Bon Jovi won’t win any new fans with this album, but they likely won’t lose any either.

What About Now is the sound of a band doing what they do for no other reason that this is what they’ve done for the last 30 years, and although it manages to tick all of the boxes which we’ve come to expect from them, it never produces anything which can rival their best work.

Heck, even the accompanying world tour was titled simply, “Because We Can”.

Of course, What About Now is best remembered as the last Bon Jovi album to feature Richie Sambora.

The axeman’s decision to exit the fold just three weeks into the What About Now world tour cast a huge shadow over the new material, driving a wedge between Sambora and his former friends which would last for more than a decade.

So why did he leave?

Well, Sambora was said to be struggling with the rigours of Bon Jovi’s hectic touring schedule, and reportedly also had issues with producer John Shanks. Sambora believed Shanks’ glossy sheen had robbed his songs of their soul. Furthermore, having helmed the band’s previous four albums, the super-producer had seen his influence grow exponentially inside the studio, and Sambora felt he was exploiting his friendship with Jon Bon Jovi to earn a lucrative place within the band rather than behind the mixing desk.

The final straw came when Sambora failed to show for a recording session in which he was set to lay down the rhythm guitar parts for a track called The Fighter, only for Shanks to step up and play the parts himself.

When Sambora eventually arrived and was informed of this, he flew into a blind rage and cut contact with his colleagues for several days, eventually quitting the band on a permanent basis three weeks later.

“Okay, you have to remember, I was practically married to Jon for thirty years!

I’ve always been his most honest fan, so part of my value to the band is that when we’re inside the studio I could tell him things like “Hey, I don’t want to hear you sing about these kind of topics…”, or “This is what I’d like if I’m a fan in the audience…”, you know what I mean?

It’s very hard to find this level of honesty once you cross a certain level of fame.

I believe the honesty of our relationship played a big role in helping us to write our best material, but somewhere along the way I began feeling like Jon no longer gave a shit about my opinion.

Anyway, I eventually got a call from Jon saying he and Shanks believed they’d finished the final mix of the record, so I asked if I could listen my own and give some honest feedback, which is our usual process. My verdict was that we don’t sound like Bon Jovi anymore. We sound fucking stale. We sound overproduced. The material has no soul. As a leader within the group I figured it was my responsibility to say these things out loud, but I knew it was over the moment those words left my lips.”

– Richie Sambora

Listening to the album in retrospect, it’s easy to see Sambora’s point of view.

Standout numbers including fan favourite That’s What The Water Made Me, title track What About Now, and bonus offering Into The Echo never fully realize their undoubted potential due the sheer weight of Shanks’ bite-less production.

Sambora’s own guitar riffs, while admittedly not as strong as they have been on the band’s previous efforts, stood no chance at all when diluted with a glossy pop finish (yep) and mixed with Tico Torres’ formerly thunderous drums which have also been Nerfed.

The end result is a collection of songs which feel rather lifeless and bland.

Also worth mentioning is the fact that it’s absurd Bon Jovi decided to attach a handful of previously unreleased songs onto the bonus edition of a Greatest Hits collection just six months prior to this release. Had these tracks (No Apologies, What Do You Got?, The More Things Change, and This Is Love, This Is Life) been kept back and included on What About Now they would’ve greatly improved the overall quality of the LP (see below).

From a lyrical standpoint, Bon Jovi appear trapped between searching for critical approval and only knowing how to do what they know how to do.

It’s to be expected that the bulk of What About Now’s 51-minute runtime features several tales about the struggles of getting older, regrets over failed relationships, and anecdotes of how the world just ain’t what it used to be.

After all, these are things which Jon Bon Jovi has always been very good at.

But while he’s fully aware of how masterful he plays the role of veteran rocker / grizzled cowboy (he never could decide between the two), you can help but notice that his words often sound like whining and complaining in the absence of the crunching riffs and guitar solos we’ve come to expect from Bon Jovi.

“Why they sold old CBGB’s,
I just don’t understand,
All that’s left now are the t-shirts,
And they come from Japan.”

What’s Left of me

It’s not all bad, though.

Indeed, this album really springs to life during the rare moments when the frontman is able to pull himself out of his funk.

Both Beautiful World and With These Two Hands demonstrate why Bon Jovi stand tall as the last beacon of 1980s rock. Each could’ve been a sleeper hit for the band had they decided to ditch the ballads and push them out to the masses, and dare we say it, they could perhaps even have ranked amongst their finest post-1995 offerings if they had managed to retain Bon Jovi’s trademark edgier sound.

Unfortunately, the remainder of What About Now’s highlights are restricted to a bunch of impactful moments rather than great songs. This includes some seriously impressive vocals on the slow-burner Amen, and the ultra-catchy chorus of lead single Because We Can, which you’ll naturally want to hate because it’s not heavy enough, but will still find yourself humming for several weeks regardless.

The legacy of this album will ultimately be about the feud rather than the music.

While Sambora strove to keep the formula which had served them well for twenty years, frontman Jon Bon Jovi desperately sought to be taken more seriously as an artist, and was hellbent on showing fans that crunching guitar hooks were no longer the focal point of his sound in 2013.

In retrospect, the general conensus is that Sambora was correct.

Because let’s face it, Bon Jovi don’t hit anywhere near as hard when making such a deliberate attempt to not sound like Bon Jovi.

In summary:

Bon Jovi appear to be going through the motions on their lacklustre twelfth studio LP. There are some impactful moments here for sure, but they’re largely undone by an absence of the big hooks which made the band so popular in the first place.

What About Now receives 4/11.
★ ★ ★ ★

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