Bon Jovi- This House is Not for Sale (2016)

Bon Jovi- This House is Not for Sale (2016)

  
By: Ghost Writer

I'm not a big fan of Bon Jovi's music, but I was there in the middle of the 80s,when records like 7800° Fahrenheit, Slippery When Wet and New Jersey made them darlings of the glam metal movement, the group was able to capture the down to earth approach of Bruce Springsteen and catapulted into big ad dumb arena rock, they were bombastic, but as vulnerable to fashion as any other glam metal band of the era, fortunately for them, the Jovis were wise guys, they disappeared completely when grunge reared its ugly head, instead of going on a head on crash against "alternative music", the band decided to keep a low profile in order to avoid connections with the decaying glam metal genre, they escaped the backlash those band suffered, and the band also stated to slowly build their return and their transformation into something new, they returned in the 90s mutated into pop musicians to a whole new world a to a new whole Legion of fans, we could hardly agree that they are as successful as in the past, but they showed true wisdom by escaping the sad fate of bands like Warrant, Poison, Skid Row or Ratt, very successful glam metal bands crushed by grunge.

This House is Not For Sale is an above the average pop rock album, long time gone are hairspray, big guitars and flashy costumes, for Bon Jovi the only focus is music, and the title track is a brilliant one, keeping the anthemic nature of the 80s but this time not thunderously loud, in the case of Living with the Ghost, the band shows certain similarity to more "cerebral" pop rock bands like Coldplay or Muse, with more emphasis on keyboards, thanks to long time member David Bryan expertise, and on vocals, despite Jon Bon Jovi's aged voice, Knockout is another great song thanks again to a great combination of prominent keyboards, thunderous drums and desperate vocals, there are also some weak spots like Born Again Tomorrow or Roller Coaster, which really go nowhere, but they easily come back with the stomping New Year's Eve, that hilariously is the closest moment Bon Jovi will ever get to krautrock, or to the Secret Machines in this case.

For moments it seems that Bon Jovi wants to rock loud again, as The Devil's in the Temple shows, but to really little fanfare, and their songwriting sometimes appears flawed like on Gid Bless this Mess, but surprisingly just at the middle of the the record, these NJ guys display a new set of surprises with songs that again prove their transformation, Reunion is almost country tinged, Come On Up to Our House is anthemic and bombastic, like a Queen song played by the NJ boys, closing a very decent record that will surely secure life for the years to come to this once enormously famous band, an good example of flexibility, adaptation and wisdom won thru the years, although I'm not a big fan of them, these guys really know how to endure a long distance race.