Let’s face it, Jon Bon Jovi always wanted to be a cowboy.

He’s been telling us since 1986, with no fewer than 17 cowboy-themed tracks which are scattered throughout the New Jersey band’s famous back-catalogue (astonishingly that number doesn’t even include the entire album which he made for the soundtrack of Young Guns II!).

So it made perfect sense that one day he’d swap out rock for a straight-up country album, right?

Welcome to Lost Highway.

Bon Jovi’s tenth studio LP (and their second to be produced by the controversial John Shanks) leaned into the unexpected success of hit single Who Says You Can’t Go Home from the awesome Have A Nice Day (2005) by pulling the band away from their trademark big rock sound and delivering what is largely a successful transition to the country genre.

It produced the hit singles (You Want To) Make A Memory and Lost Highway, which helped Bon Jovi become the first rock band ever to top the country music chart, and it signified what most fans expected to be a permanent change in their sound.

From a lyrical standpoint, this album does everything we’ve come to expect from Bon Jovi over the years.

Sure, the switch to country means these songs don’t have the huge drums nor the crunching guitar riffs of their prime work, but they’ll still get your fists pumping and your feet stomping, as the evergreen frontman tells familiar stories of failed relationships, growing older, and there being no place quite like home.

Hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

And somewhat ironically, now that he’s been given a free pass to cram as many cowboy-isms (word?) into the songs as possible, he chooses not to. Instead he discusses everything from mental health (Everybody’s Broken), to falling in love (Whole Lot Of Leavin’), and several instances of, err, “driving with the top down” (Lost Highway, Seat Next To You, Summertime, I Love This Town).

One of the hidden benefits of switching to country is that it enables Bon Jovi to produce songs which are memorable enough yet nowhere near as taxing on the frontman’s voice as their usual rock output.

As such, we expect deeper cuts like the overly simplistic (but undoubtedly catchy) duo of We Got It Going On and barnstorming album closer I Love This Town to become mainstays of the band’s live setlist for many years to come.

The anthemic title track and slow-building Make A Memory are good examples of why Bon Jovi are naturals at the country rock genre, and they’re not the only highlights here; take a look at the feel-good Summertime, catchy-as-fuck ballad Whole Lot Of Leavin’, and the fist-pumping Any Other Day which sounds like a countrified version of something from These Days (1995).

At this late stage of their career, there’s something comforting about a new Bon Jovi album.

And even though you’ve probably heard the syrup-filled strings of Everybody’s Broken a hundred times before, and you know they’re playing for an easy win on I Love This Town (which was clearly written with one eye on their upcoming world tour), they’re just so good at their job that you’ll absolutely love them.

Making the jump to country has allowed Jon Bon Jovi to scratch a career-long itch (remember when bassist Alec John Such departed in 1994 and snarked; “All his songs are fucking cowboy songs!”?), and it’ll be interesting to see where they go from here.

On the one hand, long-term Bon Jovi fans would undoubtedly like to see them return to the type of music which made them who they are, but on the other hand, this album has enjoyed more chart recognition than any of their other post-2000 material, so if they decide upon a permanent switch to country then Lost Highway suggests they’re well-equipped to make a success of it.

In summary:

Bon Jovi’s tenth studio album sees them swap rock for country. They sound exactly how you’d expect them to, and it’s solid enough that we don’t think they’ll return to their rock roots anytime soon.

Lost Highway receives 7/11.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

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