I was unimpressed with this song the first several times that I listened to this album. It seemed to be a bit of a low spot. I suppose the upbeat message of the lyrics is nice, but it’s not a new sentiment, and I’ve heard it mined far more successfully by other artists.
Dave does get to come out to play on this track, which is nice, but the song doesn’t really leverage his skills. Dave’s just as capable of tearing it up on the keyboard as Richie is in the guitar, but he really doesn’t get to do that here. Richie doesn’t get much to do here either; the guitar fills in a supporting role but doesn’t add anything truly special or dramatic to the song.
Even at this point, I still find this song to be more than a little generic, and that’s really its worst failing. There is little in the style of this song that speaks of Bon Jovi. It sounds interchangeable with any of ten other bands out there. The strings in the background of this song just serve to dilute the Bon Jovi sound and make it sound like it escaped from a John Mayer album. Jon has all of the power that the rest of his bandmates can bring to the table, and this song doesn’t make good use of it at all.
The best thing about this song is that Jon does sing it well. He doesn’t strain, overreach or get nasal here at all. Vocally, at least, this is a well done song.
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Wow you went straight to the point again: this song doesn’t have that moment of climax that other Bon Jovi story-telling songs have…that kind of moment that takes your breathe away – like Right Side of Wrong’s solo. Ironically this song goes right after “Thorn in my Side” which has an awesome effort from the band but Jon lacks a bit on vocals..here is the opposite.
I liked the lyrics but as a long time Bon Jovi fan I am sure they could have worked this song even more and create an outstanding high quality song. Maybe that’s what I regret on this song…the potential it had…
Anyways it would be interesting to listen the band playing this song live, usually this kind of songs give me an unexpected impression when they play it live..
Hey do you happen to have a song-by-song review of the “Bounce” record?
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