Heard 7 of the new songs and can't say I like or hate them - Sounds in part like bad Bruce Springsteen ('Water made Me' with the awful 'Baby Baby lyric) and easy listening pop/rock ....
I am/was a huge Bon Jovi fan and was lucky enough to open for them and meet Jon - who whatever people might say is a nice hard working guy .......
Having said that if I'm been honest the last good album was 'Have A Nice Day'. 'Lost Highway' was ok for what it was meant to be (country/rock) but since then they seem to have lost their trademark .....(I grew bored of 'The Circle' very quickly)
My main issue is they/Jon seems to forget what people want from them - anthems with some great guitar playing (riffs and solo's), soaring vocals and the odd classic ballad ......
The decline for me started in 1997 with Jon's start of his smoking habit - he's now stopped but his voice is a shadow of it's former self resulting in songs having no real bite as the vocals are nearly crooning and low in pitch ......(check out the new set lists as most tracks are from 2000 onwards to save his voice)
The guitars are generally just chords and no riffs and the production is just very middle of the road American Radio that could be any number of acts. Fine in some ways but we are talking about a band who WERE fantastic and had their own sound.
For what it's worth I know that bass and drums are put down last on the Jovi albums nowadays - meaning Tico and Hugh come in for a few days at the end of a project..... So it really is a Jon/Richie (and Richie so much less so on this new album due to his interest in his solo album - which by the way I think is his great and better than anything since 'Have A Nice Day') project not really a band ......
I can see what he's trying with the lead single - no guitar bands are really on the radio at the moment so he's gone down the try to get on commercial radio route - 'We Weren't Born To Follow' - Really ?
Hopefully in the near future a change of heart may occur and they bring a new producer (Rob Cavallo would be cool or even the return of Bob Rock) as John Shanks maybe a great producer but churns out what we have now (he produced Take That and Miley Cyrus!!)and Jon realizes what the fans/audience want ..... kj