This is the only By Jovi (if you’re from Yorkshire, you’ll know) record that I own. The first album was ok – especially Runaway which was a big hit for the band. Then the follow up, 7800° Fahrenheit, was really quite disappointing and the record company was giving them a bit of pressure for the next album. Well we all know now that Slippery When Wet went mega huge and success was there’s, but then came the problem of how do you follow that? With the best record of your career that’s how!
The band had matured a lot by this point and Jon’s love of Springsteen came out big time on this record. There were 5 huge singles on the album and 4 of them open up the record: Lay Your Hands On Me with its killer intro, Bad Medicine which made it to number 1, Born To Be My Baby, and the syrupy ballad Living In Sin with Jon’s best Springsteen impression. Not a bad opening to a record. To assure the success though, they brought in super songwriter Desmond Child to help them get the hits.
This is one of those albums I don’t play that often as I have heard so much of it on the radio that I feel I know it inside out. Still, there’s no denying that it’s a classic record.
9/10 from The Grooveman.
