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Bon Jovi -- “100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong”

Island (1 1/2 stars)

Maria Dias RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL

New Jersey rockers Bon Jovi chose to mark 20 years of music making and 100,000,000 albums sold with a four-CD, one-DVD box set, but it’s not for everyone. First thing’s first, 100,000,000 albums sold does not mean that 100,000,000 Bon Jovi fans have bought albums, or for that matter, can’t be wrong (as the title implies).

That said, unless you are a true, die-hard Bon Jovi fan, you’d probably be wrong to buy this box set. For starters, aside from the unreleased demo version of “Always,” the band’s greatest hits are completely absent from this collection. Bon Jovi made a bold move releasing four CDs of previously unreleased (or limited release) material, and for that it should be applauded. But there’s a reason why most of this stuff never saw the light of day, regardless of what frontman Jon Bon Jovi says in the liner notes. It’s just not that good.

With the exception of Disc 3, which rocks in a fun, ’80s kind of way, the collection is largely a later-years sap fest. In the booklet accompanying the box set, Jon Bon Jovi describes how, faced with the early ’90s grunge scene, the band had to change to survive. This collection documents mostly that “new direction,” with little homage paid to the songs that didn’t make it onto “Slippery When Wet” or “New Jersey.”

Worse yet is the DVD included with the set. It’s basically Jon Bon Jovi (and occasionally the whole band) talking to the camera, explaining the meaning behind select songs. That would be fine, except for two things: The songs summed up on the DVD are already written about in the accompanying booklet, and Bon Jovi is a lot more interesting to watch performing than lecturing. Early concert and tour footage does break up the monotony, but the clips are too short, and after a while, watching them is more like sitting through your neighbor’s home movies. Do we really need to see an impromptu band/crew beach football game? Or their trip up to the Christ Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro? No. Like tracks that landed on the cutting room floor, some things are better left in the past.