“This ain’t a song for the broken hearted”, warns Jon Bon Jovi.

And he’s right, it’s not.

Comeback single It’s My Life was written for every rock fan who has spent the last few years yearning for the kind of crunching guitar riffs and fist-pounding choruses which once resonated with this genre of music, but had faded into obscurity in the midst of the grunge wave and the overly-mechanical tendencies of nu-metal.

Oh, and it’s fucking fantastic.

From the opening chords of Richie Sambora’s voicebox-infused guitar riff it’s evident that Jon and the boys have birthed a monster, and by the end of listen #1 you’ll be confidently ranking it alongside the finest material of their storied career.

New Jersey’s biggest rock exports found themselves in an unusual position coming into this album.

Having taken a 5-year break at a point in time when they were legitimately the biggest rock act on Earth, they were now in desperate need of re-gaining the interest of fans who had moved on in their absence.

It’s My Life is a masterclass in how to do this, using all the hallmarks which long-term Bon Jovi fans had come to expect from the band while still managing to be clearly aimed at attracting a fresh young audience to their music (watch the video).

However, the sheer power of it turns the remainder of Crush into a somewhat inconsistent listen.

You see, none of the other tracks on this LP sound remotely like that gargantuan lead single, as “The Jovi” instead lean into a minimalistic production similar to the one used on These Days (1995) – and just like five years ago, it yields both good and bad results.

On the plus side, it’s delightful to hear a rock band cut a straight-ahead rock record during an era where everyone else seems intent on shoe-horning unnecessary drum loops and samples into their work, and when Crush clicks into gear it really works.

The simplistic production gives the material that quintessential late nineties sound without ever sounding deliberate, illustrating how efficient Bon Jovi have become at evolving with the times in order to stay current.

This is a trait which has helped them to outlast all of their one-time contemporaries – first those from the hair metal era, and then those from the grunge era – and it’s something we should expect they’ll continue to do further down the line.

It’s best heard on the none-more-nineties Captain Crash And The Beauty Queen From Mars.

It may lack the trademark Bon Jovi “crunch” of their earlier material, and it may also bounce along in a manner which suggests it could’ve been used as the soundtrack to Jon Bon Jovi’s character in TV drama Ally McBeal, but it’ll also worm it’s way into your head and refuse to leave, causing you to kick yourself all day long because Bon Jovi have somehow done it a-fucking-gain!

Kudos, gentlemen.

Of course, the negative side to this raw production style is that it erases most of the “bombast” which we have come to expect from Jon and the boys over the years. You’ll see this on album closer One Wild Night, a track which feels almost skeleton-like in it’s assembly. There’s no denying this song would’ve sounded 100x better had it applied the meatier mix of It’s My Life, and I use this song as an example because the band later released a brand new take which proved me right on One Wild Night (2001).

From a song-writing perspective, Jon Bon Jovi seems happy to re-tread the path he walked on These Days.

As such, the vast majority of Crush’s 58-minute run-time is spent reminiscing about the joys of days gone by, the challenges of getting older (at 38!), and the ever-changing world which surrounds the Bon Jovi juggernaut on a daily basis.

This may be familiar territory for the seasoned rockers, but they use it to create some fantastic songs.

The anthemic Just Older delivers a strong message about body positivity which was decades ahead of its time, meanwhile the cynical duo of Say It Isn’t So and Two Story Town discuss the dangers of trying to live up to the unrealistic standards set by Hollywood, featuring a trope of lyrical barbs which seem to hit much harder when they’re being sung by a man who is all to familiar with the smoke and mirrors of celebrity culture.

(And yes, everything feels good in the world when axeman Richie Sambora clicks into “shred mode” during the hair-raising final third of Next 100 Years!)

However, much like it’s predecessor, Crush simply runs out of steam in the latter half of the disc.

This shouldn’t have been an issue for a band who had five long years to nurture the material for this LP, especially when we consider their song-writing pedigree, but the remains that songs like Save The World, Mystery Train, and She’s A Mystery would’ve all been left on the cutting room floor during their fabled “golden run” of releases which spanned between 1986-1995 (Slippery When Wet, New Jersey, Keep The Faith, and the aforementioned These Days).

As a result, Crush disappears into the distance with more of a whimper than a shout.

It will ultimately be remembered as the album which brought us It’s My Life, but it’s safe to say there’s enough quality loaded into the first half of this record to suggest that Bon Jovi will remain a force well into the 2000s.

In summary:

Bon Jovi return from a 5-year hiatus with one of the best rock songs of all time, and although they can’t maintain such pace across the remainder of their comeback LP, Crush stands tall as a solid effort from a band who have been sorely missed.

Crush receives 6/11.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

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