Will Bon Jovi be able to survive without talismanic lead guitarist Richie Sambora?

On this evidence, yes.

This House Is Not For Sale is the band’s fourteenth studio album, and the first since Sambora famously exited the fold during the messy What About Now (2013).

It showcases a very different kind of Bon Jovi to the one we’ve gotten used to over the years, as they push themselves in a brave new musical direction and display a grit they’ve not shown in several years.

Despite selling fewer copies overall than any of the band’s previous TEN albums, it still managed to top the US Billboard 200 on two separate occasions and yielded a whopping six singles.

When Sambora exited the band three years earlier, it seemed like the very existence of Bon Jovi was in doubt.

The frontman has openly admitted that he struggled to see a future without his partner in crime, and is said to have spent the next two years contemplating whether he should continue or retire.

He eventually decided to give it a shot, but was promptly greeted with the news that Mercury Records had renegotiated the band’s contract and would be paying them significantly less as a result of losing Sambora, causing a 12-month legal battle and further delays.

All of this meant that Jon Bon Jovi had a fuck-tonne to get off his chest by the time he finally sat down to create new material, turning This House Is Not For Sale from “just the next album” into a cathartic exercise on which Bon Jovi set out to prove themselves all over again.

The frontman’s worries about being unable to write without Sambora by his side were also squashed, as the sessions produced a whopping 21 brand new songs.

There are several gems scattered through the sprawling playlist of what remains a largely underrated piece of work from New Jersey’s biggest rock exports.

The most notable of those is Living With The Ghost, an up-tempo rocker which acts as the vessel for Jon Bon Jovi’s three years of anger and frustration.

It features some of his best lyrical work in years as he rages about his refusal to let Sambora’s disappearing act derail the band, and touches upon the difficulties of steering the Bon Jovi juggernaut by himself.

It’s a devastatingly effective track from start-to-finish, one which was perhaps only open to further improvement had Sambora himself contributed a face-melting guitar solo.

“I wrote each word,
You gave the toast,
But we were fire and gasoline,
Now I ain’t living with your ghost.”

LIVING WITH THE GHOST

“I saw a man wash his feet in the church holy water,
He said “I’m in over my head”,
I had this dream, that man was me.”

LIVING WITH THE GHOST

Mercury Records also receive a fair amount of flack on inflammatory rocker Devil In The Temple.

The frontman accuses his former record label of lowballing the band after 32 years of loyalty.

This stance is mirrored on the title track, which lyrically drives home the fact that Bon Jovi will not be held to ransom by record company executives under any circumstances, while applying the tried and tested formula which the band have applied to several anthems over the years.

Elsewhere, some of these songs will be rattling around your head for days (Rollercoaster, Walls, New Year’s Day), and although it may lack the heaviness of their old work, these new tracks are strong enough to hold their own.

“When I wrote those two songs (Devil In The Temple and This House Is Not For Sale), I felt like they captured exactly how I felt about the three years of bullshit we’d all been through. The struggle brought us closer together as a group, and once we found our strength, we felt unstoppable. They told me I wouldn’t be able to continue or whatever, and then they offered me less money too, but you know what? You can’t force me to throw in the towel. You can’t buy what we have. This house is not for sale, motherfucker.”

– Jon Bon Jovi

Occasionally, though, Jon Bon Jovi’s stubbornness holds him back.

You see, the overly-glossy production of the dismal What About Now (2013) was the work of producer/guitarist John Shanks, who remains in the hot-seat this time around.

This sees the band continue on a similar path sound-wise, almost as if doubling down in his attempts to prove Sambora incorrect and drive home the fact that crunching guitar riffs are no longer central to Bon Jovi’s musical arrangement.

But you know what?

They fucking should be.

Don’t get me wrong, Shanks’ mix works incredibly well on several of the album’s slower numbers (e.g. the delicate chorus of Scars On This Guitar, and the gorgeous Real Love, which is their best ballad since 1994 mega-hit Always), but you can’t help but feel that the heavier rock tracks like Knockout and Born Again Tomorrow would’ve sounded 10x more impactful had they turned the guitars up and removed the “dance filter” from Tico Torres’ usually thunderous drums.

This same lack of heaviness means the usually tolerable Bon Jovi “goo” becomes too much to bear on several occasions (Labor Of Love, Reunion, Come On Up To Our House).

Overall, Bon Jovi have done incredibly well here.

We’ve seen many rock bands disappear into the darkness when faced with the type of turbulence Jon and the boys experienced prior to this LP, so to not only return but to do so with an album of this quality is really quite special.

This House is Not For Sale exceeds all expectations, a quite remarkable comeback in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. There isn’t really a bigger compliment I can give to Bon Jovi than that.

In summary:

Bon Jovi had no right to create an album of this quality at this stage of their career. What it lacks in heaviness it makes up for with great lyrics. A triumph!

This House Is Not For Sale receives 8/11.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

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