King Arthur Movie Tristan

I'm not a huge Bon Jovi fan. I do have Slippery When Wet, and like half of it. Livin' on a Prayer is the very best of the 80's hair-metal, in my opinion, and Wanted Dead or Alive was always a favourite. And to be fair, Jon Bon Jovi seems pretty cool and down to earth, and Ritchie Sambora was married to Heather Locklear, so he doesn't need to do much with the guitar to impress me. None the less, he impresses me as a guitar player.

All that said, I heard some good things about Lost Highway, and decided to give it a listen with very little in the way of expectations. The thing about having no expectations, is sometimes you are simply blown away: I was blown away.

Now mind you, this is not one of the great albums of all time, nor is it a uniquely remarkable achievement in the history of rock and roll. It is, however, a very good album, and possibly my favourite of the year (the Foo's and Robert Plant still have works coming down the pipe, so I'll not offer a definitive).

Much has been made of the albums country influence, but other than a few pieces, particularly the duet with Leann Rimes, We Ain't Strangers Anymore, and the fun, I Love This Town there's not a lot of country: calling this album country is a bit like calling Led Zeppelin's In Through The Out Door country based on Hot Dog. Bon Jovi treat country like a mannerism to have some fun with, not a serious music style to copy. There's nothing wrong with that: with songs like Summertime (no, not that one) and the title track, they treat rock and roll the same way, and that's what makes this album so good. It's OK music, but Bon Jovi just doesn't take themselves, or the music seriously throughout the album. Result? A fun, rockin good CD, the way rock and roll was meant to be.

Honourable mention goes out to Seat Next To You, a gorgeously romantic song that has earned it's way onto my back yard dance disc.