Cross Road  – Bon Jovi – 1994

Claimed Sales: 21m

First listen?: Yes

Format Listened?: Apple Music

Oh great. Even more Bon Jovi for me to enjoy. This time it’s the turn of Cross Road a greatest hits collection that has actually far outsold Slippery When Wet here in the UK. Unlike most greatest hits collections I’ve covered here, Cross Road was relatively ‘new’ to me. I don’t think I could have pointed out the likes of stand out Keep The Faith, U2 rip-off In These Arms or the horrendous Bad Medicine as Bon Jovi songs before my first listen of this. As hits collections go, this is a surprisingly well paced one, opening very strong with biggest hit Livin’ On A Prayer, but saving some other key tracks like You Give Love A Bad Name and I’ll Be There For You for later in the tracklist. Jumping between each of the band’s post Slippery When Wet albums it’s a strong run of international hit singles, ending on just one song from each of the band’s first two albums. Everything is full of big guitars, that were accompanied by big and not so big hair in the accompanying videos. Jon Bon Jovi’s vocals across every one of these 15 tracks is near on ridiculous too, which is obvious to anyone who has heard Livin’ On A Prayer. The two new tracks here, the huge hook of ballad Always and southern rock swing of Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night are undoubtedly some of the best songs here though. Neither is hardly a departure from the sound on the likes of Keep The Faith, but both are distinctly more polished than the band’s 80s hits. Cross Road does its job incredibly well, and even those people who usually have a distaste for Jon Bon Jovi and co will have at least a few tracks that they know and maybe even like here. As a collection of a band’s hits, Cross Road feels like a well paced gig, you definitely get what you came for here.

Rating: 5/10

Will I listen again?: Probably not.

Best Track: Always is ridiculous, but it’s a definite stand out against the stadium rock anthems here.