It was the single heard ’round the world…or at least New Jersey. ‘Beautiful Day’ is the latest single from The pride of Sayreville, New Jersey and is featured on Finding Neverland: The Album (hitting stores in early June). This record features artists like John Legend, Christina Aguilera and Jennifer Lopez, amongst others performing songs from the hit Broadway play, Finding Neverland. The musical is currently running at the Lunt-Fontaine Theater and stars Glee alum Matthew Morrison and Fraiser’s Kelsey Grammer. However, we don’t care about any of that right now, we’re focused on the tune from Jon Bon Jovi — we are a New Jersey-based site after all. So, we gathered some of the staff to share their thoughts on the new track. To listen for yourself, check out the stream on People.com.
Lucas P. Jones: Oh Jon. Beautiful, sweet Jon. What in God’s name have you done? Has the king of the rock ballad been reduced to a shitty pop artist, churning out the same four chord drivel as every other nameless musician with a pretty face? That certainly seems to be case after listening to “Beautiful Day.”
This song is a set of electronic drums away from being one of those songs you hear right before ‘Turn Down for What’ in a club. The hook is lazy and uninspired, as are the vocals. And the lyrics. And the guitar solo. It almost seems like the record company was forcing him to right a single, so he decided to give them what they want as a subtle “screw off.” We can only hope.
Matthew Kelly: First of all, this song shouldn’t exist. Since when do Broadway musicals even get “concept albums”? If I want to hear a song that gives me an idea of what the show will be like, I will listen to the songs from the show. Secondly, I have listened to some songs from this show, and while by no means incredible, they are all streets ahead of ‘Beautiful Day,’ which really sounds like it should be part of a commercial for something like coffee or fabric softener. Finally, as a die hard U2 fan, I am appalled that they chose to call their song ‘Beautiful Day’ as if Bono and the boys hadn’t perfected their own Beautiful Day a decade earlier. You don’t see U2 writing a song called ‘Living on a Prayer’ for their awful Spider-man musical, but maybe they should consider it for a possible sequel.
Chris Osifchin: Practically as soon as I hit play I knew I was going to hate this song. Bon Jovi is corny, but boy this is corny even by his standards. A mix of the terrible pop-country BS on the radio and the most standard electronic beat, you know the one that’s just like all the others on the radio, I hope whoever has the tapes of this song burns them. Like now. Like right now. Right this very second. Please.
Dylan Brandsema: Notice that this new track is credited as being by Jon Bon Jovi and not just Bon Jovi. I wouldn’t have thought this to be so if I had only heard the track, as this pretty much sounds like a Bon Jovi song modernized for pop radio. That’s not to say Bon Jovi hasn’t always been pop radio material, but in listening to ‘Beautiful Day,’ I had visions of the band playing the song during the Super Bowl halftime show as confetti rains down onto screaming fans.
Bon Jovi has taken a few different musical directions in their (or his, whatever it be) career over the years, and this one is kind of a mixed bag. It’s easy to imagine this song having a harder edge, had it been on a Bon Jovi record in, say, the 80’s or early 90’s, and this is very much a song of the times, as it’s also easy to image in it being sung by an entirely different artist (maybe someone like Katy Perry, or country artists like Jason Aldean or Florida Georgia Line, to paint a picture). The song certainly has a hook — the chorus is in my head only minutes after having gave it a first listen, and the lyrics are simple and easy to memorize. It does have a pretty cool guitar solo in it, though, even if it is much too brief.
Beautiful Day is essentially what you’d expect from a modern Jovi, just with more commercial flair. It’s not terrible, but it’s not worthy of any uproarious applause either. It’s a song.
Jennifer Amato: It will certainly be a “Beautiful Day” when Bon Jovi starts making decent music again.
The newly-released song has a feel of Neil Diamond’s “Coming to America” and the Friends theme song, “I’ll Be There For You” by the Rembrandts (clap clap clap).
Although I found myself subconsciously tapping my foot during the song – and then almost clapping along at certain moments ala Friends – that was about all the enjoyment I got out of the song.
With “Beautiful Day,” if a listener is waiting to hear a Bon Jovi song from the past 10 years or so, this song is definitely it; it follows in the footsteps of “Have a Nice Day” and “Who Says You Can’t Go Home?” They are catchy songs, but more as earworms than as classic odes to Jersey rock n’ roll.
For those who can get past this not being authentic Bon Jovi from the ‘80s, you may be disappointed in the lyrics in general. I read an article recently that stated that most song lyrics are written at a third grade level; “Beautiful Day” represents this theory completely.
I miss the days of “Always” and “Livin’ on a Prayer” – and of Richie Sambora. My first concert was a Bon Jovi Christmas concert in Red Bank, so of course my fandom is based on nostalgia. I appreciated and respected the music from my teenage years. However, Bon Jovi has disappointed me as I’ve grown older, and this song has disappointed me as well.
Bill Bodkin: Excuse me while I find my insulin pen. I may be one of the biggest Bon Jovi fans and apologists out there. However, this one. Wow. Just wow. This is the most saccharine sweet, overly produced, schmaltzy thing Bon Jovi has ever done — and that is saying something. This song hurts me in my soul and makes me want to drown my sorrow in pork roll, egg and cheese. As Dylan mentioned, we can take solace in the fact this is not a ‘Bon Jovi’ song but a ‘Jon Bon Jovi’ song. So there’s still hope the actual band will put out better music…and reunite with Richie.
To pre-order Finding Neverland: The Album (Songs From the Broadway Musical) click here.
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