Thursday, July 05, 2007

The Lost Highway (now with less Werewolves)

I had a job interview a few weeks ago, and today I got the call that says I'm gainfully employed. This means a number of things.

  • Regular hours. No more working until 1:30am. No more working for eleven hours straight. No more worked weekends or holidays (at least not while I work for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania).
  • Putting in my two-weeks notice at my job of six-and-a-half years. This may have been the hardest thing I had to do in a long time. I went through like six drafts of it. I got teary-eyed on the drive home.
  • Money money 2020.
  • Benefits.
The soundtrack to my day today was the new Bon Jovi CD, Lost Highway. I had heard a lot of reviews calling it a more "country-tinged" Bo-Jo album, but I didn't get that at all. What I heard was another par-for-the-course album, as formulaic as each release since These Days (Crush, Bounce, Have A Nice Day). Sure, there's some electronic fiddle in there, but it's more reminiscent of John Mellencamp than any actual country star.

So is it worth buying? Well, you're either a Bon Jovi fan or you aren't. We Bon Jovi fans like to be beaten over the head with our lyrics and our guitar riffs. If you fall into that category, this is about on-par with the previous three releases from the band, and you'll enjoy it. If you're not a lover of the B-J, pass on it. There's nothing revolutionary here that will change your mind.

If you're a country fan, this probably isn't the album for you. There are cameos by Big & Rich and Leann Rimes, but the first is unrecognizable underneath the song's electronics (yes, there is use of the vox-box in these songs), and the second could very well be any paid studio-singer.

I like it though.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmm...given your blog entry about leaving your current (shitty) job, you may have actually cried when you read mine. Somehow though, I doubt it ;-)

Love

Anonymous said...

congrats and best wishes on the new job!

Matt said...

congratulations on your new job. Never heard of the Lost Highway album, but I've seen exactly 1 minute and 45 seconds of David Lynch's movie of the same name. That's how long it took me to hide under my bed and curl into the fetal position.

Unknown said...

The new Bon Jovi album is pretty decent but not anywhere near the greatness of a Slippery or even the one you mentioned These Days. Even with Have a Nice Day I don't feel that they've come close to that pinnacle. To me the Bounce album was pretty disappointing but Crush was pretty damn good especially for a comeback album. For me, the best tracks on Lost Highway are Lost Highway, Summertime, We got it goin on, and Any other day. Japanese import has 2 bonus tracks. Have you heard them?