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

It’s a great question, actually.

Such was the ordeal which the frontman endured in trying to put together this, the band’s sixteenth studio album, that there’s a foreboding sense of uncertainty throughout Forever which suggests that New Jersey’s finest may have reached the end of the road.

But if that is the case, then at least they can say they went out in a blaze of glory.

By this point in their career, Bon Jovi are essentially repurposing old content.

Let’s face it, they know what we want, and they do it very well indeed.

Case in point; Living Proof.

Heck, if you asked ten thousand Bon Jovi fans to describe the band’s quintessential post-2000 sound, this is it right here

Sure it sounds a little bit like Everyday, which sounds a little bit like Have A Nice Day, which sounds a little bit like Bounce, which sounds a little bit like Undivided, which sounds a little bit like No Apologies, which sounds a little bit like Knockout, which sounds a little bit like It’s My Life… but it’s a formula which has always worked tremendously well for them and, regardless of this familiarity, it fucking rocks.

In fact, we’d go as far as to say that Living Proof may be the best pure rock song from Bon Jovi since 2005.

The retrospective nature of Forever makes for an interesting listen, and long-term fans will appreciate the way in which several of it’s tracks make deliberate references to the band’s earlier work.

For instance, lead single Legendary manages to sound like a natural progression of both Who Says You Can’t Go Home and Lost Highway (albeit not as good as either).

Elsewhere, the opening segment of Waves pulls heavily from Blaze Of Glory, third single The People’s House uses the signature drum loop of Keep The Faith, the Ed Sheeran co-write Living In Paradise puts a fresh spin on the staccato guitar melody of Goodnight New York, and the catchy Walls Of Jericho re-works the radio-friendly chorus of Because We Can.

Yet despite these references arriving so frequently, Bon Jovi’s experienced craftmanship ensures it never feels old, and it doesn’t prevent the new material from being strong enough to stand on it’s own two feet.

This is a great achievement.

There are several highlights amongst Forever’s 48-minute runtime.

Uplifting rocker We Made It Look Easy does exactly as the title describes, as the veteran rocker recounts memories of great days gone by and picks you up like only he can.

This track suffers by not having one of Richie Sambora’s soaring guitar solos, but is still powerful enough to rank amongst their best work in recent years, and there’s an audible hint of sadness in his voice here which suggests this really might be the last time he gets to do this.

Elsewhere, lead single Legendary works as a stark reminder that even the baddest of bad days can be brightened by a wholesome wink and a Hollywood smile from the always beautiful “Jaan Baan Jowvy”, with the rocker doing his best to be the friend you wished you had during the times you wished you didn’t.

Forever doesn’t just show us an older band, but a wiser one.

Harrowing album closer Hollow Man, which manages to perfectly bottle all of the pent-up anxiety and sadness of an artist facing up to the realisation that he is losing his gift, is the heartfelt acoustic song which Jon Bon Jovi has been trying to write for thirty years. It is loaded with raw emotion – so much so that the frontman tries to deflect with humour by declaring himself “much too vain to masturbate” during the song’s crescendo – and you just can’t help but root for the guy as he contemplates the end of a life which is all he’s ever really known.

Experimental effort Seeds demonstrates how the band have been able to adjust their sound over the years in order to survive in the ever-changing rock landscape while their contemporaries fell by the wayside, meanwhile the powerful My First Guitar hands axeman Phil X a rare opportunity to shine, and standout track Waves reminds us how well JBJ plays the role of grizzled rocker/cowboy, with some fantastic story-telling lyrics matched by an equally fucking huge chorus.

Yet despite all of this, Forever is by no means perfect.

The band make a real mis-step with the gooey Kiss The Bride, which seems somewhat cold and calculated in it’s execution (it feels almost like “Bon Jovi, Inc.” saw a gap in the market for wedding songs).

Unfortunately, polarising producer John Shanks sandpapers the record with an unnecessarily thick layer of gloss which strips the music of those all-important rough edges which made Bon Jovi so popular throughout the early-to-mid-90s, and Tico Torres’ drums are still haplessly searching for the exit sign of the annoying dance-rock vortex they tumbled into a decade earlier.

This means that although Forever certainly provides a larger slice of guitar-driven rock than any of their Sambora-less efforts to date, it’s still nowhere near as heavy as we would like it to be.

And in a way, this inadvertently robs the new songs of some of the grandness they deserve – because as pleasing (and believable) as it is to hear Jon Bon Jovi declare “I’m in love with my first guitar!”, you’ll spend the majority of your listening time wishing he’d turn the fucker up.

Overall, though, Forever is an unexpected triumph against all odds.

After the lacklustre disappointment of their underwhelming pandemic LP, these seasoned New Jersey rockers have managed to grab victory from the jaws of defeat by delivering an album which is jam-packed with memorable moments, great tunes, meaningful lyrics, and clever references to their prime body of work.

The future of the band remains uncertain, but one thing is clear; Jon Bon Jovi may not know where he’s goin’, but he sure knows where he’s been. Thank you for the music, you fucking legend.

In summary:

Some forty years after their debut, Bon Jovi show they’ve lost none of their ability to create super-catchy tunes. If this retrospective LP is to be their final farewell, it’s a great way to go.

Forever receives 8/11.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

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