[Faceman]

Originally Posted by Thunderstrucker

I think I really like 2 songs of the album and that's it. I really like Blind Love, followed by Saturday Night (which is just another Its My Life, Born To Follow etc etc). All the other songs are just too safe in my opinion.

It's your opinion and it's absolutely ok!
But to me it sounds funny that you like the Weekend Song, even compare it to IML and Born To Follow and criticise the other songs for being too safe.
If there's one song on that album that's absolutely safe, it's the Weekend Song
It is what it is: A purely matter of taste

[Thunderstrucker]

Originally Posted by Faceman

It's your opinion and it's absolutely ok!
But to me it sounds funny that you like the Weekend Song, even compare it to IML and Born To Follow and criticise the other songs for being too safe.
If there's one song on that album that's absolutely safe, it's the Weekend Song
It is what it is: A purely matter of taste

Oh you are totally right. I shouldve mentioned that in my reply. It is a safe song yet I find myself liking it.
It's a feeling I been having for the last couple of albums though that it's more wasted potential then actual good songs.

I edited my reply

I salute you,
TS

[Crossjack]

Originally Posted by Thunderstrucker

Back to the warm, deep, emotional sound of These Days.

Some guys here will never understand that times have changed and you'll never get another These Days. If you can't be happy with anything else than a These Days version 2, why are you even still concerned with Bon Jovi?

You know, nobody has to like that album and everyone can say whether he or she likes something or not, but this never ending These Days chitchat really is annoying.

And finally, the ultimate reason to dislike something seems to be "production". Sometimes I wonder if half of the people talking about this "awful Shanks production" even know anything about producing an album...

[Thunderstrucker]

Originally Posted by Crossjack

And finally, the ultimate reason to dislike something seems to be "production". Sometimes I wonder if half of the people talking about this "awful Shanks production" even know anything about producing an album...

I guess by saying this you do know something about producing? Then tell me why they continue with the loudness, the constant use of effects and stuff, just to covers Jon horrible singing? Wether you like this album or not, it's too fake on many layers. It's not real enough, not pure enough and I know that this has been the case for the albums of late so I need the songs to compensate for it. The last album for me that had quite some good songs, and again a poor production, was The Circle.

Why I am still concerned with Bon Jovi? Because I know how I liked them in the past, because I was there in Milan last tour when Jon sang like a youngster during the 70 minute encore and blew everyone away.
I liked Crush, I did not like Bounce, I liked HAND, I did not like Lost Highway and I liked The Circle a lot. So it's up and down for me with every album. With WaN being the album it is I hoped this would be something good and to me it isn't.

I am a massive Springsteen-fan but that doesn't make me like every album he made. It's been up and down with Springsteen for me as well for the last years. I really liked Magic, didn't like Working On A Dream, liked Wrecking Ball, didn't like High Hopes that much etc..

If you come to this board and don't like your favorite band being critisized do not come here. It's a public board to ventilate opinions and mine just isn't that positive about this album.

I salute you,
TS

[Crossjack]

Originally Posted by Thunderstrucker

If you come to this board and don't like your favorite band being critisized do not come here. It's a public board to ventilate opinions and mine just isn't that positive about this album.

I tried to make it clear that everyone can criticize the band and you might realise that I didn't want to offend you personally...

I'm just a little bit depressed that everything is compared to These Days somehow.

[Faceman]

Originally Posted by Thunderstrucker

I guess by saying this you do know something about producing? Then tell me why they continue with the loudness, the constant use of effects and stuff, just to covers Jon horrible singing?

I think Jon's voice is one reason. The other reason is that they want to sound fresh and up-to-date and think that's the way to accomplish this goal.

Sure, we all would love a new Slippery, a new New Jersey or a new These Days...but that's not the sound of today's mainstream. So even if they'd go for it I'm sure they wouldn't get more airplay than with this stuff.

[Thunderstrucker]

Originally Posted by Crossjack

I tried to make it clear that everyone can criticize the band and you might realise that I didn't want to offend you personally...

I'm just a little bit depressed that everything is compared to These Days somehow.

I am not offended Jack. But I am longer on this board and I seen more persons not liking the way others talk about Jovi on here. Don't worry, it takes more to offend me personally.
I know it is unfair to compare it with an album like These Days but the fans of the old days just cannot get the thought out of their head saying 'How cool would it be if we would get an album like These Days just one more time'.

And to Faceman, that's just the thing. How do you want to be remembered? The real fans don't need Bon Jovi to be on air, they want a quality album. With new generations of youth coming up the thing about being a diehard-fan or being one who goes to multiple concerts is dying out. It's a changing thing and that is a pity in my opinion.
Do you know what songs we get to hear if radiostations here decide to play them? The old ones. The Bed of Roses, the Keep The Faith.

And are you happy now? While typing this reply 'Who Would You Die For' came on during my iTunes-shuffle. Got to change the music!

I salute you,
TS

[Crossjack]

Originally Posted by Thunderstrucker

I know it is unfair to compare it with an album like These Days but the fans of the old days just cannot get the thought out of their head saying 'How cool would it be if we would get an album like These Days just one more time'.

Fair enough.

If there was a 2nd These Days instead of Crush e.g., I don't know if I would have ever become a Bon Jovi fan, I just don't know and I don't really want to imagine that I would have never discovered all their music and what would have happened to me without it...

This band gave me a lot also with the newer releases not just the great old hits and albums. And I know other people, much younger than I am, who became addicted by the band because of Lost Highway or What About Now and isn't that a nice thing? Nobody takes away New Jersey or These Days even when they release something like What About Now (I liked it actually)...

And I think that these fans aren't worth less just because they are younger or haven't done as many posts as other people here or just because they like the newer albums as well...

[Thunderstrucker]

They aren't worth less. A fan is a fan.
One on hand it's a pity they became a fan with Jovi making lower-quality-songs like these. On the other hand they might not have become a fan if Jovi was still making songs like These Days.
Another confession from me is that I really like HAND. It's a big pop-album and also has the loudness-production but the overall flow on that album is just so good that it 'works' as an album, as a whole.

I salute you,
TS

p.s.
Gave Fingerprints another chance so now I am on 4 songs that I like but that's it. 4 or 5 songs tops is what is has been for me for the last couple of albums.

[ezearis]

To be honest, I heard some song from these days last night: Hey God, These Days, My Guitar Lies Bleeding In My Arms, (It's Hard) Letting You Go and Something To Believe In and I got a little bit depressed because that's my favourite album by this band and: 1) we're never getting something like that again; 2) Jon will never ever sing like that.

Still, I can't help to be happy with this release. Yes, checked up my last.fm and since this album was released I've been mainly playing the same 5 songs of it, and that's a 50% of songs... but I'm happy because I had lost all hope that a song like Fingerprints would ever be released. Or that Jon would ever deliver a vocal performance like the one of Who Would You Die For (not a fan of the song btw). Or that I would have goosebumps because of a song like Blind Love.

I didn't expected this to be a solid record that, as Thunderstrucker says, Have A Nice Day is, as this is what it is: some songs recorded in a few days to commit contractual obligations. So I focused on the songs, and I like some of them. Now I'm excited about the new album, the real new album, and I hope that the band will take a good direction on it.

And about the "everyone uses the production as an excuse to hate", it's not an excuse, Bon Jovi's last albums are painful to hear because of the crappy production: What About Now is noise + noise + compressed instruments + noise + Jon + autotune + some other noise. There's no depth in sound. And somebody can't hear what I'm saying he should really go to check his ears because something's not working right there. But if I compare this record to that one, it's a step forward in the production, it sounds better overall, that's why I gave some kudos to Shanks on Twitter. Yes, some songs are ruined by the production, or doesn't achieve their full potential (ATTTS, for example), but others like Fingerprints are a 180° turnaround from What About Now and I like that.

That been said, I'd like them to work with another producer on the 2016 record. They've been working with Shanks since 2004, it's 2015 and we know he'll be on the 2016 album, that's 12 years. Longer than Alec stayed on the band (1994-1983= 11), to put it in numbers.