Slippery When Wet

80s hair band with talent

3.5 aged better than I expected.

Its a staple of my teen years - so a bit fun

I had a Bon Jovi era back in middle school. I've long moved past them, but this is still an okayish, if not fairly cheesy, listen.

Slippery When Wet is often seen as a classic among classic rock albums and after listening to it, i can absolutely see why because it genuinely is great. I thought these songs had already lost their luster seeing as i have heard the singles like You Give Love A Bad Name, Livin' On A Prayer and Wanted Dead Or Alive on classic rock stations quite a lot but they were all seriously great songs and the others are still no slouches in the slightest. And this goes without saying that there was not a bad song in sight on this album as they are all greats in their own way. I do think that something is preventing me from 5 staring this album but it is still a great one regardless.
Best Song: I'd Die For You
Worst Song: Never Say Goodbye

yeah you could come into my bedroom in the middle of the night while i'm having the deepest sleep of my life and scream "SHOT THROUGH THE HEART" at me and I'd jump out of the bed and return "AND YOU'RE TO BLAME"
5/5

I've always been a bit of a Bon Jovi hater, but this wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. The first 3 songs are great, and there's a few others across the rest of the album. Still a bit cringe though in general

I just can't do glam. The cringey lyrics certainly don't help. You've gotta have a lot of skill to pull off sex noises in a song and in my eyes they just don't.

Very 80s big hair. Hits are very memorable, but not that great, and not much beyond that

“Metal” made safe for the masses through masterfully crafted pop songs. And they’re all here.

Easy, easy 5 – probably a 10, really.

I knew this was the one with the big 3 hits of “You Give Love a Bad Name”, “Livin’ on a Prayer”, and “Wanted Dead or Alive” – it was always going to get a 3, bare minimum because of those 3 tracks. The real question, for me, was simply if the rest of the album would live up to the remarkably high bar of those tracks. It did that, and more – I’m really annoyed at myself for not digging deeper into this album; everything on here just fucking kicks ass.

Say what you will about 80s rock like this – yes, it’s been overplayed to hell & parodied to the point where some of these tracks have lost some of the same impact they had 38 years ago… but I just don’t fucking care, man. When it rips, it rips, and this album rips in the fastest 44 minutes I can remember. Let It Rock is a fantastic opener where the charisma of the album oozes in spades immediately, followed by the starstudded 1-2 punch of You Give Love a Bad Name & Livin’ on a Prayer – I am genuinely hard pressed to think of any other 80s rock album that has a 2-track stretch comparable to that. Social Disease is fun; bit of a Phil Collins vibe in the percussion, and it’s baked in a lot of 80s production tricks that just fit my tastes. Wanted Dead or Alive is the other of the big 3 here, and this is my first time realizing that he’s been singing about the band the whole time (“steel horse” should’ve been obvious, I know). The first half of this album is just banger after banger.

Past that, the entire second half of the album was blind to me, but man, it fucking rocks – Raise Your Hands has a Britpop structure with an American edge that elevates the track for me, and feels like a great stadium cut. Without Love is drenched in a pop song structure, and reminds me a lot of Jefferson Starship, but that’s part of why I liked it a lot. I’d Die For You feels like this hybrid of The Police & Journey that clicked really well for me, if a little cheesy in the chorus. If I have any complaint, it’s that Wild in the Streets & Never Say Goodbye should’ve flipped their track order – they both rock, with Wild in the Streets feeling like a very Springsteen-esque cut, but Never Say Goodbye is like, custom made to end concerts, and it should’ve ended this album.

Ultimately, this is just pure 80s heavy glam metal at one of its finest points, and I’m a pure sucker for it. Perhaps it just struck me really well on a first listen, but I think I'll be coming back to this one for a while. I really do wish I had heard some of these tracks before now, but better late than never – it’s a very easy 5 for my tastes, and it just fucking rules.

We gotta get more tracks with key changes in these 1,001 albums.

Oh Jesus. So terrible

So earnest it almost can't be parodied. A lot of music of this ilk is just the same. Bon Jovi has a big leg up on its contemporaries in that the musical production is of a really high caliber and that several tracks step away from the mawkish lyricism and end up in sports anthem territory.

I would like to note that the lyrics that made Bon Jovi a total heartthrob today would read like a stalker's missive to his intended victim. This initial thought gave me a few chuckles through the listen.

Not bad. I'll never again listen in its entirety. I will back folks up at karaoke.

I kind of missed the 80s because I was in a cult, so I don't really have the connection to that decade that most people my age seem to. That said, I *did* attend public school, and there were certain things that were so big thatchy were able to pierce that protective bubble of anti-secularism that I was encased in, and this is one of those things. I don't think I've ever heard the entire album, but even under my rock, You Give Love a Bad Name, Wanted Dead or Alive, and Livin' On a Prayer were ubiquitous. Now, I don't really like 80s pop, so this one will be interesting.

OK. The aforementioned hits were nice little walks down memory lane, for sure. but oh my god, it is cheesy as fuck. The production is dreadful - I now understand why so many older albums are remastered - this one could definitely use some love. If this is your cup of tea, it's probably quite good, but it's not mine. I think 2.5 stars. I'll bump it up to 3 stars because I do recognize how massive it was, and how influential Bon Jovi was for a minute.

Here's a fun/weird tidbit: you know how when you listen to an album, and it ends, your streaming service will keep playing song it thinks you'll like based on whatever algorithmic formula is in play? I started typing this during the last song of the album and the next song was Def Leppard. Makes sense, yeah? the song after that was...One Step Closer by Linkin Park. ohhhhkaaaay...

I HATE IT I HATE IT I HATE IT I HATE IT

Classic trip back to the radio days of my youth. Nothing groundbreaking, but fun and full of memories.

Whoa we're halfway there... whoaaa oh livin on a prayer!!!! 🤘🏻

I was so excited to see this on my list!!!! I already knew I liked it, and was nice to relisten for the first time in years. Theres big tunes on this tracklist, but also some hidden gems

My mum had this album, and as a teenager I would go through her cd collection and put any good ones on my ipod. Slippery When Wet was one of the few albums I copied over in full! I really really enjoyed it

5 ⭐️

No doubt this album belongs on this list. You still can't go to a bar without hearing these songs, nearly 40 years later. I just really can't stand the forced singing, paint by numbers songwriting and made for MTV image.

Nah

Is this “hard rock”? Come on. I don’t know there’s absolutely nothing this guy does better than anyone in the 80s or late 70s in the hair metal rock space. The hits have catchy ass choruses of course but even those songs are kinda unexciting for me.

It also doesn’t sound too good. How is it that sooo many artists made amazing sounding records in the 70s but this one sounds pretty one dimensional? Anyways I don’t like the guy. Fidn’t hate listening to it tho, so it’s a strong 2