Sound Advice: CD Reviews - Bon Jovi (Slippery When Wet)

CD Review:
This is Bon Jovi's third studio release after Bon Jovi and 7800 Fahrenheit. It was also their breakthrough record. Afterward, New Jersey propelled the band to super-stardom.

One of the only pop metal/glam rock bands to actually have staying power, Bon Jovi released their tenth album Lost Highway in 2007. Bon Jovi promoted Jon's good looks and hired Desmond Child, a professional songwriter (he wrote "I Was Made For Lovin' You" for Kiss and "I Hate Myself For Lovin' You" with Joan Jett as two examples of his talent), for this album.

As the story goes, Bon Jovi weren't happy with the minor success they were receiving (7800 Fahrenheit only went gold in the U.S.) so they decided to write a bunch of songs, with Child's help, play them for local audiences and keep the ones rated the highest for this album. The formula worked and Slippery When Wet sold millions.

You could consider this album as a working class Hysteria or 1984 as it is in the same genre of music as Def Leppard and Van Halen but with lyrics more centered on a poor man's sensibilities. Where Van Halen was promoting a good time, Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer" and "Wanted Dead Or Alive" were focused on promoting the band as a more gritty and "school of hard knocks" group.

I never really liked this band much since I couldn't handle the female adoration factor. The music didn't inspire anything in me the way 1984 or Skid Row's Slave to the Grind did. But you can't really argue the greatness of the band in as much as they survived the change that rock made in the early 90s. The band's seveth studio album Crush in 2000 sold eight million copies and they keep producing a pop style of rock that has kept their audience for over 20 years.

Slippery When Wet is probably Bon Jovi's best album, so if you want to try them out, it's best to start here. Move on to New Jersey and then make up you mind on whether you try their later stuff or their first two albums...if you are still around after listening to those two anyways.

Scott D. Brown