33 rebellions per minute
"No doctor that can cure this disease"
1988
Bon Jovi, NEW JERSEY
Huh????!!! From a schlocky band, an extremely impressive, enjoyable album--- produced by Bruce Fairbairn, who also got a good album out of Aerosimth (PUMP) and a kind-of-interesting, marginally-worthwhile album out of Poison (FLESH + BLOOD), if you can imagine. Fairbairn gave Bon Jovi's sound a sheen as majestic and layered as Mutt Lange created for Def Leppard. He (or conceivably the band) also added some quirks, from the echoing earthly remnants of a Norse god's drum solo on "Lay Your Hands On Me", to the old-radio static of "Ride Cowboy Ride", to... well, not _that_ many quirks, I guess. But then the album's vibe, making Jon Bon Jovi's reassuring nice-guy voice the human front for a tower of synthesizer's and amps, is a comforting largeness, and it's best when your protector isn't a screwball. The band was in unexpectably good form too, from the wowzer of a guitar riff on "Homebound Train" to the agile, attractive keyboard on "Blood On Blood" (a surprisingly touching song of childhood friendship and eternal devotion). Bon Jovi were still Bon Jovi, true, and Fairbairn's a technician, not a miracle worker; if you're immune to the charms of "Wanted Dead Or Alive" or "You Give Love A Bad Name", the mere fact that these performances are better isn't going to convert you. And lyric-wise, the song remains the same, the band's obvious Achilles's Heel, Jon Bon time and time again spewing cliches at the drop of a hat like there's no tomorrow. But that's no skin off your back, because nobody's perfect and when push comes to shove, it's all in the groove. Yet the something-borrowed images are significantly less awful than on Whitesnake, Motley Crue, or other Bon Jovi albums. And the excellent music is, for my money, _the_ finest in polished, guitar-synth hard rock radio fare.
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