This House is Not for Sale Bon Jovi 2016 Island Records Bon Jovi. What can be said about Bon Jovi that hasn’t already said. Bon Jovi over the course of their career have released some monumentally big albums, from the dizzying heights of 1986’s Slippery When Wet, through 1988’s New Jersey to a gradual decline through experimentation with more modern sounds, outside collaborators, dabbling in Country and also trying to recapture their youth. However, Bon Jovi have their own formula which allows them to straddle the line between Hard Rock and Pop pulling in fans from both sides which still sees them maxing out stadiums as one of the biggest grossing touring acts per annum. This House is Not for Sale is the 13th studio album in Bon Jovi’s career, following on from 2013’s extremely poor What About Now, if you overlook the marginally better Burning Bridges, a compilation of unreleased and/or unfinished songs released in 2015. This House is Not for Sale is a unique Bon Jovi album in the fact that it is the first album not to feature guitarist Richie Sambora who after much speculation has finally left Bon Jovi. But, This House is Not for Sale is also unique in the fact that it is also the first album to feature long standing studio/live bassist Hugh McDonald as an official member as well as new guitarist, Phil X, who replaces Richie Sambora. John Shanks and Jon Bon Jovi are once more at the helm for This House is Not for Sale and are so embedded in what they do, John Shanks is now part of the Bon Jovi furniture. This House is Not for Sale does not stray far from the Bon Jovi formula laid down with every album since Crush was released in 2000. Each song from This House is Not for Sale has that accessible, radio friendly sheen all over it that has come to be expected of Bon Jovi, coupled with a big bass drum sound whilst being awash with keyboards and repeating guitar melodies that conforms to most big stadium selling acts. Predictably, This House is Not for Sale begins with the title track, a fast-paced Hard Rock song by numbers, a trend which runs throughout This House is Not for Sale with songs like Knockout, Roller Coaster and The Devil’s in the Temple. There is no denying that Jon Bon Jovi knows how to write a song, the songs are just songs by numbers. This House is Not for Sale pushes more from the Hard Rock sound that Bon Jovi built their reputation on and enters the watered-down pop/indie market, a typical example of this is the breakdown in Living with the Ghost. There is even some remaining Lost Highway Country type vibes with the poor Reunion before ending on the clichéd big Power Ballad, Come on up to our House. This House is Not for Sale is a safe album from Bon Jovi, Jon Bon Jovi doesn’t push himself, preferring to stay in his overly familiar croaky lower register. There is nothing outstanding on This House is Not for Sale with even Phil X constrained to nothing more than an imitation of Sambora, his guitar tone even having that echo and reverb that gets added to all ‘big’ guitar sounds. Lyrically, there is lots of longing for the past and a previous time, such as Born Again Tomorrow which features the line: “if I was born again tomorrow, I wouldn’t live my life any other way”, a nice line from someone who has been there, seen and done it all and has millions to sit back on. This House is Not for Sale is better than What About Now, but is still an average album at best. If you’re looking for a Hard Rock album or the Bon Jovi of the past, then this isn’t it. However, if you’re looking for an album that sounds like a modern pop record but without the embarrassment of listening to the same music as your kids, then this would suit you. 4/10 Adam This House is Not for Sale (Bon Jovi/Shanks/Falcon)
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