Bon Jovi "What About Now" Review

There are some bands which metalheads tend to loath with a passion. Mention these bands anywhere a metal fan can see them and they'll unleash a wave of anger and hatred so intense that you'd be forgiven for wondering what the band did to them to justify so much anger for them. There are several reasons for this: selling out (although the use of the term has now become a bit of a cliche, as it seems to be thrown at a band for basically doing anything the person in question using the word doesn't like that the band has done, even if what they've done, ironically enough, would actually make them LESS present in the mainstream), becoming popular (often in connection to the previous reason, although some bands have gotten hatred for becoming popular despite actually doing nothing that should make them popular), getting a guest appearance from someone in the mainstream to appear on your stuff (which seems a bit dumb in some cases, especially when you consider that "mainstream" among some metal fans can literally mean "can be found if you search their name on the internet"), changing their sound (which can be a bit of a daft thing to hate an artist for, when you really think about it: do you like the same stuff you were listening to when you were a kid? Probably not, so why should an artist make the same type of music they made at the start of their career, especially if they don't like that music any more?) or being part of a genre that metalheads hate (which is dumb, because...if you've read this blog before now, do you REALLY need me to give you the answer to that question?). While not liking a change in sound is a fair enough reason to dislike a band due to personal tastes being different for everyone (although it should be done tactfully: not liking the artist's stuff after the change in sound is fine if you just say that and let the artist be, but demanding the artist change their sound back or immediately hating everything the band has done just because you don't like their sound on one album is not), the rest can generally be chalked up to metalheads being the kind of group of people who claim that they are accepting individuals, but cannot stand something which isn't what they like. I know, the irony boggles the mind...

Bon Jovi's issues probably come because they technically manage to overlap with all five categories: they changed their sound (and to a fairly popular one) on 1992's Keep The Faith, they were (and still are, to an extent) considered one of the biggest bands connected to glam metal there is, they had a guest appearance from Jennifer Nettles on their song "Who Says You Can't Go Home" (on their 2005 album Have A Nice Day) and...well, most metalheads don't consider glam to be metal, but merely a sort of hard rock. Needless to say, you'll be lucky to find a metalhead who is willing to say anything about Bon Jovi that doesn't insult them at least once.

...Hey, don't look at me, I've said multiple times that I don't consider myself a metalhead so much as a metal fan!

*Sigh*

OK...While I do not consider Bon Jovi to be a flawless band by any measure (their stuff post-Keep The Faith generally gets a response of "meh" from me), I would say that their first four records are at least worth hearing if you're interested in glam metal, as they're very solid (...well, at least, their debut, Slippery When Wet and New Jersey are, not listened to 7800° Fahrenheit a lot). It's after Keep The Faith where the band lose me a bit, but that's not to say I don't have some songs from then onwards which I really enjoy. The problem is that, for the most part, the highlights feel like the most memorable of a bunch of songs that are merely OK. Some exceptions do stand out, like "It's My Life", "You Had Me From Hello", "Who Said You Can't Go Home" (I'm more fond of the version without Jennifer Nettles, but both are enjoyable), "Last Man Standing", "Summertime" and "We Weren't Born To Follow", but, for the most part, they simply don't write strong enough material for me to want to return to their albums a lot post-Keep The Faith. That said, 2009's The Circle was about the closest the band had come to releasing an album that I'd say is worth picking up since New Jersey, so I couldn't help hoping this album would be a further step in the right direction.

To an extent, I think I was somewhat right to hope for that, as What About Now has the most songs that I enjoy listening to on a Bon Jovi album post-Keep The Faith. HOWEVER, I wouldn't say it's an especially good album on its own merits at the same time. Most of the songs I like still have some noticeable flaws which drag them down, and I still feel that this isn't an album that's really worth checking out unless you're already a Bon Jovi fan.

First of all, let's look at the cover art. I'm not really fond of it, to be honest: the combination of brown, yellow, white and blue feels a bit like it's been haphazardly applied without too much thought about how it will look. It just seems to blend together into a bit of a mess, which, admittedly, doesn't help when the artwork does resemble of collage of drawings messily hashed together in an attempt to cover the fact that the artist hasn't really thought about how it's actually going to look.

The thing that makes this worse is when you look at the artwork for the single release of "Because We Can". Sure, it's not exactly the most imaginative artwork, but I honestly think this would have been better to have been the main artwork for the album and not for the single, as this just feels more like a complete piece of artwork.

Anyway, now that's out of the way, let's move to the music on the album.

One of the first things you'll notice upon hearing this album is that the band have gone for a sound that I think can be best summed up as country rock meets arena rock meets adult alternative. Most people will look at that and go "Dear God, no!", but I would say that, on paper, there's nothing really wrong with that combination of genres if handled well. However, while the band DO get the sound right a few times on the record, the feeling I get is that the band weren't too sure with what they wanted to do on this album (I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt that they weren't forced to do it for financial reasons), as they frequently seem like they're chasing after the sound they should be going for and the occasions when they get what they were going for feel like freak accidents compared to the times when they try so hard to push in one of those directions that the rest of what they're going for seems to be an afterthought rather than a key part of the sound the band want to go for. One of the songs which DOES nail the sound is the first single, "Because We Can", which, distressingly, is one of the best songs on the album. Although it's lacking a real hook to enable the song to propel itself beyond being merely good, it's a solid song that is worth a listen. I'd say that the title track and "What's Left Of Me" are in the same boat, although I think the lyrics could have done with a bit of work on both of them.

It's when the band don't nail the sound they're going for that things start descending to being merely OK, although there are definitely a few gems here that are worth a listen. Both of the two acoustic songs, "Amen" and "The Fighter", are surprisingly enjoyable, although the latter is MAYBE trying a bit too hard to take influence from Simon & Garfunkel with the way the song is written and they betray their influence with the lyric "I am the fighter/though not a boxer by trade". Subtlety, thy name is Bon Jovi...

After these five tracks, though...about the only track I'd really say might be worth a listen is "Thick As Thieves", and I wouldn't exactly say that's a highlight so much as it's a song that might not warrant the use of the skip button. The rest of the album, unfortunately, feels rather dull. They have some interesting moments, but I wouldn't say any of them are going to end up on most people's playlists of favourite Bon Jovi songs.

On a performance level, the only person I feel is a weak link on this album is Jon. Before you flame me to death for saying that, compare how his voice sounds on The Circle compared with this album. On The Circle...I'm not going to say there isn't any auto tune on The Circle, as I might be very wrong there, but I don't recall hearing any moments where I was noticing the use of auto tune for definite on there. Here, though...good lord, Jon's relying on it so much on this album that it's almost impossible not to notice it! "I'm With You" is especially noticeable with the use of it, as Jon almost sounds like a machine at points on the song. Otherwise, everyone does a good job on the album. It's a shame that Jon's having to use the auto tune so much on this album, though...maybe it would be best for Bon Jovi to give up if Jon's voice needs to rely on auto tune this much to deliver the material on record?

...OK, you can flame me for that one, I probably deserve it!

Moving to the production, I have to say that the band's production is pretty good, although I personally think the bass could have done with a bit more volume and the mastering is still a bit louder than it should really be.

So, final thoughts? While the genres being mixed together by the band is interesting on paper, the band mostly fail to execute it properly, resulting in a generally mediocre collection of songs and a few that are at least fairly enjoyable. Jon's reliance on the auto tune on this album is a bit excessive, to the extent that I have to wonder whether it might be better for the band to quietly disband due to Jon's voice not being up to the standards it should be any more. Throw in a cover art that is too crowded and with a poor choice of colours on it that blend together to make it all a mess and it's really hard to recommend this album to anyone who isn't already a big Bon Jovi fan, and even they might be advised to give this one a miss, as there's a lot of other albums out there which are better than this.

Final Rating: 4 Out Of 10

A generally mediocre album brought down further by an over-reliance on auto tune and with one of the worst bits of cover art that I've seen from a 2013 album (only really beaten by Helloween's Straight Out Of Hell), this is not worth picking up unless you can cope with the auto tune and how scattered the band's songwriting is on this album. Die hard Bon Jovi fans almost certainly already have this, but, if you haven't got the album, you'll not be missing much if you don't pick this up. If you've never liked Bon Jovi, this will not change your mind at all, so don't bother.

Personal Favourite Songs: "Because We Can", "What's Left Of Me"