Even most diehards would admit that Bon Jovi albums since the post 2000 have been patchy.
Crush, Bounce, Have A Nice Day and Lost Highway have all been OK. If you take the best 4 songs from each album and you would have a cracker of an album but in order to get that album you are losing a lot of songs.
So on their 25th Anniversary the band have decided to release a “Total Rock Record” and have gone full “Circle.”
2007 saw the band get a Nashville influenced sounding album with Lost Highway and although it was surprisingly good in places it wasn’t the album the fans had wanted. Lost Highway was never meant to be toured but it was for nearly a year and 2009 was meant to see the (unneeded) release of a Greatest Hits 2.
I’m a firm believer that a Greatest Hits album should be released when the band are no longer together (as I type this I find that Rod Stewart is set to release roughly his 10th Greatest Hits album!) The band announced that writing 2 new songs for the GH2 album became 5, which then became 10 and so on. In all 26 songs were written and 16 demoed. None of the new songs sounded like they fitted on a Greatest Hits so they decided to release a new album instead- postponing the GH2 for Xmas 2010.
So on 02.11.09 Bon Jovi released the The Circle and as fan of the band for over 20 years I can honestly say this is their best album since 1995s These Days. The albums theme is the usual Jovi theme of hope and faith and what makes that even better is the financial state of the world now. The first 3 songs on the album We Weren’t Born To Follow, When We Were Beautiful and Work For The Working Man are all about the current situation the everyone finds themselves in at the moment.
The Circle also sees Bon Jovi write their best ballad since 1994s Always. Since the release of Always the slower songs on every album since have all come up way short in comparison so step forward Superman Tonight (2nd single) which is a belter of a song.
Other stand out tracks are Thorn In My Side, Love Is The Only Rule, Happy Now, Brokenpromiseland & Fast Cars all songs are great rock songs and will sound great live.
The only disappointments for me are the song Bullet which at the moment hasn’t struck a chord with me yet and Live Before You Die which has a great chorus but the verses sound like Walk Like A Man (HAND) and Joey (Bounce) re-written.
So all in all this is a excellent effort from Bon Jovi and they finally have an album which can stand proudly with the albums released pre 2000. After 25 years the boys from New Jersey still know how to rock.
Track list:
We Weren’t Born To Follow
When We Were Beautiful
Work For The Working Man
Superman Tonight
Bullet
Thorn In My Side
Live Before You Die
Brokenpromiseland
Loves The Only Rule
Fast Cars
Happy Now
Learn To Love
Rating 8.5/10
Posted under Album Reviews, Music
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