As the kings of clichi-ridden rock, when Bon Jovi bring their pop-riddled stadium tunes back out every 3 or so years, one is guaranteed a few things:

7 An opening, powerful, riff-driven rock song to kick the album off

7 Two or three songs down the line, an acoustic guitar, a piano and Jon crooning in some pseudo-heartfelt manner

7 Tommy and Gina, who first made their appearance in the seminal "Livin' On A Prayer" are bound to surface somewhere as well.

And so it goes on the New Jersey group's 8th studio album, and one gets the feeling that at this stage of their careers, while they haven't necessarily stopped trying, they have stopped pushing themselves. Like the Stones, Aerosmith, and countless other rock bands before them, if it ain't broke, why fix it. Right?

In the intervening years since Crush, the arrival of The Strokes, Ryan Adams, The Vines and countless other groups has taken music in an altogether unprecedented direction. As the grunge sound of the early 90's didn't affect the group's dynamic then, so these days it remains unchanged. Which is fine, because they'll still have hit singles out of this effort and sold out shows at Wembley Stadium.

But of all the albums released over their entire career, this is perhaps the least inspired. Even the last effort, 2000's Crush had underlying themes of being resigned to getting older, and being comfortable in your own skin, and before that These Days had given us songs from a man who had lost almost every ounce of faith in the world in which he lived, without a doubt their most personal work. In comparison, Bounce feels like a collection of B-sides that didn't make it onto the Crush record because none of the songs were are good enough to stand on their own.

The saving grace then, would be that a new album means a new tour, and another opportunity to see "You Give Love A Bad Name" played live. This album resides now in my music collection not because of its musical value (of which there is little), but because I'm a fan, and probably a little more forgiving than most.