Bon Jovi- Forever
Label: Island
Producers: Jon Bon Jovi, John Shanks, Joe Rubel
The sixteenth studio album from the Jersey rock icons arrives in the aftermath of a dark period for lead singer, Jon Bon Jovi, who underwent surgery on damaged vocal cords in 2022. As portrayed on a recent Hulu docu-series chronicling the band’s 40th anniversary, Bon Jovi heavily considered retirement during this period, before emerging from surgery revitalized as both a vocalist and songwriter. Consequently, Forever is defined by themes of perseverance and renewed joy, a bright and sunny pop-flavored brand of rock that had already defined the back-half of the catalog for these once prominent purveyors of 80s glam and hair metal. It’s certainly true that much of their latter-day music, including the bulk of Forever, finds itself trapped in a less distinct and more faceless sea of MOR pop-rock. Nevertheless, Bon Jovi and his comrades do deserve credit for not committing the grave sin of clinging to their 80s past, instead choosing to age gracefully as a band toward a more age-appropriate style. That’s also not to say that the group cannot still effectively rock out when they choose to, as evidenced on tracks like “My First Guitar” or “Living Proof”, which shamelessly tips its hat back to the talk-box sound of classics like “Livin’ On A Prayer” and “It’s My Life”. Lyrically, Bon Jovi remains the same sincerely earnest, if not increasingly schmaltzy, songwriter that he has always been, namely on sentimental tracks like “Kiss the Bride” or “Hollow Man”, the latter of which being a particularly cutting personal anthem given the professional reckoning facing him in recent years. He and co-producer John Shanks also clearly remain hungry for new inspiration, co-writing with everyone from pop darlings Ed Sheeran and Ryan Tedder to pop-punk scribe Nick Long and Americana king, Jason Isbell, who also appears on vocals and guitars on co-write, “Waves”. As for the bandleader’s much-discussed vocals? Well, it turns out that it’s really not the elephant in the room you may expect. Bon Jovi’s voice certainly sounds raspier with age, but no more so than you’d expect from any 62-year-old rock singer. The unique power and character that he’s always offered vocally is still plenty-palpable throughout Forever. If anything, it’s far too often drowned out by the arrangements, which is more the fault of the production choices, and sadly nothing new in contemporary pop recordings. Ultimately, Forever will not live on as Bon Jovi’s most memorable album, but it does shine with the mature and clear-eyed acceptance that forever is certainly not a reality even in rock & roll, and the pure joy and appreciation that the band demonstrates for simply still being here at all.
Track Listing:
- “Legendary” (Jon Bon Jovi, John Shanks, Billy Falcon)
- “We Made It Look Easy” (Bon Jovi, Ryan Tedder, Andrew DeRoberts, Nick Long)
- “Living Proof” (Bon Jovi, Shanks)
- “Waves” with Jason Isbell (Bon Jovi, Shanks, Jason Isbell)
- “Seeds” (Bon Jovi, Tedder, Sean Douglas, Michael Pollack)
- “Kiss the Bride” (Bon Jovi, Falcon)
- “The People’s House” (Bon Jovi)
- “Walls of Jericho” (Bon Jovi, Shanks, Philip Lawrence)
- “I Wrote You A Song” (Bon Jovi, Shanks, Falcon)
- “Living in Paradise” (Bon Jovi, Ed Sheeran)
- “My First Guitar” (Bon Jovi)
- “Hollow Man” (Bon Jovi)
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