Lost Highway

　　"Artistic freedom made this record possible," says Jon Bon Jovi. "Musical freedom to explore--and emotional freedom to express what was in our hearts."

　　The result of that freedom is Lost Highway, an album Jon describes as "a Bon Jovi record influenced by Nashville."

　　Bon Jovi explains. "Nashville is all about songs and songwriters. If you're someone like me who loves songs and hanging out with songwriters, Nashville is the place. I thrive on that feeling and I'm inspired by that creative ambience."

　　The result, a haunting set of 12 new and original sounding songs, is a stunning, multi-layered look into the nature of love and life in all its glory. Love, like life, is lost, found, forgotten and reclaimed in this collection.

　　The moods are many, but the core feeling is pure Bon Jovi.

　　"Writing this record with Jon was deeply cathartic," says Richie Sambora, who collaborated on ten of the songs. "I was going through emotional changes that were new for me. An ailing father. A painful divorce. The start of a new chapter in my life. I poured everything I had into this project, every last bit of soul at my command."

　　"For over twenty years now," Jon explains, "Richie and I have been close collaborators. Even when our songs create fictional stories, they reveal our states of mind. To a large degree, Lost Highway focuses on the light that love brings. When you shine the light on love, you see the chinks in the armor. You see every crevice, every crack. And that's all right".

　　Lost Highway is Bon Jovi's tenth studio album since the band formed in the early eighties. One hundred and twenty million albums and 2500 concerts in over 50 countries later, Bon Jovi is enjoying the greatest popularity in their history.

Have a Nice Day

　　What does a wildly successful purveyor of ‘80s big hair power ballads do in an ensuing decade dominated by fervent shoe-gazing and other attendant alt.cliches? If you’re Jon Bon Jovi, you scale back your band’s ambitions, retool yourself as surprisingly accomplished indie film and TV actor, and (mostly) wait for the pop music tides to turn in your favor again. But JBJ and guitarist/collaborator Richie Sambora didn’t let their band’s lukewarm ‘90s fortunes dampen their knack for hook-savvy songcraft, as this muscular anthem-fest argues at virtually every turn. BJ’s songs here may be as infectious as ever, yet they’re seldom mere confections, often infused with alternating doses of bracing cynicism (the title track’s sarcastic riposte to the ’04 election) and reflective, often bittersweet takes on histories both personal and otherwise. If it sometimes stoops to formula--the droning, metallic ethos of the obligatory big ballad "I Am" can’t overcome some equally perfunctory lyrics–it’s also an album with its share of warm surprises, be they unexpected nods to Dylan ("Last Man Standing," the acoustic idealism of "Bells of Freedom"), the hard-edged "I Want to Live" or a winning duet with Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles, "Who Says You Can’t Go Home." Bon Jovi may deliver a sonically burnished triumph here by largely going back to the future--yet does it with one ear crucially cocked towards the anxious energy of the recent past. -- Jerry McCulley