Keep the Faith
reintroduced
Bon Jovi
after almost four years of side projects and hiatuses. The musical climate had shifted considerably in that time, a fact that wasn't lost on the band.
Faith
blatantly brought to the surface the
Bruce Springsteen
influence that was always lurking in
's sound, and used it to frame
's more serious interpretation of the band's
pop-metal
groove.
"I Believe"
and
"I'll Sleep When I'm Dead"
both amped up the blue-collar,
gospel
revivalist feel of
Springsteen
's
"Tunnel of Love,"
dropping in triumphant power chord changes to ensure arena readiness. But
also took a page from
's Big Book of Epic Songwriting, padding
's center with ambitious balladry and a nearly ten-minute story-song,
"Dry County,"
that wouldn't be out of place on a '70s
rock
album. Elsewhere, the hit single
"Bed of Roses"
wisely aimed for the verdant
adult contemporary
pastures pointed to by
Bryan Adams
with 1991's
"(Everything I Do) I Do It for You,"
instead of gripping stupidly to the Aqua-Netted mane of
glam rock
power balladry. Some of the album's straightforward
hard rock
songs faltered, since they didn't sizzle like the band's vintage material and fell flat next to more inspired material like
"In These Arms."
But while miles of open highway separated the songwriting of
Jon Bon Jovi
and his mates from that of
,
deserves plenty of points for ambition, and it did succeed in updating the band's sound -- even if the replacement parts were bought used. ~ Johnny Loftus