Bon Jovi – Forever (2024) Review

“What do you sing when the song’s been sung?” asks Jon Bon Jovi.

It’s a question that hangs heavily over Forever, the band’s sixteenth studio album. There’s a quiet sense of finality running through the record, as though New Jersey’s most enduring rock export is beginning to contemplate the end of the road – and what comes next once the spotlight finally fades.

Thankfully, Forever proves strong enough to suggest that, if this is indeed the closing chapter, Bon Jovi are leaving on their own terms, and going out in a blaze of glory.

Bad Medicine

During the recording of the band’s previous album, the subdued 2020, Jon Bon Jovi received the news every singer fears.

The vocal issues that had begun to surface toward the end of the 2018 world tour were more serious than first believed, ultimately requiring surgery followed by a lengthy period of rest and rehabilitation.

With the pandemic preventing a supporting tour, the timing at least allowed him the space to undergo the procedure and focus entirely on recovery.

Now 63, Bon Jovi already follows a demanding daily regimen to maintain his voice – something documented in the band’s recent Disney+ series – and the added strain of post-surgery rehabilitation proved both physically and mentally taxing.

Yet, in typically determined fashion, he persevered – and like many artists confronted with the possibility of losing their defining gift, the ordeal seems to have reignited the fire in his belly, pushing Forever forward with a sense of renewed purpose and urgency.

"It's like pullin' the trigger on an empty gun,
You can't make it rain starin' at the sun."

HOLLOW MAN

This Family Tree’s Got Nothing Left To Prove Now

By this stage of their career, Bon Jovi are no longer reinventing themselves so much as refining a formula they know works.

They understand what their audience wants, and when everything clicks, the results can still be remarkably effective.

Case in point: Living Proof.

The storming hit single takes the strongest elements of the band’s post-2000 sound – talkbox-driven guitar riffs, towering choruses, and slick, modern production – and moulds them into one of the album’s most immediate moments.

Yes, its DNA can easily be traced back through Everyday, It’s My Life, and ultimately Livin’ On A Prayer, but that familiarity has always been part of Bon Jovi’s appeal. When executed this well, the formula still delivers.

In fact, Living Proof stands as perhaps their strongest straight-ahead rock song since 2005.

“I’d rather sit at home and watch YouTube than phone it in – the pain of not doing it well is just not worth doing it at all.”

– Jon Bon Jovi

A Career In Retrospect

Reflection has long been a part of Jon Bon Jovi’s songwriting.

Hints of nostalgia can be sourced as far back as 1994, but never before has the band leaned so openly into self-reference. Because thoughout Forever it’s not just the vocals which remenisce, but echoes of earlier hits run beneath the surface, reinforcing a sense of finality that gives the album the feeling of a long goodbye.

Lead single Legendary, for instance, blends elements of the country-tinged optimism found on Lost Highway and Who Says You Can’t Go Home, even if it never quite reaches the same heights. Elsewhere, the opening moments of Waves recall Blaze Of Glory, The People’s House borrows the rhythmic drive of Keep The Faith, while Walls Of Jericho and the Ed Sheeran co-write Living In Paradise subtly revisit more recent territory.

Yet despite these nods to the past, Forever never feels trapped by nostalgia. It still sounds like a modern Bon Jovi record, and the band’s songwriting craft ensures that these callbacks come across as intentional reflections rather than creative recycling.

A New Surge In Creativity

There are several highlights scattered throughout Forever’s 48-minute runtime, many of which build upon the melodic songwriting that made This House Is Not For Sale such a successful revival.

Once again, Bon Jovi find their strength not in reinvention, but in refining the qualities that have always defined them.

Reflective rocker We Made It Look Easy delivers exactly what longtime fans might hope for, with Jon Bon Jovi looking back on better days while leaving the listener with the kind of quiet uplift only he can provide. It may lack one of Richie Sambora’s trademark soaring guitar solos, but it’s strong enough regardless, helped by an audible sadness in Jon’s delivery that suggests this really might be the last time.

Meanwhile, lead single Legendary serves as a reminder that even Bon Jovi at their most familiar can still feel comforting. Built around warmth and optimism, the track finds the singer-songwriter slipping easily into the role he has occupied for decades, playing the best friend you wish you had during the times you wish you didn’t, and confirms that even the baddest of bad days can be saved by a wholesome wink and a Hollywood smile from the always beautiful Jaan Baan Jowvey.

Sure, it’s somewhat formulaic, and you can easily telegraph the moments where the band are going to drop out so that their talismaic frontman can utter the hook – but despite your best efforts, it’ll still find a way to lodge itself in your brain, because that’s what this band do.

“It’s been a decade since I felt joy. Seriously. Pushing through all the stuff I had to go through to make this album, I made a decision that I would just enjoy the outcome of it – I get to spend time in the studio with my friends, I wrote a couple of songs to tell my wife how great she is, I just want to be happy.”

– Jon Bon Jovi

Masters Of Their Craft

Forever also shines in its deeper cuts, where Bon Jovi continue to balance modern influences with the familiar traits that have sustained them for decades.

Experimental rocker Seeds is a prime example, demonstrating how the band have consistently adjusted their sound to move with changing trends while retaining enough of their identity to keep longtime fans on board.

It’s a balancing act they’ve mastered throughout their career. Few acts from their era survived the seismic shift brought on by early ’90s grunge, let alone the waves of nu-metal and alternative rock that followed, yet Bon Jovi have repeatedly adapted without losing their footing – a resilience that still underpins much of Forever.

On standout ballad Waves, Jon Bon Jovi delivers some of the best lyrics in recent years on the way to building into one of the album’s most commanding choruses, and the impactful My First Guitar – inspired by his attempts to track down and repurchase the same instrument he first sold in 1979 – provides Phil X with a rare opportunity to shine by delivering one of the album’s most memorable guitar riffs.

"Now I dream we're in the ocean,
And I'm sinking as you drift away from me."

WAVES

Lost On The Same Highway

Despite its many strengths, Forever is far from flawless.

Elegant ballad Kiss The Bride proves to be the album’s weakest moment, lacking the warmth and relatability that once defined Bon Jovi’s softer material. Instead, it feels strangely calculated – as though Bon Jovi, Inc. spotted a gap in the market for wedding songs.

Meanwhile, longtime producer John Shanks – now officially listed as the band’s rhythm guitarist – continues to exert a strong grip over Bon Jovi’s musical direction. As on previous records, his polished production sandpapers away much of the roughness that once set the New Jersey exports apart from their peers, leaving the music sounding cleaner but less distinctive.

So while Forever does feature more guitar-driven moments than any post-Sambora release to date, it still falls some way short of the crunching riffs many longtime fans continue to hope for. Tico Torres’ drums, which were once a defining factor of their sound, are still haplessly searching for the exit sign of the dance-rock vortex they stumbled around a decade ago, and as satisfying as it is to hear Jon Bon Jovi declaring that he still loves his first guitar, you’ll spend a good chunk of Forever wishing he’d just turn the fucker up.

"I had a dream last night,
In that dream I lost my sight,
Left me deaf, dumb, and blind,
Woke up to realize we're still asleep with open eyes."

THE PEOPLE'S HOUSE

A Perfect Ending

If Forever does prove to be a farewell record, closing track Hollow Man feels like a fitting way to end the journey.

Built around a simple acoustic arrangement, the song places Jon Bon Jovi’s voice and lyrics firmly at the centre, delivering some of his most disarmingly honest writing in years as he reflects on a future that may no longer involve life as a rock star.

There’s a quiet sadness running through the performance, his weathered voice carrying the weight of an artist coming to terms with circumstances beyond his control. It’s less a dramatic goodbye than a moment of acceptance – and in that sense, a perfect bookend to a remarkable career.

"What do you write when the book is done?,
What do you sing when the song's been sung?"

HOLLOW MAN

Bon Jovi: Forever

Bon Jovi’s sixteenth studio album feels like a late-career triumph.

Against the odds, these seasoned New Jersey rockers have rediscovered much of the soul and sincerity that first made them such a remarkable band, and for the first time since Richie Sambora’s departure, the conversation feels focused firmly on the music rather than what’s missing.

Forever is rich with meaningful lyrics, affectionate nods to the band’s past, and enough flashes of soaring guitar work (see; Fight Somebody) to remind listeners why that sound became so beloved in the first place – even if there are still moments where you wish they’d lean further into it.

So while the future of the band remains uncertain, one thing feels clear: Jon Bon Jovi may not know exactly where he’s going next, but he knows exactly where he’s been.

>> Forever is part of our Bon Jovi album review series.

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