MattA75's Full Review: Keep the Faith [Remaster] by Bon Jovi
The year was 1992. Bill Clinton was running to unseat Bush the Elder, Nirvana and Pearl Jam, alongside U2, who with Achtung Baby were on tour supporting their best album ever, were the hottest bands in music, and MTV had, for all intents and purposes, turned their back on late 80s hard rock bands who had more in good looks than in musical talent.
The last time Bon Jovi had put out an album, 1988's New Jersey, they were the biggest band in the land, in no small part due to the success of Slippery When Wet. New Jersey was a huge hit in and of itself, but it had been four long years since Bon Jovi had released new music. In that time, guitarist Richie Sambora released a solo album that tanked chartwise, and lead singer Jon Bon Jovi had taken to the bottle. With tensions in the band still high from the last tour, the band regrouped, made up, and then made the best album of the career. Released in the fall of 1992, Keep the Faith would go multiplatinum many times over, and work as a message from the band to their harshest critics that they were here to stay for the long run.
The opening I Believe sets the inspirational tone that the rest of the album will take on. Jon's voice sounds positively solid on this track, and yet, it is a mere hint of what is to come from him later on. Sambora's slashing guitar riff melds into a tempting musical stew that is as driven by David Bryan's keyboards and Tico Torres' pounding drum work as it is by the aforementioned playing by Sambora.
Next up is the title track, a song that acts as a chronicle of the band's wars on the road, a message to die hard fans, and a general inspirational message to the masses ("You know you're gonna live through the rain, Lord you got to keep the faith"). Just as on the opening I Believe, the entire band plays an integral role in this song being what it is. Unlike their 80s pop metal, which was characterized by hooks, these songs feel cohesive, with each member integral. Both Torres and bassist Alec John Such (who would be acrimoniously fired from the group in 1993, only to join the band onstage for a couple of songs at a gig in 2003) keep the song from running off the rails, while Bryan adds some nice melodic touches.
One of my two or three all-time favorite Bon Jovi tracks is next. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (not to be confused with the Warren Zevon classic of the same name) is a rollicking good time rock and roll song, driven by hand claps and simple percussion. Released as a single, it didn't light up the charts, but to this day it remains a crowd favorite at the band's shows.
The only time the band delves back into their old Slippery When Wet and New Jersey formula is on In These Arms, which despite its formulaic arrangement and lack of imaginative lyrics (something that can certainly not be said for the rest of the disc), is a song that should have you shouting along with the anthemic chorus ("I'd love you, I'd please you, I'd tell you that I'd never leave you, and love you till the end of time, If you were in these arms tonight.").
With Bed of Roses, the band had one of their biggest ballad hits ever on their hands. Featuring a solid bluesy lead from Sambora and a simple piano melody from Bryan, it is truly a well written song, although it seems that my opinion of it goes back and forth depending on the day and my mood.
Keep the Faith also includes the band's best song that they have ever put to wax. Dry County was ripped to shreds by critics for its "pretentiousness" and it's over nine minute running length (even while they praised Guns N RosesNovember Rain). The song is one of the few times that Jon actually reached the Springsteen pinnacle that he so often fell short of in his tales of the working class. I honestly don't think Jon has ever given a better studio vocal performance than the one found on this song.
The band also shows they haven't forgotten how to rock though. Fear has a bassline that feels evil, and when Sambora rips into his guitar just in time for the second verse, it sends shivers up your spine just with its sheer force. If I Was Your Mother is probably the hardest driving song on the record, despite its presence of strings in some of the verses.
Even songs that aren't as creative musically, such as the power ballad I Want You, manage to rise above thanks to the solid songwriting of Jon and Jon's vocal performance. And Blame it on the Love of Rock and Roll is extremely similar in groove to I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, but it's such a fun groove that you'll hardly care since you'll be up shaking your a*s the way Aerosmith used to make you back in the 70s. And the closing Little Bit of Soul is exactly that, a mix of blues and soul that ends the album on a creative high.
There will always be people who tell you that Slippery When Wet is Bon Jovi's best disc. Those people are kind of like the people who insist Led Zeppelin IV is that band's best disc, or Ten is Pearl Jam's best disc, or 1984 is Van Halen's best disc. The fact is is that none of those albums are the best of those band's careers. And the fact remains that Keep the Faith is Bon Jovi's greatest artistic achievement to date. And it's not even close.
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