My Sunday Song – “Bounce” by Emphatic

For My Sunday Song #456, we are talking “Bounce” by the Nebraska band Emphatic. The song is on their big label debut, ‘Damage’, which was released on July 12, 2011 and went to #23 on the US Hard Rock Charts. The first single was “Bounce” which went to #23 on the US Mainstream Rock Chart. I don’t remember when I first heard it, but when I did, I was hooked. It was one of those songs I would put on repeat as it had so much energy.

The song was written by lead guitarist, Justin McCain and the song itself is pretty basic rock & roll stuff. It is all about S.E.X. It is about two people that are extremely passionate about each other and they are longing to get together to do…well…to do the deed. He wants to slap her back tattoo, give her a kiss and give her a ride…whatever that might mean (nudge, nudge, wink, wink). Bounce, of course, is the word he chose to use to describe the deed and it completely and utterly works. Who doesn’t love a good “bounce” with the woman (or person) they love?

Musically, the song does truly “bounce”. I heavy, high octane track with blistering guitars from Justin, pounding drums by Josh Freese and some heavy bass work by Paul Bushnell. Vocals were handled by Patrick Wilson and he has that rock & roll grit that fits a song like this. The chorus is one major hook with the repetitive “Bounce, Bounce” and sucks you in. Such great pop-sensibilities with this song as well. Very radio friendly. A song that is as musically fun as those lyrics. A good time was had by all with this one.

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Bon Jovi – ‘All Time Best 1984-2024’ (2024) – Album Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

To celebrate the band’s 40th Anniversary, they have released a new Greatest Hits Compilation. And I know what you are thinking…big deal…right? Well, this one is a little different. One, it was only released in Japan…Two, the songs were hand picked by their Japanese fans. As a result, you do get the big hits, but there also some deep cuts you don’t normally see on a Bon Jovi greatest hits set.

And the band went all out with this release. It is called ‘All Time Best 1984-2024’ and was released in November 2024. I want to say it was the 6th, but with production delays, I’m not sure exactluy. My copy didn’t show up until around the 20th of the month. Whenever it was released, what a release it is. It chock full of hits and not hits, with 50 songs covering their entire career from the 1984 debut all the up to the 2024 release of ‘Forever’. All the songs are spread over 3 CDs and they even through in a Blu-Ray if you have the Super Deluxe Edition (which I do). Plus a few things more.

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The Collection: Ep. 33 – Bon Jovi Vinyl (Part 2 – The 2000’s)

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.

Bon Jovi – ‘Bounce’ (2002) – Album Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

Bon Jovi wasted no time working on their 8th studio album, ‘Bounce’. They started writing while still on tour for their album, ‘Crush’. Then something happened in the world that would change it and strongly influence the album…the September 11th attacks on New York City. Since the boys were from New Jersey, this had a profound impact on the song writing. They started writing in the Summer of 2001 and it would really pick up after this event and by the end of 2001, they had around 25 songs written and demoed around 12. But by the end of the writing and recording, there was about 40 songs written over the span of a year. They used 12 for the album and several more for B-Sides and bonus tracks.

The band was still a four-piece with Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, David Bryan and Tico Torres. Of course, future member Hugh McDonald was there on bass like had been for awhile, but an old face came back to help on the album. Their good friend Desmond Child was back in and helping the band write some songs. They had more help on the songs with Swedish producer and writer Andreas Carlsson and Billy Falcon. As far as producing, Jon, Richie, Desmond and Andreas all had a hand, but most was done by Luke Ebbin who had a big hand in the new sound that started with “It’s My Life”.

The album finally saw the light of day on October 8, 2002 and went to #2 in the U.S., the UK and numerous other countries only going to #1 in the European album chart. And like had happened most of their career over the last decade, they were bigger in Europe than the U.S. They sold 500,000 copies in the U.S. going Gold while they sold over a million copies in Europe. They were still a massive global act as they inched closer to 20 years as a band. For me, this album was the start of the decline. I like this album and the next one, but a little more was taken away from with each passing one. But let’s see about this one first.

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Bon Jovi – ‘The Albums Box Set’ (2017) – Album Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

We are starting out things a little different. We aren’t starting with the earliest Bon Jovi piece in the collection. We are going to start the Bon Jovi Collection Series with the piece that convinced me to start the series. I picked this up around Christmas of last year and when I had all the album on vinyl, I thought, let’s do it. I took some time filling some holes in the collection and arranging what I wanted to review and now here we are. Currently this collection is going to take some time as there are around 60 pieces to review so this will take over a year to complete so I hope you are along for the ride. We will save the history of the band and how it got started to later. For now, let’s look at this box set in all its glory.

The Box Set was released on February 10, 2017 and was released on both vinyl and CD. I chose the Vinyl collection as I love to have their albums on vinyl. The set carries all studio albums up to that point which means it stops at ‘This House is Not For Sale’. But that isn’t all, it has both Jon Bon Jovi solo albums as well as an “Extra” LP with a bunch of their international B-Sides which is a nice treat. But that is it. There no extra posters, stickers, booklets or anything. Each album though is remastered on 180g LP and the 16 albums are spread over 24 LPs. At the time this was released, 7 of the albums had never been released on vinyl and then you have the “Extra” LP which is the first time this had ever been released. So, for the vinyl collector this was the easiest way to get everything. Now, they did release the albums individually, well the Bon Jovi ones were, I don’t think I ever saw the Jon Bon albums ever in the stores…I mean ever.

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Coming Soon to 2 Loud 2 Old Music – The Bon Jovi Collection Series

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.

Here is what we are going to cover….

The Studio Albums…

The Live Albums…including Bootlegs

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My Sunday Song – “Bounce” by Bon Jovi

For My Sunday Song #194, I am picking the 2002 song “Bounce” from the album of the same name.  The song was actually released as the fourth single on June 15, 2003 and only reached #39 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Track chart.  The song was written by Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and Billy Falcon.

The song is the typical feel good, inspirational track that Bon Jovi started writing after their big return to the scene with their smash hit “It’s My Life” off their 2000 album.  They would repeat that formula over and over ad nauseum.  So, the song isn’t actually one of their best and really nothing special…so why did I pick it.  Actually, it is for the memory it creates.  It isn’t because it was dedicated to the New England Patriot’s head coach Bill Belichick, which it was.  It is filled with lots of sports analogies so I guess it makes sense.

The memory is from when my girls were really young like 5 and 2 years old. They loved this song with all its energy and the whole “bounce chorus”.  It would come on in the car and we would all sing along especially with that catchy chorus.  They would sing as loud as they could on the Bounce lyrics in the chorus.  It was so much fun. They might not remember those moments, but I will never forget.

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Bon Jovi – The Albums Ranked Worst to First

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.

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