Bon Jovi - What About Now

New Jersey’s other famous rock act soldiers on. Bon Jovi came to epitomize hair-metal music in the late 1980s. But singer Jon Bon Jovi and his bandmates survived by changing with the times and staying on the charts with power ballads and country crossovers alike. The veteran rockers’ 12^th album is a stripped-down affair that focuses on their favorite theme: the plight of working people.

On the Springsteen-like title track, an arena-ready rocker, Bon Jovi asks “who stands for the restless and the lonely, for the desperate and the hungry?” The acoustic “What’s Left of Me” champions “the teacher, the farmer, the union man” who find it “hard to make a living in this hard land.” The album’s anthemic climax is the stirring “Army of One,” with the band chanting “never give up.” It’s meant to empower the oppressed, but it could just as easily be referring to Bon Jovi’s impressive staying power.