Which song do you like better, WWWU or Walls?

1 and 2 with the rest of the "original album" starting at track number 3.

Funny that you mention both bands in the same breath, as Imagine Dragons is said to be this decade's Nickelback...

Jon sure knows how to pick them, it's a good thing *serious* music critics don't pay attention to Bon Jovi anymore or they'd be panned merciless for this.

Considering Jon's inability to sell even their latest, super easy songs, and his utter lack of a proper attitude as the frontman of a fvcking rock and roll band, this is not a style he can pull off vocally or attitude-wise. Have you seen Imagine Dragons live? They truly rock, their thing is the soaring vocals and ultra-dramatic big chorus. Walls is lacking that in the studio, live is just going to be a snooze fest.

That's my main gripe with the song, of course they don't have to imitate another band style but let's be real, they are borrowing heavily from a sound that's not Bon Jovi's, which I honestly don't care, but it doesn't work in 2018. Maybe in 2003, but it's going to sound horrible live now.

I think Jon is clueless and this is all Shanks...

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Walls is definitely the better of the two. WWWU couldn’t be more BOn Jovi by numbers if it tried. I don’t care if I never hear it again!
It’s amazing how this band or should I say Jon is utterly cluesless when it comes to picking the right songs to release as singles!

Agree.

For sure no. Someday I'll be Saturday Night was written and Jon brought a copy of Soul Asylum's Runaway Train to the engineer and said "make it sound like this". There are dozens of examples of the band borrowing sounds from popular bands, I have no reason to believe Shanks is behind it. He may have said "Here's a band that's popular now" but that has to be as far as it's gone.

Agreed. Jon always prides himself to be the quarterback who calls the shots at the end of the day. He's well aware of how the songs sound and, as stated above, surely knows the similarities in sound. This didn't start with Shanks on board, nowadays the only difference is that they don't try to hide it on some songs.

I agree. Its unbeliveable how much crap Shanks is getting on this board. He's the man who is providing the job JON wants him to do, not the other way around. No one can honstely believe that Shanks is the one saying "Here's the way the new songs are gonna sound." Jon gives him the order and Shanks is the one making the boss happy.
Look at Bob Rock with RSO. Does it sound anything like Keep the Faith? No of course not. He's giving Richie and Orianthi the sound they want and obviously it's not KTF.

People tend to forget how much they were criticized for the sound of Bounce (which was popular then but critically ridiculed) and the pop-rock songs on HAND (which again was a popular style, but one the critics dismissed). Guess how much did Shanks contribute to that? Nothing

People can't shed their hatred and perception of Shanks as the Yoko Ono of this band (and those have probably no idea of The Beatles history) and blame him for something that has happened since the beginning of time. Something that they subconsciously feel it's wrong: a band hiring the best tools to achieve huge success. And that includes evolving and getting *inspired* by the music of their time. They chose the producers, not the other way round

In Lithuania we have a saying in sports how "a team wins, but a coach loses", meaning that the coach is one that gets blamed whether he deserves ir not. I think the producer often gets a very similar treatment from diehard fans, not just by Bon Jovi fans, but other bands too. And I don't think that's fair at all, because bands bring the material, just like the players perform on the court. Shanks produced LH and it sounded great, because Jon wanted that organic sound. I don't think a new producer would change much about Bon Jovi sound, because it's Jon's vision he would have to change and by doing so he'd probably get sacked. And if Jon's vision changes, I'm sure Shanks would be able to adapt and do a good job with it, because his track record with other artists proves it. I don't think the RSO stuff sounds great either, it's all too loud and I can hear the vocals properly, even though it was produced by the great Bob Rock.

tl;dr: I think the role of a producer is very overestimated.