Bon Jovi Stands Tall in Old West : ** 1/2 JON BON JOVI “Young Guns II” <i> PolyGram : </i> : <i> Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to five (a classic). : </i>

Forsaking his band and Jersey for the Old West was a good move for bonnie Jon. Enlisting such stars as Jeff Beck, Little Richard and Elton John for songs “from and inspired by” the movie, he’s made his richest-sounding and least-contrived music to date.

The stomping, Little Richard-fueled blues-bop of “You Really Got Me” (not the Kinks song) is a real hoot--though it’s hard to see any connection between it and the film--and there’s a legitimate aura of Western romance to the cantina ballad “Miracle.” Even a couple of the more standard arena-rockers have a surprising amount of life to them.

But . . . frontier outlaw imagery is hardly new to rock (Bobby Fuller’s 1965 “I Fought the Law” said all that needed to be said) and on this collection the lyrical and musical cliches fly faster than lead at the Great Northfield Minnesota Raid. Truth be told, Bon Jovi didn’t get too far from Jersey: A few of those melodies sound as if they were found under the Asbury Park boardwalk, especially the overwrought “Blood Money.” And, Jon, would you care to explain that reference to a 20th-Century jukebox?