Amid softer, acoustic-led material are jubilant anthems like Walls Of Jericho, the biggest-hearted, most openly singable Bon Jovi track for many years. We Made It Look Easy and My First Guitar salute the past in different ways, but both are fond and emotive rather than chest-beating, and Living In Paradise is another big chorus showpiece that grows in both momentum and feels.
It says a lot, however, that Jon chooses to close this comeback with Hollow Man, a sparse and haunting track that echoes his hero Bruce Springsteen’s eerily stark Nebraska. 'What do you write when the book is done?' he asks, returning to the notion this might yet be the end. If it is, there can be no more apt and genteel final bow for one of the most popular figures in rock history. One more time then, with feeling.
Verdict: 4/5
For fans of: Aerosmith, Guns N’Roses, Bruce Springsteen
Forever is released on June 7 via Island
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