Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 02/09/1999
Run Time: 43:42
It is probably true that
Bon Jovi's breakthrough success with
Slippery When Wet, their third album, had more to do with lead singer
Jon Bon Jovi's mop of curls and winning smile than with anything in the grooves of the record. Nevertheless, the album contained competent contemporary
pop/rock, from its
Eddie Van Halen-inspired guitar solos to the singer's enthusiastic, husky wail (which owed a lot to
Bruce Springsteen).
Jon Bon Jovi, guitarist
Richie Sambora, and songwriter-for-hire
Desmond Child had little more on their minds than girls and
rock-as-mythology (even the working-class anthem
"Livin' on a Prayer" featured a character who was forced to hock his "six string"), but that may only mean they had identified their audience -- young white adolescent males -- and were targeting it accurately.
~William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide