After almost two decades worth of albums that are virtually indistinguishable from each other, innovation is the last thing you expect from Jon Bon Jovi. And sure enough, Bounce is more of the same from New Jersey's favourite son - another vapid collection of anaemic soft rock, with relentlessly moronic lyrics and fistclenching choruses tailor-made for heavy MTV rotation. The only real points of interest arise from his predictably hamfisted take on September 11: "That was my brother lost in the rubble/That was my sister lost in the crush," he snarls at the start of 'Undivided' setting the scene for a string of sugary ballads which somehow manage to locate the positive aspects of events since that day of infamy ("Where we once were divided, now we stand united"). Bon Jovi's utter lack of cynicism is not without charm, it's true, and Bounce at least has the merit of being slick, well-produced and impeccably tuneful. But it's also fundamentally harmless and forgettable, the perfect illustration of why stadium rock is terminally out of fashion. And most one-trick ponies, it's worth remembering, eventually end up in the knacker's yard.
