In summary:

Having been one of the few bands to come through the grunge wave relatively unscathed, New Jersey rockers Bon Jovi return older, wiser, and up for the fight. These Days may be inconsistent in parts, but it also brings us a handful of their best songs to date.

These Days receives 7/11.
★★★★★★★

“Are we ready?”, asks drummer Tico Torres.

“Just about…”, replies Jon Bon Jovi.

This muffled interaction kicks off the band’s sixth studio album, and it’s designed to let us know that we’re in for a different kind of Bon Jovi. Best-known for their distinctive brand of highly polished chart rock, these days (pun intended) the New Jersey rockers are older, wiser, and dare I say it more frustrated than ever before.

All of these traits ring through These Days from start to finish, and make for what is largely a good listen.

Opener Hey God (complete with face-melting riff from Richie Sambora) might just be one of the best rockers they have ever written. Sure, its lyrics about never giving up hope are familiar territory for Bon Jovi, but they are delivered with a level of rawness and rage we’ve only ever seen on one previous song (the tremendous Fear from 1992’s Keep The Faith).

It works very well.

Big ballad This Ain’t A Love Song (spoiler: it is) went on to become the album’s big single. This shouldn’t be a surprise, because it sticks to the big ballad formula which Bon Jovi have been masters of since 1986’s Slippery When Wet, although it’s considerably more stripped back. They use the same approach on the good (but not quite as good) Lie To Me.

Many of the album’s tracks focus on Jon Bon Jovi’s perceived difficulties with growing older (chill out, you’re 33!), as he reminisces about days gone by and the world changing around him.

And it hardly matters that These Days sounds like it should’ve been called Those Days when the title track is as good as it is, easily ranking amongst their best work to date.

Perhaps we can forgive him for feeling old before his time, considering his battle-weary group had already survived the hair metal scene, the thrash uprising, and the grunge wave by this point in their career. That’s enough to make anybody feel worn out, and it seems to have gifted the frontman with a reflective lyrical tone befitting of someone far more advanced in years.

It’s most notable on the title track, which contains a storytelling lyric similar to that of Livin’ On A Prayer, but his words are a hell of a lot more cynical here, with quips like “No one wants to be themselves these days” and “There ain’t nobody left but us these days” indicative of a band who have seen so much change in a short space of time.

Unfortunately, there’s a notable drop off in both tempo and quality throughout the second half of the album.

Sure, it houses the absolute banger that is Something To Believe In, but there’s not much else to write home about, and falling off a cliff in such a manner ultimately prevents this LP from reaching the peaks of their past efforts.

Worse still, it’s an unnecessary problem for them to have, because if they’d just included mega-hit Always and the phenomenal Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night (both previously unreleased tracks which were wasted on a Greatest Hits compilation just six months earlier) ahead of some of those second-half duds, we’d be looking at a mid-90s classic.

Overall, though, (these Days) is a solid effort, and it shows us that there will always be room for the ever-dependable Bon Jovi in the rock landscape, no matter where current tastes and trends may lie.

Fans consider this LP to ne the final entry in their “golden run” of albums (which also includes 1986’s Slippery When Wet, 1988’s New Jersey, and 1992’s Keep The Faith). After completing the subsequent world tour they were established as the biggest rock band in the world, but Bon Jovi were worn down to the bone. They decided to take a 5-year hiatus, yet despite several hit singles throughout their post-2000 career, they were never able to re-capture the glory of this four album collection.

Russ’ re-worked playlist:

Maybe it’s the autism in me, but I’ve always been good at re-working album playlists to create a superior listening experience. What can I say? Superman got laser eyes, and I got this! So here’s how you should listen to These Days (1995) for maximum effectiveness:

1. These Days (6:27)★
2. Something For The Pain (4:48)
3. Hey God (6:10) ★
4. Damned (4:33)
5. Heart’s Breaking Even (5:06)
6. Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night (4:39)^
7. Always (5:53)^
8. Lie To Me (5:34)
9. Something To Believe In (5:25) ★
10. This Ain’t A Love Song (5:06)
11. If That’s What It Takes (5:17)
12. As My Guitar Lies Bleeding In My Arms (5:41)

^ taken from 1994’s Crossroads: The Greatest Hits Collection.

In summary:

Having been one of the few bands to come through the grunge wave relatively unscathed, New Jersey rockers Bon Jovi return older, wiser, and up for the fight. These Days may be inconsistent in parts, but it also brings us a handful of their best songs to date.

These Days receives 7/11.
★★★★★★★