Disc rating|The novelty of Jon Bongiovi’s band, which has suffered from vocal cord problems in recent years, is balanced and well-maintained, but helplessly flat.
Pop, rock / album
Bon Jovi: Forever. Island.
★★
Kasaripoprockin lazily rolling rock, Bon Jovi, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.
The special year includes a four-part documentary series released on the streaming service in April as a follow-up to the 16th album Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story.
Based on the name, it sounds clearly more interesting than the album that came out on Friday.
In the case of new music, there are two expected strategies for Bon Jovi: whether to present a pastiche of the band’s lush arena pop rock of the 1980s and 1990s, supported by a couple of hits, or something completely different.
Of course, the latter would be a clearly more interesting income angle despite the risks. Such a time will hardly come for so long, when the new albums are mainly side products of the stadium tours.
Newly With Forever the band duplicates its manners in a safety-oriented and unsurprisingly lazy way, like a corporate rock band doing its best or a ship’s pub troubadour. The album could still be clearly worse.
Album new Livin’ on a Prayer and to It’s My Life has a decently catchy radio single on the way Living Proof. Portion Boys also succeeds in the rhythm of the song’s chorus ABC of life – the hum of a hit.
Another single Legendary it sparkles wide, beats hard and the vocal parts have been reinforced to make them suitable for singing together. Seeds could be Robbie Williams. Ed Sheeran has provided writing assistance Living in Paradise – in the song, which sounds like Coldplay’s light-hitting, if only based on the name.
The most amazing moment of the album My First Guitar makes you squirm in trouble. “I’m in love with my first guitar”, soloist and band leader Jon Bongiovi, 62, declares emphatically. “Seventeen years old, I’m a rock ‘n’ roll star!”
It comes to mind American Beauty in the movie to Kevin Spacey played by Lester Burnham, who is almost as fascinated by the 1970 Pontiac Thunderbird as he is by his daughter’s bestie.
“Got my hands around her neck, aw. But it’s done with respect, aw”, Bongiovi laments in the song.
Forever in the end it sounded quite balanced, controlled and neat. Its big problem is the pervasive mediocrity and familiarity.
If the performer were not one of the world’s most famous rock stars, the songs that rely on predictable chord and melody progressions would hardly have any chance of ending up with such a wide distribution.
It has been reported that Bongiovi suffered from a vocal cord injury and underwent a related operation last year. The problem does not concern the vocal parts of the album. On the other hand, the production is so polished that it wouldn’t be surprising if the result had been artificially corrected and cleaned up.
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