Bon Jovi were alwasy going to have trouble backing up their Slippery When Wet opus combining as it did a truckload of what is right about the hard end of AOR/soft end of hard rock. And it's sheer buoyancy would be hard to match for almost any band, BJ themselves rarely ever matching it again and certainly not consistently over an album. So the collective tinge of apathy regarding this release that came out of fans upon it's release was always, in my opinion, a bit unfair in retrospect.There are things to be thankful for here in terms of the excellent Bad Medicine and the overdone Lay Your Hands On Me - the two tunes here amongst the rockers that could of easily slipped onto their all conquering previous album. Other interesting musical moments are provided by Wild is the Wind which caught the listeners attention for not quite fitting exactly the sort of mould we all felt BJ were stuck in. In other places there are some country twinges of the sort that would crop up in the bands catalogue more prominenty in later years. There are even flashes of humour in aspects of numbers like Love For Sale.However it must be said that at this point the band were guilty of unleashing a dodgy album every second release. The debut, rickety as it was in many respects, was at least full bodied and for it's time not all that bad. The follow up 7800' Farenheit was a bit of a pooch. They came stridently back into town with Slippery and then followed that up with this. And this ain't that flash.There are positives here as I mentioned above, but an overview of the negatives can be summarised quite succinctly. Firstly the album drags on. There are only twelve tunes here but it is a tiring listen. Secondly the ballads as per usual suck. Unless your one of the bands millions of housewife fans who seem to groove on this stuff. But really stuff like Living in Sin - surely any man of the age Jon was here should cringe at the mere thought of writing such pre-teen sentimentality. Not to mention that the albums production sounds thin, reedy to the point of distraction on many of the numbers and I think that is perhaps due to the weakness in the tunes. The band had previously generally either been doing ballads or songs that while not always rockers were at least utilising the full band. Here they are morphing into something else, dare I say it something more mature, yet they aren't quite sure how to approach such an artistic destination. But fair is fair, they are at least looking at different options.If your a fan of the album, just give that negative vote to make yourself feel better and go read a review of someone who gave this album a five. But if your wondering where to start with the earlier years of the BJ back catalogue my suggestion is to hit Slippery When Wet and Keep the Faith first and for a real history lesson try the debut. But approach 7800' and this with caution.