I tend to see Bon Jovi as having 4 eras: the early albums (Bon Jovi & 7800 Degrees Fahrenheit), the breakthrough albums (Slippery When Wet & New Jersey), the more mature albums (Keep The Faith & These Days) and finally the recent albums (Crush & Bounce). The early albums suffered from weaker songwriting (as you might expect) and the most recent albums seem overly commercial (although Bon Jovi have always been commercial to some extent) and sound tired. Bon Jovi are in danger of becoming lazy, as Bryan Adams has, and simply releasing albums composed of too many weak ballads. Although I can't say that This Left Feels Right is a successful re-working of the hits (taking great songs and making them boring), producing it did show a certain degree of courage and reluctance to simply rest on their laurels.
As things stand, however, I would have to say that I would be more excited about a new Richie Sambora album being released than a new Bon Jovi album.
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