MattA75's Full Review: These Days [Remaster] by Bon Jovi
Certain albums by certain artists just weren't meant to be hits, no matter how much they may have deserved to attain commercial success. Usually these albums aren't the most commercial works, and that is why they fail to connect with a wider audience. Instead, they usually represent a sort of departure from the familiar. Music fans like the familiar; it feels like an old friend. Hell, perhaps nothing else can possibly explain how (an albeit damn good) one or two trick pony like AC/DC remains popular.
Bon Jovi's sixth album, 1995's These Days is one such album. Sure, it went platinum, and sure, it had a pair of hits. But for many fans of the band's pop-metal hooks from the days of Slippery When Wet and New Jersey, These Days was too dark, too stark, and too un-commercial. It didn't take long for These Days to fade from the public consciousness, and so, it became the band's forgotten masterpiece.
Some may chalk the band's expanded, rawer sound up to the Seattle explosion, but in reality, the sound of this album couldn't be farther away from the dirty hard rock of bands like Alice in Chains and Stone Temple Pilots.
The closest the band comes to sounding like the Bon Jovi of old happens on the two tracks that begin the record. Hey God has one of Richie Sambora's truly best riffs, along with some of Jon Bon Jovi's best lyrical ruminations ("Born into the ghetto in 1991, just a happy child playing beneath the summer sun, A vacant lots' his playground, by 12 he's got a gun, the odds are bet against him, junior don't make 21"). There are some who say that Jon has been re-writing Living on a Prayer for the last 2 decades, but this is, in many ways, a stronger song. It has a really raw sound, and in many ways defines the musical and lyrical direction of the album.
Something for the Pain was the biggest hit from the record, and probably the most commercial song on the record, even moreso than the multitude of ballads present here. It's one of the very few songs on this record with any kind of a hook ("give me something for the pain, give me something for the blues, give me something for the pain when I feel I've ben danglin' on a hangman's noose"), and the song has some classic Bon Jovi swagger. It also features a terrific bridge, with both Jon and Richie singing a layered harmony. I love the Richie lines ("Pull me under, run through my veins, to a place where I feel no pain, be the pillow under my head, give me cover when I'm in your bed, take higher than I've ever been, take me down and back again, come to me, be my disguise, open your coat, let me crawl inside"), and I especially love how damn soulful he sounds.
In fact, the only other song that could be considered a "rocker" is Damned, a driving bit of blues-inspired rock and roll that sounds similar to the title track from the Keep the Faith record. Even the passionate These Days, which does get some speed going, is more a mid-tempo song that an out and out rocker.
There is an absolute litany of ballads on this record, but none of them feel overwrought with faux emotion, and more importantly, Jon's voice shines on each and every one. This Ain't a Love Song was the other hit from the record, and I can't help but wonder if you're not human if you aren't at least somewhat touched by Jon's passion when he sings "if the love that I got for you is gone, if the river I cried ain't that long, then I'm wrong, yeah I'm wrong, this ain't a love song."
But the unquestioned centerpiece of the album is the track titled My Guitar Lies Bleeding In My Arms. Over a simple melody laid down by Richie, Jon pours his heart out. While on first glance it might just be a song about dealing with writer's block, repeated listens reveal it to be a song of pure heartbreak and unabashed emotion. This is one of the few songs on any Bon Jovi album that can match up to the pure genius that was Dry County on Keep the Faith.
Other songs are almost as strong. (It's Hard) Letting You Go features some great harmonizing from Richie and Jon, not to mention another one of Jon's truly best vocal performances ever put to wax. Hearts Breaking Even is a bluesy ballad that has a gigantic chorus that probably should have propelled this song to being a single ("My heart's breaking even, now there's no use we even try, hey I cried, yeah I lied, hell I almost died, don't got a reason, let's just fold the cards and say good-bye, it's all right, just two hearts breaking even tonight").
Just as he was doing through characters in Hey God, Jon tackles his faith, or his lack thereof, in Something To Believe In. He moves easily in between a whisper and out and out desperation, and the song may showcase his best lyrics ever ("If I don't believe in Jesus, how can I believe the Pope, If I don't believe in heroin, how can I believe in dope, If there's nothing but survival, how can I believe in sin, In a world that gives you nothing, we need something to believe in.")
The weakest part of the album may be in its last two tracks, which after 10 excellent tracks, we see a dropoff in quality. If That's What It Takes is a solid track, and it wouldn't be out of place at all on Keep the Faith, but here, it sounds just a tad out of place. The closing ballad, Diamond Ring, has probably the worst lyrics of the entire album, and while not entirely cheesy, it really feels out of place here.
Even with that being said, These Days is an album that rewards patience and repeated listens. Even just a year ago, I probably would've given this as low as three stars. But lately, when I need a Bon Jovi fix, I find myself reaching for this record more and more. While I still might call Keep the Faith the band's best record, no record matches up to the emotion and maturity displayed on These Days.
Besides, on a cold winter night, an album like this just sounds perfect.
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