Beautiful!!

This album is perhaps one of Bon Jovi's best albums to date. With the many memorable tunes including "Blood on Blood," to their wonderful but sad "Living in Sin," and their awesome mono track, "Ride Cowboy Ride," Bon Jovi knows how to rock and have fun at the same time. This album is just a memorable album all-in-one and the entire band is just incredible. They are ALL GODS of everything they do in the band altogether. Richie on Electric Guitar, Jon on Vocals, Tico on Drums, and David on keyboards. They are just incredible and shows that they love what they do and enjoy it for the love of their fans. And although Alec, the bassist, left after the release of Crossroad, Bon Jovi remained strong and continued their bond as a group for a very long time. This is definitely a must have album for any classic rock 80's or Bon Jovi fan. I will continue to treasure this album for the longest time now and forever.

Ear Candy of 80's Commercial Rock, Loads of Fun

While maybe a bit shallow lyrically, "New Jersey" is still loads of 80's rock-fun. The album is pretty strong from the beginning to the end, and is loaded with catchy melody hooks, and powerful choruses. It's loaded with extremely polished and mainstream radio-friendly songs. A great album to sit down and unwind to.....or go crazy, whichever you prefer.

Jon and Richie wrote some songs by themselves, on others they had some professional help.

My personal favorite (both melodically and lyrically) is "Wild is the Wind". It's an Awesome and Powerful song with a Great mellow intro. It was co-written by the always great composer Diane Warren.

And of course the great Desmond Child co-wrote some Powerful and Catchy anthems here. These are "Bad Medicine", "Born to be My baby" and "Blood on Blood". All are 100% Hits.

Jon single-handedly wrote the beautiful ballad "Living in Sin", and together with Richie he wrote another great ballad "I'll be there for You". Also Richie and Jon wrote "Lay Your hands on Me", "Homebound Train" and "99 In the Shade". All are catchy and energy-filled rock tunes.

"Love for Sale" is a bit more Country style. Very catchy tune.

This is a very strong album with many potential hits on it. A must-have for any fan of 80's Commercial Rock or Pop. Fun stuff.

It's All How You Look At It

Bon Jovi was at a point in their career where they could put out anything and have it spawn at least three top ten singles. The success of "Slippery When Wet" turned them into worldwide superstars. When I listen to this album, I get the feeling that I have heard it all before. That does not make this a bad album, though. There are very few filler songs compared to some of their earlier and later albums. It just seems so calculated. Of course, if you give this to someone who is new to music, this would probably be their favorite album ever, because they have never heard it before. There are several good songs on here, especially the surprisingly heavy "Lay Your Hands On Me," (did anyone notice that Def Leppard had nearly the exact same song with "Pour Some Sugar on Me"?) which has a great riff and sounds similar to how it would in a live stadium. In fact, that's what most of the songs sound like. That's not a bad thing, but Jon goes too far sometimes, I feel nausiated when I hear the ending to the terrible "Bad Medicine" where he goes "Wait, I'm not done yet" and then they repeat the chorus again. So if you don't take this too seriuosly, you can really enjoy it, especially because it's so low-priced. But if you consider yourself a hardcore music fan, there will be very little on here for you to enjoy.

Jovi, Bon Jovi.

Overall a good album. I remember riding my bike to the record store to get this mostly because a girl I liked had it. Anyway, though not as strong as the previous album, "New Jersey" still has some gems. I always break this album into thirds in my head. The first third is the strongest, with the 3 big rockers plus "Living In Sin". The second third to me is just blah, not bad, but not good, and the last 4 tracks are a good combo of rockers and ballads too. In short I'd say a must for the real fan, but otherwise "Slippery When Wet" or the "Cross Road" collection should be enough for casual fans.

Still a superb album to follow Slippery When Wet!

This was the first Bon Jovi I got to hear when I bought it in Feb. of 1989. It still is a solid rock album all throughout, rockers and their familiar power ballads. I didn't think that they would top Slippery When Wet, but this album is just as entertaining as well as rocking. Blood on Blood is very Springsteen-ish, kind of like Born To Run, but very well done. The opening song makes you feel like you're in a concert, in a stadium of over 50,000 people screaming, with Lay Your Hands on Me! I still love Bad Medicine and Tico Torres' incredible drum playing on it. Especially on the last two lines before the last chorus where he hits those drums hard 8 times, then the bottom part where he hits the snare 5 times!!!! I turn up the volume or bang on the table every time that part comes up in that song. On several cuts, Jon Bon Jovi in a rare move was hitting some very high notes, which come out so very impressive! I don't know of any other male singer who can hit those notes so high like that! And this was two years before Mariah Carey's first album came out that Jon Bon Jovi was doing this high note approach. It's the high point of this album every time I hear I'll Be There For You and Living in Sin. Other songs I like, Born to Be My Baby and its familiar sing along chorus, Stick To Your Guns, Wild Is The Wind, the rocking final song with 99 in the title and others. Jon as well as Richie Sambora wrote some very solid songs this time, perhaps the best in their band's music career. And David Bryan's keyboard playing still blends well with Sambora and Alec Jon Such's lead guitars and Tico's drumming! Jon sounds so versatile vocally in all the songs here. One of my favorite albums and it justifies in that album title that they're proud to be from New Jersey! They really prove why that state can produce such very multitalented music artists from Springsteen to Sinatra to Whitney to Dionne to even them too and many others!

The epitome of rock godliness

Bon Jovi is the epitome of an American rock band. Jon is Zeuss of the vocal world hitting high notes and punding out choruses with his strong voice, and Richie is the amazing god of guitar, and with tico on drums and david on keyboard and alec on bass, they are simply astounding *for more words of how amazing they are, look at the insert of "One Wild Night: 1985-2001 Live" and the little foreword). The have longevity, which is a huge factor. I am as die hard as they come when you talk about bon jovi fans, and i believe that this is their best album. From Bon Jovi to Bounce, this is truly the best. My favorites off the album are "Blood On Blood", "Stick To Your Guns", "Wild Is The Wind", "Love For Sale", and of course "Lay Your Hands on Me", one of my favorite Bon Jovi songs of all time. I'd recommend this CD to someone who already owns Slippery When Wet, the one that just predates this one by 2 years, and likes it. It's a totally different sound from 'Crush' and 'Bounce', and even 'Bon Jovi', their solo debut. If you guy it, you'll find it's worth every penny. You WON'T be disappointed.