Bon Jovi - This House Is Not For Sale (Album Review)
Wednesday, 16 November 2016
Written by Simon Ramsay
Jon Bon Jovi has spent the best part of four decades encouraging us to pick ourselves up off the canvas. And, following the departure of guitarist Richie Sambora, label wrangling, persistent, sometimes unpopular, rumours linking him to the purchase of an NFL team and age catching up with him, the frontman has taken his own advice and re-emerged with the best album of his career. Sort of.
‘This House Is Not For Sale’ is Bon Jovi’s 13th record and a return to form following 2013’s poster child for blandness, ‘What About Now’. It’s also the first batch of brand new material since Sambora’s mysterious exit, with touring guitarist Phil X now listed as his replacement.
Controversy aside, Sambora’s role in the band had diminished significantly since 2005’s ‘Have A Nice Day’, which marked the last time his presence was fully felt before producer John Shanks became a go-to collaborator for Jon.
Despite that, though, his blues-based rock ‘n’ roll fretwork and emotionally soaring harmonies remained integral. Without them, this new offering just doesn’t sound like a Bon Jovi album.
Remember how Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Chinese Democracy’ was essentially an Axl Rose solo record? This feels like one of Jon’s. Not that it’s bad. In fact, it’s surprisingly good. There’s a great mixture of styles, some classic hooks and a strong contemporary rock dynamic that feels like a natural progression from ‘The Circle’.
Knockout and Born Again Tomorrow are pumped-up anthems with Eye of the Tiger refrains, both driven by insistent drumming that adds a dancefloor vibe and practically begs you to wave a glow stick in the air. The guitars add a very different flavour, though, with X’s rhythmic textures and crisp leads closer to The Edge and the Killers than Sambora. He does a decent job, but lacks the charisma and touch of his predecessor.
Jon’s still peddling the same old lyrical shtick about standing your ground, not backing down and seizing the day, but framed by his recent tribulations everything feels more honest and sincere. The title track is a defiant rocker in the vein of Have A Nice Day, with its gang chant backing vocals packing a nice old school punch. God Bless This Mess, meanwhile, is fizzing pop-rock contrasted by stark admissions of past sins and current failings: “My voice is shot, I'm going grey, these muscles all ache.”
Given its genesis, there’s an unsurprising edge to this record that harks back to 1995’s ‘These Days’. Living With The Ghost’s moody strains sound like U2 covering Springsteen, with added Roy Bittan piano passages from the impressive David Bryan. Devil’s In The Temple is a seething mid-tempo rocker built from a choppy staccato riff and Labour Of Love’s hazy bleakness recalls Diamond Ring, replete with a brooding Chris Isaak guitar twang.
If that sounds too serious, fear not. Jon’s inherent optimism and god-given gift to rouse still shines through. Rollercoaster is a rollicking ride with a giddy earworm hook and the joyous New Year’s Day could be the Pogues meets Coldplay, if Chris Martin’s lot ever plucked up the courage to play at a quicker tempo. Elsewhere, Reunion has a glorious bagpipe-style guitar solo that smacks of Big Country and Come On Up To Our House reimagines Heart’s Breaking Even as a communal bar-room sing along.
So, the band moniker is debatable, it’s not as good as their pre-millennium output, Jon’s clearly forgotten how to write a proper power ballad and his voice isn’t what it was. But that doesn’t detract from what’s a much better record than we could have hoped for. More satisfying and coherent than his ‘Young Guns’ soundtrack and with stronger songs than ‘Destination Anywhere’, ‘This House Is Not For Sale’ may sound more like a solo album than a Bon Jovi effort, but it’s definitely the best one Jon’s ever made.
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