It is rare to find a band with the staying power to continue recording albums for almost 25 years. But this is the case with the band for this Tuesday’s music review. That band is Bon Jovi, and the their new album release “Lost Highway”. The release date was June 19th, which was just last Tuesday. I know when the name Bon Jovi is mentioned most people think of the “big hair” bands of the 80’s. While it is true that the 1980’s is the decade in history when Bon Jovi rose to a powerful force in the Hardrock genre and no one, I mean no one had bigger hair than Jon Bo Jovi. But in 1992 with the release of “Keep The Faith”, Bon Jovi shook off the cliche riddled lyrics and began to record music with a more mature sound.

Much like the turn in 1992 Bon Jovi is once again re-inventing itself with their new release “Lost Highway“. While most of what I have read so far about this release is that they have created a more Country oriented sound on this release, I think otherwise. Other reviews have assumed that the reason for this change is because of the popularity of their Country mix release of “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” which featured Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland. Although the music does have a certain Nashville sound to it on certain songs such as “Whole Lot Of Leaving”, “We Got It Going On” featuring Big & Rich, “Seat Next To You”, and “Stranger” featuring LeeAnn Rimes, for the most part the album sound has not changed much from the previous release “Have A Nice Day“. If much of a change exists they have definitely made it a very subtle change.

Highlights on the album are “Summertime” (very reminiscent of the Kenny Chesney song with the same title), “Make A Memory” (the first single), the title track “Lost Highway”, the boot scootin’ “We Got It Going On”, the slow, moving, ballad “Seat Next To You”.

In conclusion I’m not going to jump on the “Bon Jovi has gone Country” wagon train yet, even though some of the songs have a Nashville tint to them. I think Bon Jovi has been blurring the lines between genres for the past few albums. Besides, I am not one to label certain artists to a particular genre anyway. I like the sound of this new release. As I mentioned before it is another re-invention for the hard-working band known as Bon Jovi. I give it four and half stars out of five.

Check out the video from the new song “Make A Memory” below.