Back in the 1980s, a band’s second album would often make or break their career.

Such was the sheer number of rock bands which flooded the Sunset Strip, one wrong step usually resulted in instant replacement and several years of hard work down the drain.

So with that in mind, Bon Jovi can count themselves rather lucky.

7800° Fahrenheit (named after the melting point of rock) is the incredibly underwhelming follow-up to their solid-yet-unremarkable debut album. It offers nothing which can compete with mega-hit Runaway, and instead wastes the majority of it’s 48-minute runtime attempting to copy the guitar gymnastics which every other band of the time were doing.

So what the hell happened?

Well, frontman Jon Bon Jovi lays the blame squarely at the feet of manager Doc McGhee.

He claims that the band had played hundreds of concerts prior to the release of their first album, and then continued playing six shows per week in support of the album for the subsequent ten months (!).

Bon Jovi claims that their manager was insistent on capitalizing on the momentum of hit single Runaway by cutting a fresh album immediately, but he failed to take into consideration that the band were in no fit state to do so.

They arrived in the studio mid-way through the Japanese leg of their tour feeling burned out and in desperate need of some time off, and the net result is an album which is lacks both feeling and direction.

“I don’t consider this album part of our history, because the whole process just wasn’t right. It felt like we had no time to make it, and we hadn’t yet really figured out who we were as musicians, and I think that shows in the music. Every member of the band was distracted by our heavy schedule and personal issues which were caused by us being away from home for as long as we were, and none of us ever want to revisit that mental state in future. We chalked this record up to experience, and then moved on.”

– Jon Bon Jovi

Despite the overall negativity, there are occasional bright spots to be found in 7800° Fahrenheit.

Lead single In & Out Of Love is an absolute banger (indeed it’s the only song from this LP which remained in the band’s live setlist beyond completion of their 1986 tour), and there’s enough about the catchy The Hardest Part Is The Night and ambitious follow-up single Tokyo Road to suggest that Bon Jovi might be capable of writing truly memorable songs provided they were given ample time to work on them.

The band are also noticeably more polished this time around, with the tag-team of Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora sounding like battle-hardened musicians at the tender age of 23 – which is progress you can’t fail to make when you play 300 gigs in 365 days!

Thankfully, the commercial failure of 7800° Fahrenheit didn’t result in the end for Bon Jovi.

Instead, it forced them to re-think their insane schedule and take some much-needed time off. This ensured they went into the studio to record their next album with a refreshed and energised mindset, and they were able to create the blockbuster Slippery When Wet (1986). The rest, as they say, is history!

In summary:

Despite the fact that there’s some decent moments, Bon Jovi’s second album is a rushed affair which fails to show their potential.

7800° Fahrenheit receives 3/11.
★ ★ ★