#87
March 25 1985
Bon Jovi
7800 Fahrenheit
Genre: Rock
2.5 out of 5
Highlight:
In and Out of Love
I don’t hate this as much as I did ten years ago. It’s still not good but it does prove the point about Jon Bon Jovi: he’s an appropriator of what’s hot at the time.
Like the first album was his attempt at New Wave/Power Pop, this is all Def Leppard bites.
As the project continues you’ll all see him do this. He has no sound of his own. He just wants success. Hard to fault him for that. His devotion to the holy money grab plus his general unctuousness is what helps make people hate him.
But he does do that well. He’s like the pop rock David Bowie. Those of you who have been with me know that I think, for the bulk of his career Bowie just took the sounds that were burbling in the underground and made them accessible to a larger crowd, gave them credibility with audiences and critics and scored legendary record after legendary record, until he became so successful that he could no longer infiltrate the underground. Once that happened, he was left to just follow whatever trend was happening (“I’m Afraid of Americans”, anyone?)
Jon does the same thing, but instead of the underground, he goes straight for what’s already on the charts.
All that said, it’s unmemorable and unsurprising. Keep the hit, dump the rest.
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