"Forever" : Bon Jovi are back

At last latest album Forever is pointing Jon Bon Jovi and his band in the right direction again. After the woeful, and pretty much solo, 2020 record, Forever sounds like a Bon Jovi album. Rock songs, power ballads, it’s a big-sounding record designed to be played to big rooms. Admittedly, it’s no New Jersey, but that’s like expecting to still fit into the T-shirt you bought on that late-8os tour. Time has moved on for all of us.

We Made It Look Easy, a thrumming Bon Jovi staple-type track, charts the band’s rise from New Jersey clubs to stadia status, and has heartfelt appeal. Bon Jovi has an ear for a nagging hook, and this one is into you before the first chorus has even faded away. Ditto the bubbling Living Proof, with its familiar, if extraneous, talk-box guitar intro, and an iron-clad chorus that hits like a linebacker at full tilt. 

Especially good, and probably the best track here, is Waves, which has the hallmark Bon Jovi cues, acoustic guitars, reflective lyrics, and a rousing chorus that builds to a dizzying, raise-your-fist hook that will translate into any language live.

 As always, the Bon Jovi ballads - Kiss The Bride, My First Guitar - underwhelm, but once you get to Living In Paradise, which is one big chorus with some song parts bolted to it, you won’t care and, like Jon, you’ll be racing forward to the future.