A month out from the US election, on a day that the incumbent tweeted that he had tested positive to COVID-19... Bon Jovi: 2020 was finally released and you can download or stream it now.
I mention elections and presidents because the album cover was inspired by a shot of John F. Kennedy, and the album title partly inspired by the fact that it's an election year in America. Funnily enough, I never mentioned the cover on this blog even when 2020 was originally meant to come out in May. It's a cool photo of Jon, though I'm not sold on it being the album cover... I guess I'd prefer something a little more abstract. Or band-oriented. But hey, we all know Bon Jovi is Jon's ship, so whatever.
Now onto the music.
When "American Reckoning" dropped, I had discussions with a few people about whether or not it was too on the nose. Certainly, there's no mistaking what it's about. But I actually like that Jon got specific. There are plenty of generic Bon Jovi songs already ("Have a Nice Day" was supposedly a sneaky diss track aimed at George Bush, but you'd never know it).
My first-impression faves from 2020 are "Beautiful Drug", "Story of Love", "Lower the Flag", and "Blood in the Water".
But I'm digging the album as a whole. Considering I was very lukewarm about "Unbroken" and "Limitless", the rest of it has ended up sounding pretty damn good in my ears. I could be getting caught up in the moment, of course. But as of 2nd October 2020, I approve. 👍
What are your early impressions of the album?
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I have to say I had very low expectations for this album after hearing the singles. I love “Do What You Can” but “Limitless” and “American Reckoning” are terrible and have really poor writing. With that said, I’ve been listening to the record pretty much nonstop since it came out and despite those tracks I honestly think this is their best record since Crush. “Story of Love” is a masterpiece. “Beautiful Drug” and “Brothers in Arms” are outstanding high energy songs with a fresh sound. Bon Jovi hasn’t put out something that sounded different since Lost Highway. The mix on the album is also outstanding. It’s finally not over compressed. You can actually hear David on keys and there are some great guitar solos. I do worry that Jon won’t be able to pull off some of this material live but the album itself is incredible.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think I'm with you there -- best album in 20 years. I was looking forward to just checking out some new tunes, but this ended up being so much better than I ever could have hoped for.
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