Bon Jovi – The Circle (2009) Review

“You can’t catch a fish if you ain’t got the hook.”

This line from 1988’s New Jersey neatly sums up the problem facing Bon Jovi’s latest release.

Because while long-time fans may be pleased — and more than a little surprised — that the band have decided to abandon their successful country detour after just one album in favour of a return to arena rock, the unforunate reality is that eleventh studio effort The Circle lacks both the guitar hooks and towering choruses that once made them untouchable.

Leaving The Country

Bon Jovi’s recent output has been heavily indebted to Nashville.

The unexpected chart success of their Grammy-nominated single Who Says You Can’t Go Home prompted the New Jersey veterans to double down on their country roots for the experimental Lost Highway. The reception was so overwhelmingly positive that, for a moment, a permanent genre shift seemed entirely possible.

Yet, as the nu-metal wave crested and receded, rock purists began longing once again for the skyscraper riffs and soaring, arena-ready choruses that defined the turn of the ’90s.

Bon Jovi sensed this vacuum, and knowing that few bands were better equipped to satisfy the hunger, they decided to pack away their acoustic guitars and dust off their over-sized amplifiers, staging a full-throated return to their stadium-rock foundations.

Raise Your Hands

True to their word, Bon Jovi bring the noise.

Richie Sambora’s crunching power chords take centre stage with an urgency that’s been missing for years, turning Brokenpromiseland and Bullet into masterclasses in anthemic rock songwriting

But the album’s crown jewel is Thorn In My Side. This mid-tempo rocker distills the exact blue-collar defiance that helped to define the band’s heyday — and while the musical blueprint openly nods to nostalgic highlights like In These Arms, it avoids becoming a cheap carbon copy by injecting a sharp dose of cynicism very much reflective of where Bon Jovi find themselves circa 2009.

"Take a look in these tired eyes, they're coming back to life."

Happy Now

The People’s House

One of the album’s quieter talking points surrounds the band’s long-craved political recognition.

The lyrics to Work For The Working Man were famously hung in the Oval Office by President Barack Obama’s chief adviser, David Axelrod, as a daily reminder to staff of their duty to the American public.

Channelling the blue-collar grit of Bruce Springsteen, the hard-hitting track shines a light on the plight of working-class citizens in the wake of the 2008 financial crash. Cynics might argue there is a distinct irony in hearing a group of forty-something millionaires lamenting hardships they have long since outgrown, yet Bon Jovi have always been a band for the people — and we must not forget that these “cowboys” earned their stadium-filling status through the exact same elbow grease and work ethic they celebrate here.

Ultimately, that grit ensures the sentiment feels entirely earned, rather than performative.

"I'm the only one that's gotta look my family in the eye."

Work For The Working Man

It’s Been A While, Do You Remember Me?

Energetic lead single We Weren’t Born To Follow is perhaps the most bizarre aspect of The Circle.

On one hand, it delivers precisely the kind of polished, inspirational arena-rock we have come to expect from 2000s-era Bon Jovi. On the other, fans were quick to spot an uncanny resemblance to their 1988 hit Born To Be My Baby, begging the ultimate question: is it even possible to plagiarise yourself?

Listening to the two tracks side by side, the similarities are impossible to ignore, and the band’s decision to never publicly address the comparison leaves a ghostly shadow hanging over the record. This is a shame, because the track arguably surpasses its obvious source material, bolstered by sharp lyrical hooks and a rollicking guitar solo from Richie Sambora.

Circle Of Trust

By this point, producer John Shanks had effectively become the band’s unofficial sixth member.

This third consecutive collaboration makes him the most utilised producer in Bon Jovi’s history. Yet, while he successfully guided the veteran rockers into Nashville territory on Have A Nice Day and Lost Highway, the partnership strains under a heavy rock setting.

For the first time, his presence feels suffocating. What was once a tasteful layer of studio sheen has hardened into a thick, artificial gloss, with Shanks seemingly determined to leave his fingerprints in every corner of the record.

It is a frustrating misstep for The Circle, especially since one of the band’s greatest historic strengths — particularly throughout the ’90s — was their raw, blue-collar roughness. Here, excessive tinkering sands the bite out of the heavier tracks and strips the ballads of their emotional weight, leaving their original intent entirely smoothed out in the mix.

A Self-Made Problem

One of The Circle’s biggest frustrations is that it sees the band repeat a historical blunder.

Back in 1995, their sixth studio album, These Days, suffered from severe top-heaviness because they chose to allocate two crucial tracks (Always and Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night) to the previous year’s Cross Road compilation.

Fast-forward to 2009, and Bon Jovi have made the exact same error. This time around, hefty rockers No Apologies and This Is Love, This Is Life, the bouncy The More Things Change, and the superior ballad What Do You Got? were held back in the wings for their upcoming second Greatest Hits package. Meanwhile, sports anthem Our House was completely wasted on an ESPN promo deal.

As our reworked tracklist demonstrates below, injecting these withheld songs into the album’s sluggish second half would have provided some vital, much-needed firepower.

Struggling To Breathe

Beyond the prominent standouts, The Circle’s finest moments arrive in the brief intervals where the music manages to escape the grip of Shanks’ overindulgent production.

There is just enough light in these flashes — the stylish verse arrangements of Happy Now, the narrative depth of Fast Cars, and the astonishingly strong bridge of Work For The Working Man — to suggest there is plenty of life in these old dogs yet.

However, if Bon Jovi want their material to truly land again, their next outing must place far more faith in the raw grit that made them great in the first place.

Bon Jovi — The Circle

Where Bon Jovi go from here is anybody’s guess.

They have made a living out of defying the odds; few expected them to survive grunge, let alone re-establish themselves at the top of the rock food chain in 2000, and fewer still predicted a successful late-career detour into country.

And this is what ultimately makes The Circle such a frustrating listen — an album that, on paper, should’ve been an easier “slam dunk” than all of the above for a band who have mastered this kind of material.