I bought this album, the latest offering of Bon Jovi, purely out of curiousity as I saw those words boldly declaring themselves on the cover (see review title). And guess what guys, this is the most unusual stuff you’ve ever expected from the band – an acoustic album with reinvented versions of 12 of their greatest hits over two decades. And love it or hate it, you simply can’t deny it’s definitely got that required twist that’d make you grab a copy, doesn’t matter if you’ve been singing along to the unforgettable anthems for ages or if you’ve never heard them at all!
The songs are almost as good as new, and although the lyrics have been kept unchanged for most of the songs, the treatment has been totally different imparting a new look and feel. Admitted that some tracks obviously fail to create the magic as their original, but still the difference that has been made can still be entertaining.
The album opens with the energetic Wanted Dead Or Alive – the band has tried to impart a Led Zeppelin feel to it this time around but it ends up sounding like a poor club remix of the original. The next song is Livin’ On A Prayer and here the parts of Richard Sambora (also the band’s guitarist in case you didn’t know) have been replaced by actress Olivia d’Abo. This is a pretty one sounding more like a love ballad, but one can’t help wondering if there couldn’t be a better alternative to Olivia d’Abo to sing this duet, and there can be no apparent reason for choosing her except the fact that she’s also the wife of producer.
It’s My Life, the big 2000 hit, sounding here almost like an introspective ballad, wins hands down as the best song in the album what with some out-of-the-world strings and piano to go with it.
The album also contains redone versions of Bad Medicine, Lay Your Hands On Me, You Give Love A Bad Name, Bed Of Roses, Everyday, Born To Be My Baby, Keep The Faith and I’ll be There For You. One tends to miss the absence of many other really big hits like In These Arms, All I Want Is You, This Ain’t A Love Song and These Days in the compilation, while the presence of almost no-hit Everyday might also raise eyebrows.
My personal favourite in the album, expect the already-mentioned It’s My Life, is Keep The Faith. The big, aggressive anthem has been toned down to sound almost like a prayer and I absolutely love the effect. Lay your Hands On Me also goes down quite well with me, but on consulting some critics it seems to turn out that it’s only because I’m yet to hear the original. And I love Bed Of Roses because this time I don’t have to strain my ears (and all other senses) to follow the words.
Check this one out, guys. It can well turn into a trend-setting album, as far as I can remember no other music artist has ever released an album on renditioned versions of their classic hits and it certainly takes guts to do what Bon Jovi did out here. It might not be such a big sensation like Slippery When Wet, Keep The Faith or Crush, but it’s still well worth your money.