Quote:
Originally Posted by Alphavictim
Just because somebody plays an instrument and is in a band, or in this case, in the band, doesn't mean they can write something that will work with that band. There's skill (very different from performing) and there's a stylistic fit.
Based on what I've heard from The Drills, Phil is not a writer in the context of pop/rock. He can do some show-offy licks and stuff, but as far as coherent songs go that convey an emotion in a radio-ready package, no.
Also keep in mind that Bon Jovi are not an after school project by friends. Recording a song costs them money, in a professional studio. Sure you can shoot the shit and record stuff for fun as bonus tracks. Not that these are much of a thing any more, but that would be the extent of it IMO. If JBJ and friends presented the record label a collection of Drills b-sides, they would light Jon's ass on fire.
The one guy from the band Jon should co-write with is Richie.
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Agreed. I really like Phil X, but in songwriting terms, it's a no-go for Bon Jovi perspective. To me, Drills sound like a bar band. I don't think Jon lacks songwriting partners, skills or inspiration in the last decade. But so many promising songs (that I even forgot about) since WAN at least have been drowned in wrong production directions. General public, including fans, generally don't have idea of what could of been regarding a song. We all know that Prayer is a classic of rock and roll history. Would it be a classic without talkbox and killer bass-line? In my opinion, no way. But this is not due to "inspiration" or "songwriting", its production choices of great producers in most cases.
Pick any modern Jovi song you kind of like. Then imagine changing the tempo a bit, reduce wall of sound (make bass or guitar really audible), force Jon 2 more hours in studio and force him to be aggresive on hooks/outros, give Richie/Phil X 10 more seconds, let David do some piano licks somewhere. With different set of choices, Bon Jovi woud have few more hits after HAND and several more good songs in eyes of most loyal fanbase. In my eyes, Shanks is not bad because "pop" or "sellout", but because lack of hits, lack of success. In the end, if you say it's too late for hits, fair enough, but then change the producer for sake of change, its been 20 years now of Shanks literally. Even if he was music god resurrected I would change him for sake of freshness. If he's a friend, okay keep him involved in some capacity, but this is life's work and multi-million dollar enterprise, and keeping Shanks in producing control is against everything CEO Jon preaches normally
EDIT: To pinpoint this even more, take this video of recording IML
And now imagine Shanks as a producer. Not Shanks who did HAND single (very good in my eyes, for the purpose and time). But Shanks best friend of Jon, when Jon has a meeting in an hour with, I don't know, JBJ Soul Foundation or Clinton or Football team owner. Are the vocals gonna be like they are in IML, at the very edge of Jon's ability, aggressive and engaging? Or are they more akin to We don't run chorus? Is IML hit after that, regardless of other possible (bad) choices in production? IML is also wall of sound produced, but with a purpose, similar to Californication album of RHCP (supposedly the most "loud" album in history).