Bon Jovi - Keep the Faith
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Free Music Notes for Keep the Faith
Free Music Review: a great 90's album
Hit: 5 Stars
this album is just a great 90's album it's has many upbeat songs along with some slow and calming songs and has alot of soul. it's definitly worth buying and keeping in your collection for ever.Free Music Review: Bon Jovi keeps on rockin"
Hit: 5 Stars
Every CD that I own of Bon Jovi's is a hit, and this one is no exception. Bon Jovi just keeps pouring the music out without disappointment. It's a must have for the die hard Bon Jovi fans!!!Free Music Review: finally found it
Hit: 5 Stars
my husband has been looking for this cd everywhere. i got it for him for christmas. what a find!Free Music Review: 4,5 stars - only a tiny bit worse than New Jersey
Hit: 4 Stars
Bon Jovi is a band that may not be the best one (the best one's were Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones or Pink Floyd), but their record-sales say otherwise. There is perhaps a grain of truth in the notion that half of their audience were teenagers and women and their sucess was soemwhat overrated, as well as that they went big on Jon Bon Jovi's coiffeur and outlook, though.
Nonetheless, I think they truly deserved their overwhealming breakthrough from the 80's offering people catchy, competent and well-ctrafted pop-rock-metal tunes played on and on by the MTV. All in all, that's how metal sounded in the mid-80's (just take Whitesnake or Def Leppard). Personally, I have always been an advocate of this band, turning a blind eye on what other narrow-minded people kept saying about it. Yes, Bon Jovi has made couple of cheesy songs ("Always") and some both cheesy and too commercial as well ("It's my life"). "It's my life" was a cheap trial to break to the pop-charts, but, if there are any open-minded music passionates there, you will notice that other bands had it as well (Van Halen had "Jump", KISS had "I was made for loving you").
One has to take the band as a whole, and simply can't deny the skillful and well-crafted musicanship of albums like "New Jersey" or "Keep the faith". So, if you are too narrow-minded to rate this, you simply have no right to proclaim yourself a music-passionate or music-knower.
Before "KTF" was released Bon Jovi came into the studio
very motivated and full of energy after a well-deserved 4-year- break that immediately followed the incredible "New Jersey" tour. They had sold out stadiums, giving over 200 concerts all around the world and the tour itself consolidated their position on the music market and confirmed how well they do on-stage. But unfortunately it also put on the brink their common career as a band. "Five different guys took five different planes to five different places. There were no goodbyes" - JBJ once used to say.
No wonder "Keep the faith" was the ultimate, long-awiated album in the 90's and this waiting had 2 major purposes: 1)to finally write off the larger-than-life 80's survivor as a mere, temporary, fashion-yielding hair-band 2)or to prove people that Jon & Richie were in fact much more than "Living on a prayer" and were capable of adopting to the changable 90's music scene (with grunge at the forefront).
For the first group of critics, like the above-underwritten Amazon reviewer Andrew Mueller being sic and tired of Bon Jovi's recent expansion, the very album - no matter how good it might turn out to be - was a blessing so much awaited to prey on, that he boldly, blatantly and with a smirk on his face dismissed even such masterpieces like "Dry county"; and that doing this with a mere wave of a hand, claiming it's "pointless" or "longish". Pathetic indeed, but it shows how much stirr there was once the album has been released.
Fortunately, the CD speaks for itself and proves again that if BJ's star was ever to be thwarted for good - then it should have been done much earlier, namely right after their second "7800 fahrenheit". Ironically enough, their debut album was received very well on both sides of the ocean, and most of the critics that hated "Slippery when wet" (see acclaimed British music magazine "Kerrang") showed much warmth and sympathy towards it.
As far as the second group of people - they once again got a longplay that fully satisfied their crave for tuneful, melodic rock; yet not an ordinary hair-metal this time. Jon knew it well and it wasn't only for his change of haircut. The singalong choruses remained the same, the peculiar BJ-flow that makes people tapping their fingers as well; yet
the album is much more than that, being a lot more mature in terms of lyrics, diversity and overall coherence. If the title song was to become the new "Living on a prayer" and "Bed of roses" a new "I'll be there for you", then OK - it would indicate that a new era for the band has just begun. But if someone ever bought "Slippery when wet" just for 2 songs dismissing the rest, then he/she is not going to do this this time, with this album, I'm telling you.
The epic "Dry county" was reviewed and summarized many times so far, but I don't know if it abides any summary in fact; since this is one of the songs you must hear and relish in it every single time, peruse every single tune, from the very beginning, climaxing with Richie's solo, and fading away with Dave's keyboards. I was on a concert in Germany a month ago ("Have a nice day" tour) and you can't imagine what a surprise it was for me when they played this one at the very end of the show! Whooah, this is one of the moments I will remeber until the end of my life. With tears in your eyes, you live for such moments. "Dry county" is also undoubtedly the most accomplished, advanced and ambitious band's effort, looking at the entire 20-some-years-career. It is a class for itself, compare this epic to "Stairway to heaven", "Shine on you crazy diamond" or GunsNRoses' "November rain". I wont't exaggerate at all if I say this album is worth having just for this single track, since it is one of the most important songs that have ever been recorded. Let people like Andrew Mueller - with full respect towards his work and criticism - long live they in their blissful oblivion dismissing "Dry county" as "pointless".
But "Keep the faith" is a lot more than "Dry county", I tell you. "If I was your mother", which is my second favourite track here, is a huge bow towards grunge music; "Fear" as well. It clearly shows that guys took into account changing fashions and wrote these two almost-heavy-metal
tracks. The "Mother's" riff is incredible, merging Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Guns N Roses. "In these arms" and "I'll sleep when I'm dead" are happy-rockers that can be hummed any time on a party, somewhat reminescent of the recent albums, like "99 in the shade" or something ! "Little bit of soul" and "Blame it on the love of rock n roll" are two very good tracks - yet again in another mood - that close this marvelous album and, merging soul and blues, make a final statement about the incredible diversity "Keep the faith" offers. Of course "Bed of roses" was a huge hit and is arguably their best ballad ever, whereas the title track - being the first single at the same time - made it into the US Top20, is very heavy with incredible Sambora's guitar-solo, and it also smacks somewhat of grunge.
Overall, this is an incredibly miscellanous and diverse record that you won't get bored of... never! The only reason why I'm not giving full 5 stars (but 4,5) is because I've got acquainted with the take-off material from those sessions, and it stirrs the entity for me, I don't know why but somehow it does. It gets my goat that the band not always makes the right choice when it eventually goes to make the final song-selection. Tracks that appeared recently on the jubille "100,000,000 million fans can't be wrong", like "The fire inside", "Sympathy" or "Temptation" really should have made this great album. Had these great songs been included istead of cheesy ballad "I want you" or mediocre "Woman in love", it could have been one of the greatest and most diverse albums in music history. Probably other Bon Jovi-fans agree with me.
Anyway, this is an incredible album, almost as good as "New Jersey". Only "NJ" didn't have 2 less strong songs, it was almost perfect... well just kidding, OK it had terrible "Bad medicine" ;-))
This is a MUST-HAVE.
Free Music Review: A suprise success with it's share of breakthroughs
Hit: 4 Stars
Bon Jovi, in 1993, basically suprised the world with Keep the Faith. In the middle of the grunge storm, when hair bands were exiled from the charts, Bon Jovi proved they could rise above their contemporaries, subtly changing their image to a more serious, quasi-Aerosmith sound, relying on themselves for songs and inspiration, and putting out a great album that kept rock and roll on the map.Keep the Faith, like New Jersey, finds the band in their own identity. The bass-heavy production emphasizes rhythm over Sambora's guitar licks, and Jon was singing stronger than he ever had on songs like I Believe and Bed of Roses. The album's overall sound was less party-hearty, the uptempo numbers like Blame it on the Love of Rock and Roll, Lil Bit of Soul, and I'll Sleep when I'm Dead almost sound half-hearted, while the big, epic numbers like Bed of Roses and especially Dry County are where the band finally realizes the potential it always had within it.
To elaborate, Dry County is easily the best song Bon Jovi ever put out and this album is worth buying for this overlooked gem alone. Think Wanted Dead or Alive, extended by 5 minutes. It's a harsh story of greed, human nature, and human spirit, featuring Jon singing at his best, some beautiful keyboards by David Bryan, and Richie Sambora's best guitar solo that he ever laid down, with or without the band. It's the band's firm affirmation that, not only are they more than an '80's party band', but that they always were more.
Other than Dry County and the few other killer album tracks like If I was Your Mother (which finds Bon Jovi taking 90's style angst and running with it full-speed), this album had 3 hit singles, amazing considering the time it was released.. Bed of Roses and In these Arms got plenty of airplay, while Keep the Faith (the track) had MTV's full support as no other 80's bands were even trying anymore.
Keep the Faith will please just about any Bon Jovi fan, and it contains the band's best song. It's worth the pickup.