows in 1984 and was the second song in the set in 1985 and '86. Something of an early live favourite, the studio version of this song isn't quite as good as the song heard in concerts.
Rating: **
Burning For Love
Written by: JBJ, RS
Status: Album track
Burning For Love is the second song on the first album written by Jon and Richie. Lyrically it's the same stuff as the preceding five songs. This is a rather average song - not really bad though - but it's the same stuff that this album is full of; trifling 1980s soft rock... Burning For Love has a catchy chorus and a satisfactory guitar solo and it's perhaps better than Breakout, but the whole song isn't really memorable. It's not terrible but it's not really good either - not much more to say really.
Rating: **
Come Back
Written by: JBJ, RS
Status: Album track
This is a very weak track. The lyrics are very poor - as they are often on this album, but again here. The song is way too repetitive and boring, and it doesn't take many seconds until you've forgotten the whole thing. For as meaningless song as this it's a bit too long; you get tired to it within one minute. Like Love Lies, this is easily one of the weakest Bon Jovi songs.
Rating: **
Get Ready
Written by: JBJ, RS
Status: Album track
The album ends well with a good, fun rock song. Get Ready isn't good because of the lyrics (which are nonexistent) but because of the guitar riff and the fun beat of the song. It goes without saying that this song was made for playing live - and indeed it was a good live song in those early days, it was still played live in 1987 and even in 1988 on New Jersey's tour. I like this song, even though it is difficult to call a song like this actually good music. Also, being this fun, beat-driven sing-along song, Get Ready can perhaps be considered as a very early predecessor to I'll Sleep When I'm Dead.
Rating: ***
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01-06-2007, 08:59 PM
