This Left Feels Right

1	Wanted Dead or Alive 3:43
2	Livin' on a Prayer / Olivia d'Abo 3:41
3	Bad Medicine 4:27
4	It's My Life 3:42
5	Lay Your Hands on Me 4:27
6	You Give Love a Bad Name 3:29
7	Bed of Roses 5:38
8	Everyday 3:45
9	Born to Be My Baby 5:27
10	Keep the Faith 4:12
11	I'll Be There for You / Jon Bon Jovi 4:21
12	Always 4:18

Barnes & Noble

There's nothing all that unusual about a band going back into its closet to dust off -- and slip into -- old favorites for the benefit of fans. There is, however, something a little different about seeing a band subject those oldies to serious alteration, risking the embarrassment of poor fit or downright bizarre results. To the credit of Jon Bon Jovi and his cohorts, The Left Feels Right -- which revisits some of the band's best-known material with sparse, acoustic arrangements -- manages to reconcile its combination of comfortable feel and risky revamp. As borne out by Bon Jovi's appearances on post-9/11 tribute shows, songs like "Wanted: Dead or Alive" and "It's My Life" lend themselves surprisingly well to the reinterpretation, thanks in part to the singer's newfound sense of vocal subtlety and in part to Richie Sambora's surprisingly deft acoustic strumming. Some of the more riff-based anthems -- "Bad Medicine," for instance -- don't translate as well, but Bon Jovi wisely steers clear of most of the band's harder material, concentrating instead on bouncy tunes like "Born to Be My Baby," which really shows off its '60s sensibility in this slowed, neo-Rat Pack rendition. Surprising, but not shocking, This Left Feels Right will give fans something to slip into and cynics a little something to think about. David Sprague

All Music Guide

God knows why Bon Jovi felt the need to recut its best songs in an adult alternative style with Patrick Leonard as the producer. In the thorough liner notes -- presented as an interview between Jon Bon Jovi and guitarist Richie Sambora -- by the suddenly ubiquitous David Wild, Jon claims that the roots of the album derive from a Japanese show he recorded where the intent was to release live, acoustic versions of the band's standards. Alas, the recordings weren't up to snuff, so the band reentered the studio and cut versions that have more overdubs than the original releases. To its credit, the band sounds committed to this rather bizarre project, an endeavor so unconnected to reality that actress Olivia d'Abo -- best known for either her role on The Wonder Years or her lead in the brilliant '90s indie film Kicking and Screaming, depending on your viewpoint -- provides counterpoint vocals to "Living on a Prayer," while "Bad Medicine" boasts breathy, echoed vocals that suggest it was conceived as a reflective affair, not as a dumb hard rock song. This holds true throughout the album, and while the arrangements are relatively interesting, they're rarely improvements on the originals and rarely rise above the level of novelties. And while longtime fans may find it worthwhile on that level, it doesn't offer proof that the band's songs are resilient enough to withstand new arrangements, nor does it shed new light on Bon Jovi or prove that the group is maturing gracefully. And all of that is really too bad, because the songs have stood the test of time, sounding better in their original incarnations than they did upon release, plus the group was moving in the right direction with its last album, adjusting to the sound and feel of middle-aged maturity seemingly effortlessly. This, however, sounds simultaneously safe and hazy; it's the sound of a band that's earned the right to indulge itself and has followed that inclination here. Stephen Thomas Erlewine