The boys in Bon Jovi are back with a brand new single, “This House Is Not For Sale,” the title track from their upcoming fourteenth studio album. This song kicks off the new era of Bon Jovi with a bang. Following the release of their 2013 album, "What About Now," the band was met with mixed to negative reviews. During their 2013 Because We Can Tour, guitarist Richie Sambora left the band and never looked back. After all that turmoil, Jon Bon Jovi contemplated retiring from the music industry while he attempted to buy the Buffalo Bills of the NFL. After an unsuccessful bid, he returned with the 2015 a “fan album” collection of never before released demos and outtakes as well as the occasional new song, "Burning Bridges," partly to fulfill a commitment to the record company and to bridge the gap between "What About Now" and their next album "This House Is Not For Sale".
To say that this new single was highly anticipated and somewhat dreaded among the Bon Jovi community is an understatement. Even Bon Jovi’s most loyal fans didn’t care too much for the "What About Now" album, and many often refer to that record as the band’s worst as it is mostly pop rock fillers with no real substance. So it isn’t hard to tell why many fans approached the release date of this new single with hesitation. So did the guys deliver with this new single?
Yes… and then some.
“This House Is Not For Sale” is a great song. What I appreciate the most about it is I see many references to other Bon Jovi hits in the song. The song opens with distorted guitars that take me back to the band’s 2005 hit, “Have A Nice Day”. The melody is infection and catchy and seems to me to be a modern version of “You Give Love A Bad Name”. It also contains a few elements of the band’s last single “We Don’t Run” with the “I’m coming home” line, which was a nice touch. In the Bon Jovi community, there is a clear divide. On one side we have the people who wish the band would play music that they played in the ‘80s. Those people tend to be more upset that Jon continued the band without Richie. The other side could care less as long as the band continues to churn out quality music. I’m in the latter half, and Jon really proves that he doesn’t need Richie to be successful with the addition of new guitarist Phil X. His guitar solo in the song is shredding and just as good, if not better, than when Richie was in the band.
I also really adore the meaning behind the song. Obviously the house that Jon refers to in the lyrics is the band itself. Jon sings “I set each stone and I hammered each nail/This House Is Not For Sale/Where memories live and the dreams don’t fail/This House Is Not For Sale”. The song is admittedly about the band’s integrity. In the opening verse, Jon sings: “Outside the sky is coal black/the streets are on fire/the picture window’s cracked and there’s nowhere to run.” This line refers to the band being in danger of breaking up after the turmoil of bad reviews of "What About Now" and Richie leaving. It’s a song about picking yourself back up and giving it another go. Despite all of the misfortunes, Bon Jovi are not for sale.
When the new album was first announced I told everybody that this was the most important album since the band’s 2000 release, "Crush," which contained the Bon Jovi classic, “It’s My Life.” The reason I said that is because Bon Jovi were considered to be done and riding off into the sunset. They were no longer in the mainstream and many modern music lovers considered them to be has-beens. However, the band proves that they are not so easily disposable, and if the rest of the album is anywhere near as good as this song, they still have plenty of fuel left in the tank. I can see this song being responsible for reenergizing interest in Bon Jovi and rock music, which has been slowly dying the last few years. Bon Jovi may not be for sale, but you can pick up their new hit single, “This House Is Not For Sale” now at all digital retailers.
