Last evening we had a little jamming session at my home that went pretty well. Except it overran for an hour. We managed to record more than 90 minutes of live music from 8pm to 11pm. My mother who is recently in town asked me this morning if I wrote all these songs. She was pleasantly surprised and wondered why I don’t work in a music industry. I wish life is that simple. What a role reversal here. I thought parents always want their children to be doctors, lawyers, businessmen … and not to pursue a career in art.
And somehow I was not surprised to see the look in my guitarist’s face when he discovered a new Bon Jovi CD lying on the floor together with piles and piles of CDs. He casually asked if Bon Jovi still produces albums (read: this band still exists?).
“Lost Highway” is Bon Jovi’s 10th studio album and I have got 8 of them from “Slippery When Wet” onwards as well as the box set entitled “100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong” that contains four CDs packed with 38 unreleased and 12 rare tracks. I have been to one of their concerts (the tour for “These Days” album) when I was in UK, waited 12 hours before the band’s appearance, and was close enough to see the band in action.
Okay. I confess that I am a Bon Jovi fan – one of the 100,000,000.
Once in a while, God bless mankind with a rock band that is so consistent album after album. Really, I cannot tell the difference between “These Days”, “Crush”, and “Bounce” – just to pick a few. Each album comes with a bunch of killer faster songs that people all go wild in bars when cover bands play them (who wouldn’t dance and sing along with the recent hits of “It’s My Life”, “Everyday”, or “Have a Nice Day”?). And each album is never short of killer slow songs. Songs like “Always”, “Bed of Roses”, and “I’ll be There for You” bleed hearts.
“Who Says You Can’t Go Home”, a track from their ninth studio album “Have a Nice Day”, has won the Grammy Award for “Best Country Collaboration with Vocals”. Country? That’s right. Listen to the first two tracks of “Lost Highway”, one may be mistaken that Bon Jovi is going country. There is even one song featured LeAnn Rimes. Initially I thought this album is more appropriate as Richie Sambora’s (lead guitarist) solo album (he has two solo albums that have a certain country feel). After a few rounds of listening, I conclude that “Lost Highway” is still a Bon Jovi album with a certain country feel to it. Half of the album is produced by John Shanks (who produced “Have a Nice Day”) and another half by Dahn Huff. I can’t really tell which half is more “country” but two of my favourite songs “(You Want To) Make A Memory” and “We Got It Going On” are produced by Dahn Huff.
I can certainly see that Richie Sambora has put in a lot of hard work in this album. As a backing vocalist, he compliments Jon’s vocal well and as a lead guitarist, there are a fair amount of guitar solos throughout the album. Richie Sambora has been going through a tough period in his life (including a painful divorce) and according to him, he has poured everything he had into this project, every last bit of soul at his command.
Why Nashville you may ask. To Jon, Nashville is full of songwriters and musicians and he wanted to make an album right in the middle of this town of inspiration. It is of no surprise that the last song of the album is “I Love This Town”.
I am not sure how you may react to this album if you are not a hardcore Bon Jovi fan. “Lost Highway” is definitely not one of those commercial pop rock albums that can easily hook onto you. Nor it is a typical Bon Jovi album that you can instantly fall in love with. According to Cynthia, she said the single “(You Want To) Make a Memory” is enough for her to buy the album. Wish to give that song a try? Watch their live performance below. I personally find the song a bit bland. However, the element of simplicity kind of grows on me. As for the non-hardcore fans? Do sample the album thoroughly to see if this country feel is your cup of tea.