Tag: Neurotica

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

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic17 Comments

Bon Jovi released a box set that contained every vinyl up to that point. It was called The Album Box Set and it was released on February 10, 2017. Now it was released on both vinyl and CD which I chose the Vinyl collection as I love to have their albums on vinyl. The set carries all studio albums from the debut Bon Jovi album all the way up to ‘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 in me this was the easiest way to get everything.

We are here to talk the ‘Extras’ LP which was rare tracks and international B-Sides and a couple songs from the ‘Cross Road’ compilation as that compilation is not in here (but I do have that on vinyl as well). We get 10 tracks and we will go through all 10 just for you!

“Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night” is from ‘Cross Roads’ and was released as a single in various countries on February 13, 1995, but not the U.S. It went to #7 in the U.K. and of course never charted in the U.S. The song, according to Wikipedia is about optimism in the face of adversity. The song’s first verse introduces the characters Jim who struggles to find employment and is forced to sleep in his car, and Billie-Jean who was abused by her foster father and has turned to prostitution at the age of sixteen (remarking that the street-life ain’t much better but at least I’m getting paid), mourning the loss of her childhood. It has a country flair to it with its acoustic feel and an accompanying organ. It is catchy for sure and a great tune as who doesn’t struggle through the week hoping for Saturday Night.

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Bon Jovi – ‘Crush’ (2000) – Album Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic72 Comments

I can’t believe we are already to the 2000’s with Bon Jovi. Man, has this series been flying. However, we are no where near being done. We are now on the band’s 7th Studio album with ‘Crush’. After the band’s hiatus after the ‘These Days’ Tour, the band took some time to themselves and even released a couple of solo albums. But it was time to get back to work. Well, it was for Jon as he started planning to do a third solo, but that fell through because the band talked and it was decided it was time to start work on the next album.

Richie Sambora, Jon Bon Jovi, David Bryan and Tico Torres were ready to go so they planned on getting producer Bruce Fairbairn to handle the producing duties. However, that wouldn’t work out. Sadly, Bruce died in May 1999. The band decided to hold auditions for new producers, but they didn’t like anyone. They asked their old friend John Kalodner if he knew and new, up & coming producers that could help bring their sound in to the 21st Century and he suggested Luke Ebbin. And Luke helped do just that to amazing success.

The album was done and released on June 13, 2000 and it show up the charts thanks to the first single, “It’s My Life”. The album went to #9 in the U.S. and debuted at #1 in the UK which made it the fifth #1 album in the UK for the band. The album saw 3 singles and a fourth in Japan with overall sales reaching well over 4,000,000 copies which easily matched the success of previous albums for the band. Bon Jovi is one of the few bands to survive the 80’s and still see success in to the 2000’s. The album was nominated for a Grammy and Bon Jovi was back in a big way!

The copy of the album I have is the Japanese Edition with 2 bonus tracks and a bonus E.P. called ‘Live in Osaka’. We will talk more about that and the E.P. in the next post and stick to the main CD here. I do have the vinyl as well if you were wondering. You can see all of the Crush collection in the final picture. Let’s go ahead and get to the music.

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