Metal For Your Mother. (Have A Nice Day - Bon Jovi)

Member Name: Farting Weasel

Product:	Have A Nice Day - Bon Jovi
Date:	26/12/05 (547 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good wholesome, toothy grin hard rock Americana.

Disadvantages: Your mum will like it

Bon Jovi – Have A Nice Day

Released 19/09/2005 on Mercury.
210355-6
£9.77 at Morrisons


Do you watch WWE on the telly? Yes? Good. I’ll be asking questions later.

Over the years Bon Jovi has become a force to be reckoned with. An institution in rock. They cannot play the small halls any more. Wherever they appear, it’s in the mega bowls and super arenas. Their audience ranges from school kids to grannies and all ages in between. Even hard case rockers, who will deny the fact, have a Bon Jovi record somewhere in their collection. Bon Jovi is as corporate as rock can get. The brand is literary a licence to print money.

And why do you think this is? I’ll tell you. Bon Jovi, love them or hate them, have the knack of releasing albums that although sounding the same always have that extra something that keeps them fresh, up-to-date. And better still, have remained a chart-bothering act for nigh on twenty years. It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that they put out shed loads of great songs does it? No: of coarse not.

What Bon Jovi is, is the epitome of the American Dream. A loud of young punks who have walked what they talked. Writing songs that urge that the impossible is possible and then done it for real. And look at them now. Megastars. It doesn’t matter how much stick BJ take, they just roll on regardless. Relentless.

So what about Have A Nice Day? Well, the various members of BJ are all pretty good at what they do and are not averse to knocking out a hit or two. So when you stick them in a room with the likes of Desmond Child and John Shanks you know that quality is going to result. And so it does, consistently. The album really doesn’t have a bad track on it.

The opening title track is a straight lift of It’s My Life. It may appear a bit of a rip off at first, but really it provides a familiar point from which to draw you into the rest of the album. Which is just as well for your mum, because it’s a tough little set. The overall sound of the album is heavier than past offerings I’ve heard. Grittier. Though they manage to avoid any slide into the down tuned grunge of younger bands. Samboras’ playing is understated, the solos simple and a lot of the songs seem to have a subtle underlayer of acoustic guitar to them. A nice touch as it gives a bit more depth to what would otherwise be just straight rockers.

As part of the BJ formula, as a rule the third track on any album is always a slowy, and so it is here. But: it’s not the usual slush of, say, “This Ain’t A Love Song” (that happens on track 6 “Bells Of Freedom”. Oh well). No, here we get “Welcome To Wherever You Are” which is quite nifty in it’s way. Certainly not a lighter-waving weepy.

Reading through the lyrics, I cannot help but get a sense of irony. Something that I thought was a domain strictly inhabited by us Brits. And yet again, God gets a middle finger hoisted in his honour, as does any one who BJ perceive as detractors to the cause. Though Tommy and Gina have been left alone this time. It’s all the sort of stuff that only those with total control, commitment and confidence in what they do can produce.

The rest have all the trademarks of Bon Jovi, but the song writing has managed to keep them current. There is a lot going on around the world of rock and Bon Jovi have managed to capture an essence of a lot of it. Don’t get me wrong, they haven’t tried to be Nu-metal or ‘post’ this or that. It’s definitely BJ, but they have only done what great bands always do. Change. In BJ’s case, with some subtlety. Nice.

I think Have A Nice Day is a fine example of Americana at it’s heaviest.

Standout tracks? “Story Of My Life”, “Novocaine”, “Last Cigarette”, “Have A Nice Day”, and “Dirty Little Secret” hit the mark straight away. The rest clicked in soon after.

What a lot of people seem to miss is that beneath the veneer of hope is a subtle undercurrent of cynicism. A view that nothing is what it seems, nor as easy. Certainly not as easy as they make it seem. But it still remains overtly lovable. The sort of rock your mum would listen to. The whole, goofily grinning boy next door attitude bubbles through remorselessly. I think they achieve this to some degree by never resorting to hurling four letter expletives at every opportunity. Bon Jovi show it’s quite easy to get the digs in without smothering everything in abuse. Shocking lyrics are not necessary. And here the title sums everything up. An insult delivered with a smile without actually being an insult. A lesson here for their younger compatriots I think.

And where does the WWE come into all this? What is the connection between BJ and WWE? Well, just as you will never find professional wresters drawing blood (it’s fake kids, believe me), you will never hear Bon Jovi write tunes about Coney Island White Fish Boys or Mr Brownstone. The Bon Jovi World remains sanitized, although a little sweaty.

And no songs about cowboys. Redemption.

This is a clever album. People have put a lot of thought into it and it works. There are a lot of subtle references in here. You’ll spend hours trying to think of where you first heard a particular bit for months. I think this illustrates quality workmanship.

I do however, have one complaint. Have A Nice Day has been released in at least four versions that I know of. There is the standard version with 12 tracks. Then there is the version I’ve reviewed here which has two bonus tracks – Dirty Little Secret and Unbreakable. There was a limited edition double disc set I saw which had a bonus disc of vids ‘n’ stuff (£15 for that one). The forth version has a different cut of Welcome To Wherever You Are. This is an America only issue and has JBJ dueting with country star Jennifer Nettles. And that’s just the stuff I know of. And I’m not a BJ completist either. God knows how many single, remix and video versions will be released.

So what’s that lot all about then? You don’t think we’re getting screwed do you? No, never. We all enjoy buying four of the same album to get the full works, don’t we? Of coarse we do. What a load of bollocks. No wonder people prefer to download stuff illegally when record companies pull this kind of stunt. So if you are a Bon Jovi completist, you had better get yer wallet out.

However, I digress.

Bon Jovi is aging very gracefully, thank you very much. Have A Nice Day is still very much a Rock ‘n’ Roll record.

Recommended (Just don’t hammer the credit card too hard eh. Your mum will not appreciate it).

Summary: Cynical? Bon Jovi? Surely not.