** Bon Jovi

Crush

(Island/Def Jam)

It's hard to fault Bon Jovi for sounding so nostalgic on this, their first album in five years. They were, after all, the definitive lite-metal singles band of the late '80s before they went roots rock (and eventually adult contemporary) in the face of grunge. On their glitzy comeback single, "It's My Life," they go scurrying back for big hair hooks as if the last 10 years never happened, the same way Def Leppard did last summer. It's a crass move (almost as crass as the way singer Jon Bon Jovi name-checks fellow Garden State icon Frank Sinatra during the song's chorus) and also a foolproof one: their songwriting skills may have faded, but Jon's plaintive wail and guitarist Richie Sambora's talkbox riffs have stood the test of time better than anyone thought they would.

Problem is, "It's My Life" is a false alarm. Bon Jovi don't rock much on the rest of the disc, opting instead for icky orchestral ballads ("Thank You for Loving Me") and contemporary Third Eye Blind bounce ("Say It Isn't So"). They give a nod to their perplexing European popularity on "Next 100 Years," which takes cues from Oasis with its Sgt. Pepper horn section and other psychedelic Beatles production tricks. It's all done way too tastefully -- and that's the last thing anyone would want from Bon Jovi.

-- Sean Richardson