Keep the faith

Album : Have A Nice Day
Label : Island Records
Rating : ** 1/2 of *****
Standout tracks : Have A Nice Day, Welcome to Wherever You Are, Wildflower

Bon Jovi was never about substance and it remains one of rock's greatest mysteries -- apart from the question of whether blues guitarist Robert Johnson really sold his soul to the Devil -- how a band so cocky and shallow could win the hearts of millions of fans in the early 1980s.

It is all the more baffling that more than 20 years after their inception, these fortysomething millionaire rock stars are still composing angst and ennui-laden songs.

"Why you wanna tell me how to live my life" go the lyrics on the title track, echoing the same emotion of It's My Life off 2000's Crush (This is the umpteenth time Bon Jovi has sung about not telling them how to live their lives). Such a statement is as hollow as boasting about riding a steel horse (Wanted Dead Or Alive off Slippery When Wet).

And if the answer to the mystery of Bon Jovi's popularity is their catchy melodies, overworked riffs and power ballads, all of these have become a little more faded with each new release.

Ever since Keep The Faith, Bon Jovi's last good record, the band has produced nothing but inferior releases, leaving fans to wonder whether the band could still compose a decent song.

Have A Nice Day, Bon Jovi's ninth full album, suffers from the same predicament. The whole album sounds like Jon Bon Jovi and guitarist Richie Sambora scratching their heads trying to figure out the most radio-friendly chords. Check I Wanna Be Loved and you can sense their desperation.

Even the album artwork is so cheesy it would be a good bet to win a worst album artwork competition, beating the s**t out of Scorpions' Virgin Killers.

But with their legions of loyal fans now at their most affluent, it should be no problem for Bon Jovi to sell another million records. -- M. Taufiqurrahman