[Iceman]

Ok, so it's on Spotify ( Bon Jovi – New Jersey ). I've listened to the "new" tracks, and here's what I heard. The ones accusing me of always being negative, read the following.

This is the absolute best thing Bon Jovi have done in the last 10 years. If you discount the box set, best thing they’ve done since 1996. I love this. This blows anything (!) Jovi have done since 1996 out of the water.

All the count-ins, mid-song instructions and talks before the songs are in, love it. Thank you, Obie! These sound mostly live with maybe some overdubs, so I wouldn’t count out the possibility of Alec playing on these.

The Boys Are Back In Town - A remix of the version released on "Stairway to Heaven - Highway To Hell". Not as good of a mix, but still a great version.

Love Is War - Great sound, great song, but hate the "new" pre-chorus.

Homebound Train - great. It’s clearly a demo/live take, but it still rocks. Love the harmonica. Jon gives instructions during the song.

Judgement Day - Jon is really lazy, like it’s just a rough guide vocal. The demo we have is much better vocal-wise. Still great.

Full Moon High - Jon’s a little high in the mix, would’ve preferred more bass and guitar, but it’s still great. A little fast, maybe. Again, sounds like a guide vocal, a little lazy. Still, effortless high notes even with the modulation at the end.

Growing Up The Hard Way - Sounds pretty complete. Love this.

Let’s Make It Baby - A lot clearer than the versions I’ve heard before. The talk box is still a bit over the top and the drums are maybe a bit high in the mix. Jon sings very well. Maybe not as ”intimate” and ”dirty” as the demo, but I still like this. No ”suck my dick” in this version. But there is ”I want to **** you” at the end.

Love Hurts - One of my favorites. Starts kinda funny with studio chatter and a guitar lick, but sounds good. The solo starts exactly like Hell Is Living Without You’s solo. I’ve known it for years, but this finally confirms that it’s Richie playing that solo, not Steve Lukather. Unless Steve also played this. You can hear Alec’s incredibly high background vocals in the outro.

Backdoor To Heaven - Great vocal performance from Jon. Really high background vocals in the pre-chorus by Richie. Great song.

Now And Forever - Sounds fully produced, Jon again quite high in the mix, but sounds good. Again, excellent vocal performance. Young Jon beats older Jon with hands behind his back and eyes closed.

Wild Is The Wind - Funny keyboard ”intro”. No guitar intro, starts from the verse. The bass is different than the album version. Lacks power. Doesn’t ”flow”, the drums are a little choppy. The keyboard part isn’t ready yet, sounds funny. The song ends without everyone realizing it, not very cleanly.

Stick To Your Guns - A LOT more acoustic than the recorded version. Not as much power. The guitar riff is a little different. Great vocals again, even with the struggles in the chorus. Less background vocals. More laid-back, relaxed version. Again, some talk during the song, Richi saying ”I like that” etc.

House Of Fire - a very different intro than the Alice Cooper -version. Also, this is nowhere near as powerful as Alice’s version. This is more of a tongue-in-cheek -version. Background vocals are weak. Lyricwise, exactly the same as Alice’s version. The gang vocals after the chorus are also a lot weaker than on Trash. Almost lazy this version. New bridge section, nothing to write home about, but breaks the monotony of the song nicely.

Does Anybody Really Fall In Love - the hi-hat is WAY too high in the mix in the beginning. Sounds like a live demo, not too produced. No background vocals in the choruses and the melody is a little different from the published version. The "I know"'s are missing, clearly cut from the vocal track. Also, some other parts of the vocal track are missing, like the beginning of the second chorus. It's as if the overdub track was missing. No guitar solo. Not as good as the "demo" we've heard before. Lazy vocal from Jon. Jon drops the last chorus down an octave (I knows are back). Maybe he was having problems.

Diamond Ring - Sounds like a cleaned-up version of Let's Make It Baby, not an acoustic song by any means. The lyrics are a bit different from the released version. There's a weird whispering effect on some of the vocals in the verse. No guitar solo. Nice guitar licks on the rhythm guitar, but no lead guitar. The bridge added in 1995 is missing (obviously), but the outro is a nice addition.

In general, THIS is the Bon Jovi I love. Would gladly pay a lot of money to get more songs like this, songs sung like this and songs played like this.

Ice

[ezearis]

Great review, I just can't forgive them because of what they've done to Does Anybody Really Fall In Love Anymore? I'll keep with the good old demo.

A differents story with the other songs, really weird at the first listen as we've been listening the others for a long time, but I think I will get used to as they sound great!

Can't get enough of Diamond Ring!

[Robdee1000]

I cant wait to hear this and if its on Spotify i'll plug in later and listen. Its so cool to hear the studio talk and differences on demo versions.

I have a really rough version of Never Say Die and its just Jon on his acoustic guitar, its amazing.

[Supersonic]

Aloha !

I'm not as impressed as you are, but it's kind of telling how a demo from 88 sounds more alive than anything recorded since 2005. Wild Is The Wind sounds like an actual band playing, it sounds so much better. I do think some of the demo's are mixed the wrong way, hi hats too loud, guitars too low and muffed, very much like the live recordings. But yeah I agree. It's better than anything they've recorded in the last decade.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

[Rdkopper]

I'm not sure why certain individual reviews needs to state "all mattering" in the subject. How about we try something different next time. If you want your review to sound original, lets come up with some originality in the subject line....

Anyway, overall nice review. I always respected Ice's technical skills as a musician and considering I have none, I appreciate his reviews the most.

Some points I'd like to make or add after listening and reading comments in the other thread...

- I think Jon and Richie had so much more involvement with the Alice record than what's credited. I think it's obvious that the powers above didn't want Bon Jovi's stamp on an Alice Cooper Album which totally makes sense. If I'm not mistaken, part of the album was recorded in Jon's studio and Obie was involved with it as well...

- I actually might be in the minority here but I actually like Does Anybody Really Fall In Love. I'd like the other version in such quality as well but the fact that it's something different is cool. I love Jon's voice and considering the leaked version is in better quality than some of the other leaks, I don't mind.

It's going to be a challenge adding the "I Knows" but being there is a few at the end, that might be all I need. This is going to take me a few days to work on. Especially because it's the middle of the summer and I'm not sitting in front of my PC all day doing this. I'll get it done though.

[faith1985]

Thanks for the review.
I don't know why I never really paid attention to these demos.
I also think it is probably the best thing they have done in a very long time.

I am not fully through yet but while listening to the old 'Does Anybody Really Fall In Love Anymore' demo I realised I don't like the 'I know' part at all.

I REALLY like 'Full Moon High' it but I am not totally convinced by the chorus.

If they do it for the other great albums as well I am sure we will all be quite happy with the result to say the least.

[danfan]

I can only listen to the first 12 songs on spotify.

[nickolai]

Not available on Spotify in the UK yet

[Lucas_Roli]

House of Fire has a little extra part before the guitar solo which Cooper's version doesn't have.
Oh yeah,sorry I was tired and didn't pay attention to that part...

[Iceman]

Originally Posted by Lucas_Roli

House of Fire has a little extra part before the guitar solo which Cooper's version doesn't have.

Yes, like I wrote: New bridge section, nothing to write home about, but breaks the monotony of the song nicely.

After listening to the song a few more times, it does sound more like a Bon Jovi fun rock song than the Alice Cooper intense love song. I guess the band knew what they were doing at that time, they made the song theirs, even though it originally wasn't their song. Still miss the great gang vocals of the Alice version, but I can see why they changed it.

Ice