Have a Nice Day (CD - 2005)

Additional personnel: Jennifer Nettles (vocals).

True troubadours of arena rock and pop-metal, Bon Jovi were not only still standing in the 2000s, they were still releasing albums of original material that packed much of the melodic wallop and anthemic muscle of their efforts from the '80s and early '90s. A case in point is 2005's HAVE A NICE DAY, which finds the band mining a harder rock sound and producing bigger, more sweeping choruses than ever before.

Despite the classic Bon Jovi sound, however, singer Jon Bon Jovi's lyrics are by turns thoughtful (he even conjures the specter of Bob Dylan on "Bells of Freedom," a nod to Dylan's "Chimes of Freedom") and romantic ("Wildflower"). Though the mix doesn't always work, Bon Jovi sounds plenty energized here, and young-at-heart enough to still crank up the volume. HAVE A NICE DAY sports the streamlined rock punch and pop smarts on which the band has built its reputation. minimize