Anything But Gray

J and I always go over new Bon Jovi albums like this and I've made her wait all week.
I love doing this with her…it's such a me and her thing, to pour over every note, every word…everyone else thinks I'm crazy, but she gets it. Well, I shouldn't say that….not everyone thinks I'm crazy. People like Zak, Ceci, Tina and Kim get it and they'll listen to me until my last breath…okay now I feel guilty for saying that because I keep adding names in my head…Shelly would listen, James would listen, Kirk even would humor me…so I actually have quite a few people that will listen to me babble about Bon Jovi…I love you guys!! (shit…not Kirk…he wasn't included in that I love you….LOL!!!!!)
Anyway, Bon Jovi is how J and I met, it's what brought us together and it is so us to do this…an album doesn't feel "out" yet until I do this with J…

And here it is…. 

First
of all I have to say Jon’s voice sounds better on this album than it has in
YEARS, I think. It makes me wonder if he finally quit smoking or something. Or maybe
the songs just highlight the best parts of his voice….whatever it is, I like
it! He sounds amazing.  There are some
parts that because of the lyric and because of the way he sings it, you feel
like you are eavesdropping in on an intimate conversation with his wife or
something. I almost feel like I should turn it off. It’s so weird, in an
absolutely goosebumpy, amazing way!

I
am so happy with this album, I LOVE it. Absolutely LOVE it. The writing is
amazing, as always. The music is fun, inspiring and just awesome. I really think
this album is going to get them some new fans….I’m impressed.
Now the song by song…

Lost Highway—

I love to drive. I always have, even
before I had a license, Shelly would let me drive her car and I loved it. I
live to drive…it’s such a freedom to me. Having the radio blasting and the wind
rushing through you, it just feels like you can go anywhere….at one turn of the
wheel you can pick which way your life goes. It seriously is such an escape for
me. Given this, I love any kind of car/driving metaphor. So right off the bat,
I loved this song.  From the first note,
it just sounds like a driving song…

“in my rearview
mirror/my life is getting clearer.”


Love this, like once you get through something, then you figure it all out….

The
whole chorus, I love. I do believe that will be the song I play when we’re
pulling out of here…."hey, hey/I finally found my way/say goodbye to yesterday/hit the gas there ain't no breaks/on this lost highway/yeah, I busting loose/I'm letting go/out on this open road/it's independence day/on this lost highway/hey, hey"

“don’t know where I’m going/but I know where
I’ve been/I’m afraid of going back again/” –Love this! I imagine this is
how I’ll feel once we finally move out of here. 
Not in a literal sense, but afraid of being in a position where we have
to come back again.

“oh patron saint of
lonely souls/tell this boy which way to go/guide the car/you’ve got the keys/farewell
to mediocrity/ kickin’ off the cruise control/turning up the radio/got just
enough religion/and a half a tank of gas/come on/let’s go”.

–Freakin’ LOVE this. Love the lyrics,
love the big drums….it gives me goosebumps. Love the complete trust and faith
in “guide the car/you’ve got the keys”

Summertime


—

Been here/heard this a million songs before.
But I love it. They do it just a little bit different that makes me not feel
like I’ve heard a million times before. I love the big drums (throw big drums
in anything and I’m sunk…lol) and I really dig the lyrics…although I wish beer
rhymed with summertime…cause I’ve never done the beach blanket and a bottle of
wine thing…ha!

“These days it goes like this/wake up,
check that off some list/got to be a
little something more than this/in the bottom of my coffee cup”

This
line is so friggin’ me. Me and my lists & me and my ever present cup of
coffee…cracked me up, it’s so me.

 “you shining like a new dime/keeping me from
giving up”

Love this…if
Zak heard it, it would remind him of me. So it makes me think of him. Funny,
huh? That because I know something would remind him of me, it makes me think of
him…I love being married…anyway.

Love the
whole chorus and it’s such a visual, it really makes you feel what he’s singing
about and it feels fun, it feels good…it feels like “that’s it! That’s what
being in love feels like!! Summertime!! “ I love the distinction in the “first
long kiss” You hear first kiss a lot in songs but I can’t remember hearing
first long kiss..and as we all know there is a significant difference
between the two. I love the end too,
when the chorus changes to “radio’s on
for me and my valentine” Love that….so
very romantic to me. Like being called someone’s bride instead of their wife…

I’ve already
blogged about Make a Memory…

Whole lot of Leaving Going On

—

I. LOVE. THIS. SONG.

I cannot, absolutely cannot explain
how much I adore this song….this will be one of my all time favorites.  It sounds very Bon Jovi to me, the music. It's edge of your seat, musically. The
way it’s written isn’t typical for them. There’s no big huge chorus, it’s
almost like the whole thing is one good chorus and I love it.  I love the way he sings this. To me, it sounds
like he’s really feeling this song.  When
I first read through the lyrics, I really expected it to be a song that Jon and
Richie wrote together and I assumed it would be very influenced by Richie
and David’s divorces. I get to the credits for the song and Richie had no part
of writing it. Jon wrote it with someone else. My heart literally skipped a
beat as I realized Jon wrote this for them. He felt what they were going
through and he wrote this for them….it felt like how I feel when Ceci writes a
poem for me, inspired by something I’m going through…what an awesome feeling. I
don’t care if I’m wrong, either. That’s what I’m going with. He wrote this for
them…his brothers.

The lyrics
are phenomenal. From the very first line, I loved it.
“It’s pretty cold for late September/the
autumn wind is creeping in/the summer sun packed up/it’s long gone/there’s a
whole lot of leaving goin’ on”.

Me and my
September thing, of course I love this line. And I just love the lumping the
weather into everything. Like even the sun is leaving…this really sets the mood
for the song.

“Close the window/draw the
curtains/you ain’t the only one here hurting”

I freakin’ love the visual with this, you can just see
this situation…this really makes me feel him. Plus, curtains and hurting? God…he’s
amazing! lol.

The chorus, I
love, absolutely love. "Seems like lately/there's a whole lot of leavin' goin' on/I close my eyes/I picture your hand in mine/I still hear your voice/it takes me back to that time/where I could find a reason to be strong/seems like lately there's a  whole lot of leavin' goin' on"

I already
loved the song….I was already feeling it, loving it and then I get to this…

 “I close my eyes/and picture your hand in mine/yeah,
I walk the line/you’ll never hear me say goodbye/so pretty baby let the years feel
strong/lately there’s a whole lot of leaving going’ on”

I don’t know
if it’s intentional or not or if he’s just using the expression, but I love the
nod to the Johnny Cash song, I walk the line. So cool!!

And of
course, I love the “pretty baby” I am so madly and completely in love with this
song. I could listen to it over and over and over. I can’t wait to hear this
live someday…

We Got It Goin’ On.

I like it. It doesn’t make me jump up
and down, but I like it. It’s fun and I love that Richie’s got the talk box out…that’s
probably the coolest  part of the song
for me…lol.  Jon sounds good and that’s
cool too. Usually on Bon Jovi albums there’s always one song I always skip over. This
will probably be that song on this album.

Any Other Day

—I really like this. I love the “any other day/I’d be blue eyes crying”
Very cool. J said the same thing and I’m with her, I love when he references
himself, even if it’s a little thing like this.

This is such
a me and Zak song. There are a ton of things that fit us, very personally. I
love it.

“must’ve hit every damn red light on
the street.”

I have
horrible light karma. I always get the red lights. I have kick ass parking
karma, but light karma…not so good. If Zak heard this, he would laugh and so think
of me.

The whole
chorus is so us. It totally makes me think of us. The clouds breaking line…it’s
just all so perfect.

“Catch a beer buzz in the morning/just
to get a little edge/then maybe just get up in time/to do it all again”

I freakin’
love this. So very me.

And this….”I like waking up with you on my mind/knowing
that you’re saving me one more time”. So cool.  

A Seat Next To You

.—I really like this song. It started
off a bit country for me and I got a little nervous, but I really fell in love with
it. The first line is really personal for me. (the thinking road…) Ahh..forget it. The whole thing is really
personal for me and I think I’m going to save one for myself. I’m not going to
explain this one too much.  But I love
it. It literally brought tears to my eyes…the way he sings it, I could listen
to it over and over. Love the woman in the chorus, it works.  

Everybody’s Broken.

 Love the title, love the idea of it. Great song,
lyrically. Inspiring song. It makes you want to write something like that. I
can see me playing this over and over while I’m writing. It’s that kind of
song.

Love this…”you’re trying to hold in/what you’re dying
to scream out”  Lines like this are
why this man inspires me so much.

Till We Ain’t Strangers Anymore—

First of all, I love the song. I
really do. But boy…I’m having a hard time with the Leann Rimes thing. It’s a
very grown up song, a very grown up feeling and I really wish he would’ve done
this with someone older. I mean Leann Rimes was barely born when the band got
huge, so I’m having a hard time with that. I have to get passed that because it’s
a great song, an excellent song, as a matter of fact. And Leann Rimes is, in
fact, a grown up and she sounds great with Jon. Lol. I’ll get passed it…but it
just kind of threw me the first couple of times I listened to it…

Okay, that
being said. I really love this…”tell me
who you think you see/when you look into my eyes” That is just amazing.
Wish I wrote it.

The guitar
solo…is it just me or does that totally sound like a late 80’s guitar solo? I
love it, mind you, but it sounds familiar to me.

Over all a
great song.

The Last Night

—Another song that will so wind up
being a favorite of mine. The way he sings this is amazing..you can feel the
song in his voice, you can feel the words. You’re not just hearing them, the
way he’s singing them…you can feel them on your skin. This whole song gives me
goosebumps.

Zak and I
plan on renewing our wedding vows for our 22^nd anniversary and as
soon as I heard this, it screamed wedding processional to me, the song we’ll
walk away from the altar to. “so walk
with me, please/help me to be strong/I’ll
be the shoulder you can lean on/when everybody’s gone”

This line…”it makes no sense/it’s hard to understand/when
there’s something that should fill you up/keeps slipping through your hands/”
This made me think of J….she just suffered a heartbreaking miscarriage and this just
immediately made me think of that.

“we’re all looking for answers/we’re all down
and on our knees/all anybody really wants/is something to believe/enough is
enough/I can’t take anymore/well I’m standing on your front porch/I’m kicking
down your door/this is the last night…”

I love the
desperation in this, the determination….this part makes me catch my breath and
I know there will be days when I won’t be able to listen to this part or it
will bring me to tears.

And this….”I’ll be that shoulder you can lean on/the place
where you belong”

This is the kind
of song you wish someone would give you…it’s so amazing.

One Step Closer


…I like it. Nothing really stands out
for me, it’s just an all around really good song. Nice and mellow, really good writing song…

I Love This Town..

I LOVE THIS SONG!!! It’s honestly nothing spectacular, but
I love it just the same. Maybe you have to miss your hometown…maybe you have to
be in love with a town to get it. I don’t know. But I just envision us living
back east again, having a big welcome home bash, all my family and all my old
friends there and our arms draped around each other’s shoulders, singing this
at the top of our lungs….the way we used to sing “Friends in Low Places” (remember
guys??) Or cruising the beach on a summer night and blasting this. It’s just a
fun summer song and it makes me can’t wait to get home. It makes my heart jump
in anticipation…
When we move, I’ll be playing this when we roll back into town…

All in all an
awesome album and so worth the wait  It's a very visual album for me, it makes you daydream, it makes you see what he's singing. I love it. I can’t wait to see them live! They
are doing a full fledged world tour in January and I am so keeping my fingers
crossed that they will wind up on the east coast after we’ve moved there. I am
so following them. I have about 15 years to make up for…lol.

Sorry I made
you wait so long, J!! I’m so glad we do this.

I love you!!