Forever Bon Jovi - Undiscovered Soul

Retrouvez sur cette page toutes les informations concernant "Undiscovered Soul",
le second album solo de Richie Sambora, sortit le 03 mars 1998.

Titres sur l'album, crédits d'écriture & lyrics :

Made In America (Richie Sambora/Richard Supa)

Hard Times Come Easy (Richie Sambora/Richard Supa)

Fallen From Graceland (Richie Sambora/David Bryan/Richard Supa)

If God Was A Woman (Richie Sambora/David Bryan/Richard Supa)

All That Really Matters (Richie Sambora/Richard Supa)

You're Not Alone (Richie Sambora/Tommy Marolda)

In It For Love (Richie Sambora/Richard Supa)

Chained (Richie Sambora/Tommy Marolda)

Harlem Rain (Richie Sambora/Richard Supa)

Who I Am (Richie Sambora/Marty Frederiksen)

Downside Of Love (Richie Sambora/David Bryan/Richard Supa)

Undiscovered Soul (Richie Sambora/Richard Supa)

Richie a co-écrit 9 titres avec Richard Supa qui est également guitariste et claviériste. Richard Supa est connu pour avoir écrit des titres pour Aerosmith.

Tracklist Japanese Album Version :

Made In America - Fallen From Graceland - Hard Times Come Easy
You're Not Alone - Undiscovered Soul - In It For Love - If God Was A Woman
All That Really Matters - Chained - Downside Of Love - Harlem Rain - Who I Am
All That Really Matters (Collector Version)

Aucune démo issue des sessions d'Undiscovered Soul n'est connue à ce jour .
La version japonaise de "Undiscovered Soul" présente la même tracklist mais dans un ordre différent.
A noter également la présence d'une version alternative de "All That Really Matters"

La version japonaise de l'album inclut un deuxième disque composé de titres lives enregistrés durant la tournée qui a suivit la sortie de "Undiscovered Soul" .

Critique De l'Album :

With the band on dock, both Jon and Richie went into making solo albums. Richie worked on his second solo album in 1997 and the fruits of his work were released in December 1997 in Japan and in March 1998 in the rest of the world. Richie's second solo album was called Undiscovered Soul. It didn't exactly set the charts on fire, but the large Bon Jovi fanbase ensured that Richie didn't flop either. The album was produced by Don Was (who had previously produced for The Rolling Stones) and Richie wrote most of the songs with namesake Richie Supa. Richie had many people playing on the record and this time no Bon Jovi members were involved on the album, except for David Bryan who contributed in writing of three songs. The music was this time less blues- influenced than Stranger In This Town, instead the sound leaned more towards the traditional Bon Jovi sound.

Richie also toured with Undiscovered Soul, he didn't tour this time in the USA where Bon Jovi had become somewhat less succesful and popular during the 1990's, but he toured with the album in Japan and in the middle-Europe, in the steady fanbases of Bon Jovi.

The album opens with this lyrically perhaps somewhat an autobiographical song. The lyrics of Made In America tell the life story of the speaker, who is - more or less - Richie. Starting on a high note, this is one of the best songs of the album. Richie handles both acoustic and electric guitars well, switching them in a nice effect. The song has very good lyrics, wonderful guitars and feel. If this great-spirited song didn't sound so personal, it'd be nice to think of it as a Bon Jovi song the band never did. Richie used the song to open concerts on his solo tour in 1998, and it was a good live song too. Made In America is an excellent song and one of the best songs on the album.

Hard Times Come Easy is the feel-good song of the album. It's a song much in the same vein as the Jovi-classic I'll Sleep When I'm Dead; both songs have the same kind of worryless beat, easy sing-along choruses and of course the obligatory handclaps. Lyrically about how you always get through the hard times in life, Hard Times is in that sense a bit different than the classic BJ party song. Hard Times is catchy and the song has a cheerful and wonderful feel to it. A great song. It was also the first single from the album and Richie's most succesful solo single ever.

Fallen From Graceland is an atmospheric ballad that's a bit reminiscent of the Stranger album. It's lyrically very good and it has a wonderful, dreamy feel to it. There are some important people involved in the song; David Bryan took part in the writing and Richie's wife Heather sings some backing vocals. While it's not exactly One Light Burning, Fallen From Graceland is a very good, atmospheric song and the best ballad on the album.

As can be concluded from the title, this is the least serious and most fun song on the album. If God Was A Woman is a light rock song with tongue-in-cheek lyrics. It's a fun song with an easygoing feel and good, ingenious and funny lyrics about how men would go pretty much crazy if God was a (good-looking too) woman. It's a very good song that could have easily been a Bon Jovi song too.

One of the better tracks of the album, You're Not Alone is that because it has a delightfully new and different sound. Richie's voice has been distorted to make a bit more unusual outcome, and that has surprisingly much good impact on the song. The lyrics are nice while not great, but there are some fine guitar riffs and the bit different overall sound make this song rather good.

This is an acoustic song that allows Richie to perform some nice tricks and licks with the acoustic guitar. Harlem Rain is impressive instrumentally and the lyrics are very good (very possibly the best lyrics of the album) but the song still isn't overall as great as for example The Answer, the brilliant acoustic song from Richie's first solo effort. Harlem Rain ends a sort of a string of more mediocre song in the middle of the album.

After a few lighter songs Richie gets back to rock. And boy does he do that well. Who I Am is a big, rugged rock song with a bit of melancholy tone. It's a lot of Hey God type song that wouldn't really have been out of place on These Days. It's the same kind of a bit melancholy, thoughtful and wonderful heavy rock that both songs are about. Who I Am features a long and great solo by Richie and the whole performance by all four players is truly excellent. The song is also nicely lenghty and it's a nice fact that it was recorded live in the studio, as opposed to many songs (everywhere in music) that are constructed a piece by piece like a puzzle. Who I Am is a magnificent rocker. Done in 1997/98, this has remained as the best rock song from the Bon Jovi camp for a long time.

The best is saved to the last; the album ends with its best song. The title track of the album has a stunningly beautiful intro. The keyboards, Richie's delicate guitar and the elegant drums make the intro so incredibly atmospheric and powerful that it almost sends shivers down the spine. The thoughtful lyrics of the song are really great. Richie paints a thoroghly beautiful musical landscape in this song, especially at the beginning and at the end, and the entire performance is played to the highest note possible. Undiscovered Soul is a masterpiece, an outstanding song. I bet Richie knew that this is the best one while doing this. It's as great as music ever, on a good par with the best Bon Jovi songs and the best song put out from the Bon Jovi camp for almost ten years.

The album starts strongly and ends strongly, but in the middle there's a string of comparatively weaker and more mediocre songs. Stranger was constantly very high quality and a bit more original, - as some songs here remind a lot of other songs - but although Undiscovered Soul is somewhat weaker than it, it is just as well a great album.

Undiscovered Soul is much more Bon Jovi than Stranger. It's less blues influenced than it and the sound is generally closer to the band. It's interesting to imagine some songs here as band songs if a Bon Jovi album had been released in 1998. But on the other hand with a few songs it's a bit of problem that they are so BJ, for example All That Really Matters suffers from being so similar to many Bon Jovi powerballads. But of course there's nothing wrong in resembling the band sound, it actually makes some songs on the album even more special.

Undiscovered Soul is a great album. But it's not just quite up there. Partly because the middle part is so weak in comparision, and overall Stranger is a little more special and unique album. But Undiscovered Soul is a great album with constantly great feel, wonderful guitars and lyrics and thoroughly enjoyable songs. It's much better album than Jon's Destination Anywhere and I would any day say it's the best album of 1998. Richie sure knows how to put out solo albums.

Singles & vidéos :

- "Hard Times Come Easy" en février 1998 et "In It For Love" en juin 1998

Cliquer sur le bouton pour découvrir les singles tirés de l'album "Undiscovered Soul"

Les Musiciens présents sur l'album :

- Don Was : producteur.

- Rami Jaffee des Wallflowers - ( l'un des groupes préférés de Richie dont le leader est Jakob Dylan, fils de Bob Dylan), joue ici de l'accordéon et de l'orgue Hammond.

- Billy Preston : orgue Hammond.

- Kenny Aronoff (qui a également participé à l'album solo de Jon, "Destination Anywhere") batterie et percussions.

- Chuck Leavell (des Rolling Stones) : piano éléctrique.

- James Hutchinson : basse.

- Avec la participation de Steven Tyler à l'harmonica sur "If God Was A Woman" et Heather Locklear dans les choeurs de "Fallen From Graceland" .

Richie a collaboré avec tellement de grands noms du rock que cet album aurait pu être sous-titré "With A Little Help From My Friends" .

The Undiscovered Soul Tour :

- Après quelques jours de répétition à Los Angeles, le groupe a donné 5 concerts au Japon avant de s'envoler pour l'Australie pour 5 autres concerts ainsi que des apparitions à la télévision et à la radio.

- Après une pause de 3 semaines, ils se sont envolés pour l'Europe pour 8 concerts avant de retourner aux Etats-Unis pour quelques passages à la télévision.

- En Europe, les concerts ont eu lieu en Allemagne, en Hollande et en Angleterre.

Le groupe sur la tournée :

Bass: Kasim Sulton (bassiste de Meatloaf)

Batterie: Ronald Wikso

Percussions: Crystal Taliefero qui a également joué avec Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Joe Cocker...

Clavier: Tommy Mandel qui fait partie du groupe de Bryan Adams

Guitare: Richard Supa

Harmonica: Hook Herrera