Bon Jovi - Lost Highway
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CD Details
Artist: Bon JoviBrand: MLB
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2007-06-19
Music Label: Mercury Nashville
Product features:
- BON JOVI LOST HIGHWAY (F)
- Lost Highway
- Summertime
- Make a Memory
- Whole Lot Of Leaving
- We Got It Going On
- Any Other Day
- Seat Next To You
- Everybody's Broken
- Stranger (feat. Leann Rimes)
- The Last Night
- One Step Closer
- I Love This Town
Music reviews of Lost Highway
Music Review: 3 1/2 Stars. Though not their best album, this country-tinged detour is a mostly fun diversion for fans.
Rating: 4 Stars
Much has been made about this being Bon Jovi's "country" album, which is either a good or bad thing depending on how you look at such departures from norm for artists. If you love the recent crop of country-tinged pop that has invaded the charts over the last several years, then the melding of Bon Jovi's arena rock anthems and their working-class lyrics with a few more country instruments seems like a no-brainer. If you're like me and can't stand the Rascal Flats and Carrie Underwoods of today's music scene then you probably are approaching this release with a fair amount of skepticism. Yes, its true that Bon Jovi's lyrics over the years - and often their sound when they focus more on acoustics and balladry rather than the pop-metal of staples like "You Give Love a Bad Name" and "Bad Medicine" - can fit the country mold (what, after all, are tracks like "Someday I'll Be Saturday Night," if not juiced-up country tunes?), but if you're like me you prefer them as rockers, and while crossover tunes like "Who Says You Can't Go Home" are fun experiments that break up their usual rock anthems and ballads over the course of an album, you really weren't asking for an entire album of such tunes.
The good news for us skeptics is that this isn't much more of a country album than "... Saturday Night" and "... Can't Go Home" are country songs. Sure there are a host of instruments - steel guitars, fiddles, violins, etc - the band doesn't normally employ that lend a distinct country flavor to the songs; and many of the lyrics riff on kitschy, only-in-country-music themes, but most of the stops on this highway are still closer to Jersey than Nashville. The term country/rock really is appropriate, since fans of each sound are likely to find something here worth while. And even those like me who are usually really against one of these genres are likely not to be too bothered by its influence here. That said, this is not among the best Bon Jovi albums; don't look for any "Livin' on a Prayer"-sized classics, but it is a tight batch of songs that is plenty listenable, and the boys not only avoid what could have been an embarrassing foray towards courting an audience they have no business reaching for, but they actually pull it off.
Mostly.
The title track is probably the best of the bunch and will fit well in the band's song cannon. It is the kind of tune that could drop the country instruments, add harder guitars and turn it into a true blue rock jam, especially with that fist-pumping chorus. Actually, the first four tracks are all decent rockers. First single "(You Want to) Make a Memory" is admittedly slower, but it works well weaved between the other three tunes, and it's the kind of song that some may accuse of being either too slow, too sappy, or too typical and cheesy, but after the fourth or so time spinning it, I gotta say, it grows on you as a great ballad. There is more going for it than one might notice on the first listen. "Summertime" and "Whole Lotta Leavin'" are very Bon Jovi-esque, but again, as with the title track, there is that country pitter-patter running through them that may have some fans wishing they were performed as straight-ahead rockin' Bon Jovi tunes. Still, this is what we signed up for when we purchased this album, and as such they rank among the album's better tracks.
"We Got it Goin' On" however, which features, and was co-written with, Big and Rich, is a rock and country hodge-podge (rather than successful hybrid) that comes off as something of a mess. While the lyrics work as the boastful fun they are no doubt intended to be and the song is bouncier than maybe any other track here, the song plays into the worst devices of both contributing artists: There goes Richie with his squawk-box ala "Livin' on Prayer," "It's My Life" and a dozen other Bon Jovi anthems, there's Jon talkin' about how rockin' he and the band are, and there is Big and Rich's obvious lyrics, lame metaphors, and bombastic, bass-heavy beats. I will admit this though: this is a song that could become a guilty pleasure after the listener hears it a few times, even in spite of its clichéd elements. Some will no doubt find it undeniably catchy. Also, I predict this will be the song on the album that kicks off their live shows for the upcoming tour. On every new tour the band picks a rave-up track from the most recent album to kick off the show, usually as a preamble to "You Give Love a Bad Name," and like "Last Man Standing" from "Have a Nice Day," the title track from "Bounce," and "One Wild Night" from "Crush" before it, "We Got It Goin' On" seems like a perfect way to get `em jumping on the "Lost Highway" tour, no matter the mediocrity of the song itself.
And that is the thing about this album. You can see much of it working even better live - as true Bon Jovi songs, instead of just a country-blend experiment. Intertwined with the classics, much of this is bound to come more alive. Another song that falls into this category is "I Love This Town."
The band has said another reason for swaying towards country with this album was to be able to show off their song writing skills and tell stories of deeper meaning. It is ironic then that nothing here rivals stories such as Tommy and Gina's from the bands more bombastic days. Also, there is no need to go country in order to tell great stories or show off your talent for penning stirring lyrics. Springsteen, Dylan and other terrific rock writers were able to connect with audiences just fine. It becomes clear around track 7, 8 and 9, that what Bon Jovi means when they say they want their song-writing and storytelling skills to shine through the rock, what they really mean is they want to write ballads without worrying about fans who might buy a new album and be ticked-off that there are too many slow songs and not enough "Lay Your Hands on Me." "Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore" with Leann Rimes would probably make for an obvious - and even successful - radio single, but it is the last thing I need to hear more of from Bon Jovi. Actually, the entire middle section of this album (tracks 7 - 11) more or less just goes the power-ballad route (which they have been doing more and more of lately - "Bounce" and "Have a Nice Day" were about a quarter ballads, whereas there used to be only two or three per album). They all sound fine: polished musically, Jon's smooth vocals, but they aren't very exciting and it is the sort of thing that has become very predictable from this band.
So all and all, the first half warrants repeat listening, the second half is plenty listenable, though it starts to feel repetitive. But nothing here is bad. And the songs I found tired, fans of ballads and/or country music will probably love. And as with every Bon Jovi album, the highpoints and songs that warrant repeat listening far outweigh the lesser moments. The boys could be accused of just jumping on the country/pop bandwagon just to sell more albums (which no doubt plays a part in this projects origin), but listening to some of the more skillfull tunes here, you realize they were never really that far from this; especially if you're like me and count the criminally under-rated "These Days" among their best works (maybe not from a classic, anthem standpoint, but definitely from a writing and introspective one).
FYI: Buy it at Target and get two bonus tracks (one of which, "Walk Like a Man," is pretty good). Walmart includes a DVD with rehearsal footage (though it is more expensive there and you can catch the same footage online).
Description of Lost Highway
"Artistic freedom made this record possible," says Jon Bon Jovi. "Musical freedom to explore--and emotional freedom to express what was in our hearts."The result of that freedom is Lost Highway, an album Jon describes as "a Bon Jovi record influenced by Nashville."
Bon Jovi explains. "Nashville is all about songs and songwriters. If you're someone like me who loves songs and hanging out with songwriters, Nashville is the place. I thrive on that feeling and I'm inspired by that creative ambience."
The result, a haunting set of 12 new and original sounding songs, is a stunning, multi-layered look into the nature of love and life in all its glory. Love, like life, is lost, found, forgotten and reclaimed in this collection.
The moods are many, but the core feeling is pure Bon Jovi.
"Writing this record with Jon was deeply cathartic," says Richie Sambora, who collaborated on ten of the songs. "I was going through emotional changes that were new for me. An ailing father. A painful divorce. The start of a new chapter in my life. I poured everything I had into this project, every last bit of soul at my command."
"For over twenty years now," Jon explains, "Richie and I have been close collaborators. Even when our songs create fictional stories, they reveal our states of mind. To a large degree, Lost Highway focuses on the light that love brings. When you shine the light on love, you see the chinks in the armor. You see every crevice, every crack. And that's all right".
Lost Highway is Bon Jovi's tenth studio album since the band formed in the early eighties. One hundred and twenty million albums and 2500 concerts in over 50 countries later, Bon Jovi is enjoying the greatest popularity in their history.
Given the chart success of their Grammy-winning country single "Who Says You Can't Go Home," it's no surprise Bon Jovi upped the ante by recording an entire album paying homage to Nashville. In some ways, it's amazing they didn't do this sooner, given the way Keith Urban in particular is blurring country-pop lines, much as Garth Brooks and others did in the 1990s. To their credit, you won't find predictably shallow invocations of past country icons or any self-conscious, in-your-face down-home twang added strictly to remind the listener of the musical premise. In fact, Lost Highway isn't "Bon Jovi goes country" so much as a meaningful tribute to the Nashville ethos done on their own terms. They honor the spirit of the town through 12 simple, direct originals. The intimate, smoldering "(You Want To) Make a Memory," the ballad "Seat Next To You," "Lost Highway" and its roaring celebration of freedom, and "Stranger," an effective duet with LeAnn Rimes, all invoke country's spirit, and "I Love This Town," an eloquent nod to Nashville itself, ties it together admirably. --Rich Kienzle
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