Welcome to the final post in the Bon Jovi Collection Series. I have spent the past 14 months going through everything in my Bon Jovi collection and that included full reviews of ALL 16 Studio Albums. I had done a Ranking back in 2020 after the album ‘2020’ came out but that was based off what I thought listening to the albums only. No deep dive. I will admit this one is slightly different than before as I spent a week with each album and dove deep in to the songs. It isn’t entirely different as the #1 is the same, but there is a lot of movement below.
I am not going to go in to the band’s story here because you can read that if you want by going through the reviews yourself by clicking on the links at the bottom of the post. Bon Jovi has been through changes and some challenges, but they are still going strong…not necessarily with the same crew but Jon, David & Tico are still there holding down the ship…well Jon is as it is his ship as he is the dictator…I mean captain if we are staying with the ship analogy. So, hoist the sail, raise up the anchor and let’s cruise through the 16 Studio albums and see what is the best and what is the worst…I hope you enjoy.
To Celebrate the end of the Bon Jovi Series, it was time to do a show on The Collection where we walked through the Bon Jovi vinyl. For Part 1 was last week and we walked through their peak years of The 80’s & The 90’s. For Part 2, we are going to go through the vinyl in the collection that covers all of The 2000’s from 2000 to 2024. We will capture all the studio albums, compilations, and even some 10″ Picture Discs. Come join as we talk all things Bon Jovi from the 2000’s Crush’ to 2024’s ‘Forever’. I don’t know if this is everything you can get in the 2000’s, but it is everything in my collection and that is the show!
So go check it out as it will be live tonight right now, September 9, 2024 at 8pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.
We are now on the 15th Studio album for Bon Jovi. It has been 4 years since their last one due to lack of inspiration or him needing a break. In 2019, the band started working on the new album in Nashville. Jon had recorded all the tracks on his phone and brought them to the studio where the band recorded 23 demo songs in just 11 days. They picked the best 10 and went to work on recording the final product. All was done. Until Covid-19 hit. Everything stopped.
During that time, a lot happened. Inspiration hit Jon and he wrote two more songs for the album. That meant a couple songs had to be cut. They were still used as bonus tracks on the deluxe edition. But those new songs and most of the songs on the album we Jon speaking his mind about world events, political events. The album feels like a Protest album. Jon is laying bear his thoughts and voicing an opinion. I will admit, I admire him for that, however, Bon Jovi is not a Protest band so the songs don’t feel like protest songs. They don’t have the power musically to get the point across. He isn’t Bruce Springsteen or Will Hoge (who writes a lot of protest songs and does them well). This is a band that wrote love songs and sexual songs. Yeah, he had Tommy and Gina, but those were stories. These stories fall flat coming from a band of such privilege.
And another problem is Jon’s vocals. You can tell something is wrong. He isn’t really singing anything. He is speaking more than anything. Now, we know of the problems he was facing. His throat was messed up and he needed surgery. At this point, I don’t think he was ready to admit he had a problem. I feel for him. It is his livelihood. It had to be difficult knowing you can’t do what you used to be able to do. This was the first album that I think I noticed something was wrong and/or different. And from the Bon Jovi documentary, we get to see the anguish and pain he was facing. You hate to see your heroes fall a little, if you know what I mean.
After some delays thanks to Covid, the album was released on October 2, 2020. They picked the name of the album, 2020, for two reasons. Jon was seeing clearly on what was going on in the world. And 2020 was the year of the Pandemic, George Floyd killing and a world of other problems. I think it is a fitting name for the album. The cover embodies that feeling as well. Looking at the cover, Jon looks like he is about to speak his mind as he is giving heavy thought. And look at this glasses as there is an American Flag reflected in the lenses.
The band is the same with Jon Bon Jovi, David Bryan and Tico Torres as well as Phil X and Hugh McDonald. Unfortunately, John Shanks is still the producer with Jon and it shows. Please replace Shanks as producer…PLEASE!!! The album would hit #19 on the Billboard charts and spawn five promotional singles. It wasn’t that successful overall. I bought it. My copy was released on December 4, 2020 and is the Double LP Gold Edition with 2 bonus tracks (the two songs left off the album and replaced by new ones). I love the effect on the vinyl, it looks like it bubbling up and wrinkling. Cool effect.
You read that right. The next series here at 2 Loud 2 Old Music will be Bon Jovi. It is coming July 4th, 2023. What better way to spend America’s birthday then to start reviewing one of the most American Bands there is…BON JOVI!!!
This Collection Series will include everything I have in my collection and that includes Jon Bon Jovi Solo stuff as well as Richie Sambora as to me, they are Bon Jovi (even if it is Jon’s band). No Richie, No Bon Jovi…okay, no real good Bon Jovi without Richie. There, I said it and got that out of the way. We have around 60 reviews coming to you and of course, that is going to take over one year to get through as we normally do 1 post a week on a series.
As you know if you visit my site, one of my favorite bands is Needtobreathe. I have everything they have put out on vinyl and now I am going after everything they have released on CD (that they don’t have on vinyl). And the CDs I want the most are the exclusive fan club CDs they release each year.
I had never joined prior to the 2020 year so getting my hands on these has not been easy as it is not cheap. I am looking for the right price and most of the time it is too high. I finally grabbed my first one at a price less than the membership fee which was Insiders LP Vol. 2 for $40 and 9 months later I got one even cheaper which was Insiders, Vol. 5 and it was only $25. And then a couple days later got another for $27 which was Insiders Vol. 3. Sorry we aren’t going in order, but we are going in order of when I receive them. And I just joined the 2021 Insiders Club and this time I am getting a T-Shirt and you guessed it, A Mask!! The CD for Insiders Vol. 8 will be out by January 2022. For now, we are discussing Insiders, Vol. VII from 2020 which this time it did cost me the cost of the club because I got tired of tyring to find all these. I still need volumes 1, 4 and 6 if you have them and want to sell.
Who is Needtobreathe you may ask and I will tell you. Needtobreathe is a rock band from South Carolina who mixes rock, folk, southern rock, country and whatever else they like all with a great message or story to tell. Currently the band is…
Formed in 1983, just a mere 35 years ago, Bon Jovi defined the 80’s music scene. They have since had 13 studio albums, 3 live albums, numerous compilations and even a box set. With so much music, some of course is bad, some is good, some is great and some is legendary. They have had line-up changes as most bands have had and yet the still keep rolling on. They have even made it in to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Since there is so much about the band, they deserve to have their albums ranked from Worst to First. I am going to do all 13 of their studio albums, plus 1 compilation which I thought was a studio album, but apparently not…who knew. So, 14 albums in total will be coming at you. I hope you have time to get through all of them.
And as always, let’s start with my least favorite album and work our way to my favorite…so sit back and enjoy…
15. THE WORST – ‘THE CIRCLE’ (2009):
‘The Circle’ was supposed to be the band’s return to rock after a very Nashville based previous album, ‘Lost Highway”. The big problem for me with this album was the lack of credibility the songs had with me. They tried to return to a “working man” sound such as “Work for the Working Man”, but I didn’t believe it. It felt forced and fake. Nothing on this album resonated with me in the least bit. Even today, I can’t think of the names of the songs on this album. They were not memorable and just seemed stale and uninspiring.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 