"Crush" - a long awaited album
Last year Bon Jovi finally put out their long awaited album "Crush" that was their first studio album as a group in five years. Many didn't know what to expect to hear after their long hiatus, solo albums and tours, Jon's acting career and everything that has happened since the mid 90's.
In May last year the first single "It's my life" hit the radio-stations over the world and became one of the biggest hits that year. It was quite safe to say that Bon Jovi was back to give us some good old-fashioned rock 'n' roll.
Jon had spoken about this new album as a "throwback to the old days of big and fun attitudes", and I guess that from certain aspects he was right. The album opens with the big anthem and very succesful song "It's My Life" that many people referred to as a Livin' On A Prayer (mostly because of the return of the famous couple Tommy and Gina).
"Say It Isn't So" is a song with a quite new musical aspect. It's a good old-fashioned rock song but undoubtfully with influences from more recent popular music.
"Thank You For Loving Me" is a song that it's literary impossible to ignore. This is one of the things this band does best. Write lovesongs that dig right into the depths of your heart and soul. This is one of my personal favourites on the entire album.
"Two Story Town", one of the weakest tracks on this album. It has a very pop-alike sound without the really rocking style you have always been used to when listening to this group. This is a song they really could have done without.
"Next 100 Years" rocks a lot more than the previous one and I like it somewhat better. The best highlights in this song is the massive solos performed by David and Richie. I'd call this song the closest they came to make another massive anthem like the wonderful piece "Dry County" from the Keep the Faith days..
"Just Older", now this is certainly more like what we are used to hear from this band! Great rock with powerful chords. And to be able to celebrate the inevitable fact of getting older is really something to look up to. Not to try and remain the young boys they were during the 80's but instead see the good things that comes with getting older.
"Mystery Train" is another, to me, weak song. Don't get me wrong, it has a nice sound and the lyrics are good, but why make it this kind of half-hearted? It's a song between traditional rock and some up-tempo ballad and it just goes by pretty unnoticed. This would have fitted much better on Jon's solo effort "Destination Anywhere".
"Save The World", the second power ballad of this album. Originally written for the armageddon soundtrack (to whomever might be interested). It might lack some of the emotions and power like the song TYFLM has, but it's certainly a very good song.
"Captain Crash & The Beauty Queen From Mars" certainly wins the prize for "funniest title on the album". But don't let the title fool you. There are some crazy lyrics in it, but it rocks a whole lot! From my own experience I can tell you that this song live is truly breathtaking and great to listen to!
"She's A Mystery" is the slowest and down to earth song on this entire album and I instanly get a flashback to the song "It's Hard Letting You Go" from the album "These Days". However, this piece doesn't really fit into the puzzle. Another song I'd rather have seen make it on Jon's 2nd solo album.
"I Got The Girl" is a very self-explanatory song, it's about Jon's daughter Stephanie. But despite good lyrics and an attempt to make a good rock song it falls between my fingers. I find it to, once again, be a half-hearted song.
"One Wild Night" where the title certainly says it all! It rocks a lot and I love pretty much everything about it. Excellent lyrics and the music is one of the best compositions on the entire album. I would expect this song to make it really good when the single comes out..!
"I Could Make A Living Out Of Loving You (bonus track)" is a song that has somewhat of the same style as the song before and I like this one very much too. Too bad they decided to have this as a bonus song only..
"Neurotica (bonus track)". Now here is something I just don't get. Why put a song like this as a bonus only? It's one of the best rock songs from this whole album, and it would have for instance been much better to replace She's A Mystery or Two Story Town with this one. However, that is just my view of things.
Having listened to several demo songs from the Crush sessions at least I think that they made a few mistakes on this album. The really should have included songs like "Ain't No Cure For Love", "Stay" and "Welcome To The Good Times" on it instead. But hey, who are we to decide that anyway?
Is it the same old Bon Jovi we are used to hear then? I guess you can say both yes and no in this case. They still have good old rock songs like It's My Life, Just Older and One Wild Night, and excellent ballads like "Thank You For Loving Me" and "Save The World". But some songs are however a little too different and without the soul of rock 'n' roll and emotions I'm used to hear from Bon Jovi. I would never expect, or neither want them to sound like they did during the 80's or the beginning of the 90's. Then they would be more of a nostalgia band these days. So concluding is that change is a good thing, as long as they don't change too much from the succesful formula that is..... being Bon Jovi.... |
