Crush

Crush is a monumental comeback on which Bon Jovi, taking in more modern production, splendidly achieved a large-scale return. As if powerfully filling the brief gap of the late 1990s, widely open melodies full of classics line up. Jon Bon Jovi’s singing increases its maturity further, and the band’s chorus feel is truly vivid. An important record that also won a new generation of fans. The opening smash “It’s My Life,” with its outstanding immediacy, again uses a talkbox and became a new signature anthem evoking the old “Livin’ on a Prayer.” The momentum of “Say It Isn’t So,” the moving ballad “Thank You for Loving Me” and cuts like “Just Older” and “Two Story Town” convey the work’s fullness. Its appeal is that, while a sound refined and organized for radio, it never loses a powerful momentum strongly conscious of live performance. A record that again grasped a new anthem reaching a wide range across generations. The great success of “It’s My Life” powerfully showed the band’s vigor worldwide. Announcing Bon Jovi’s splendid revival, it is an extremely important, fulfilling work.