Review by Paul Monkhouse for MPM
Hard to believe, but it’s been four decades since stadium fillers Bon Jovi launched this fresh-faced debut on the world and hair metal was just about to conquer the globe.
Whilst things wouldn’t go supernova until third album ‘Slippery When Wet’, it doesn’t take much to see the band were already planning to take on all comers, their sky-high confidence and big balls propelling them ever onwards.
Sure, they had it all, the good looking frontman, red hot guitarist and a big bag of huge songs that already were eyeing up the superdomes but if they were to survive in a market that some felt was dying after the explosion of talent that sprung from the NWOBHM movement the other side of the Atlantic, they were going to need something a bit special.
Fortunately, in opening track ‘Runaway’, their best foot was put well and truly forward, the number a persistent and irresistible calling card that was built for radios all over the country. Starting with David Bryan’s stabbing keys, the punchy guitar swings in and it’s all systems go from that point onwards, the song full of the urgency and fire they’d make their name on. A standout from those early touring days, it still stands as one of the very best things the band has produced and rocks along but with all the melody you could indecently hope for.

It was a very strong opening and ‘Roulette’ continued the theme, a solid chunk of hard rock brimming with big vocal harmonies and chorus, along with some great guitars by Richie Sambora, the rhythm section of Tico Torres and Alec John Such adding their own drive and swing. As the album progresses you get a sense of the nascent outfit developing, the bubblegum rock of ‘She Don’t Know Me’ and dynamics of ‘Shot Through the Heart’ showing early promise of the great things to come. There are dips, ‘Love Lies’ and ‘Breakout’, more filler than killer, but the incendiary breathless rock of ‘Burning for Love’ features some frantic fretwork and an intriguing ‘Get Ready’ starts like Boston but then heads into Aerosmith playing New Wave territory.
Doubling the album length, this new release sees another five, yes five, versions of ‘Runaway’, an early version of ‘Come Back’ and a handful of live tracks capturing the band onstage to an enthusiastic audience in Tokyo on their 1985 tour of Japan. Of the additional material from the vaults, this latter selection is probably the most vital, showing, as it does, a band on fire and raring to take on the world as they grab every opportunity with both hands.

Overall, what we’re given here is a celebration of the album that started an empire, the quintet forming their art but not yet hitting the heights that would come a mere two years later. It may be stuck in time and a reflection of that era but it’s still a fun ride that boasts a rock classic as an opening track and a welcome reminder of the days when Bon Jovi wanted to really rock the house.
Listen to the Deluxe Edition HERE.
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