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.

While long-time fans will be pleased – and perhaps surprised – to hear the band abandon their country detour in favour of a return to hard rock, the unfortunate reality is that The Circle lacks the very guitar hooks and towering choruses that once made Bon Jovi untouchable.

Leaving The Country

The band’s previous two albums had leaned heavily into Nashville influences.

After the unexpected chart success of the Grammy-nominated single Who Says You Can’t Go Home from 2005’s Have A Nice Day, Bon Jovi pushed further in that direction by embracing full-blown country rock on Lost Highway, a move that briefly suggested their genre shift might become permanent.

But with rock fans once again gravitating towards the towering guitar hooks and soaring choruses that had defined the late ’80s and early ’90s, the band sensed an opportunity.

Few were better placed to fill that void than Bon Jovi themselves, and so the acoustic guitars were packed away, the oversized amplifiers dusted off, and The Circle marked a deliberate return to their rock foundations.

“The origins of the song Work For The Working Man go back to the closure of a DHL factory in Ohio, where an entire workforce was suddenly left without jobs.

Watching the story unfold on the news, employees handing in ID badges which had once been worn with pride, tore me apart.

As a band we felt that a return to straight-ahead rock music was the only way to give that anger and heartbreak the weight it deserved.”

– Jon Bon Jovi

“The origins of the song Work For The Working Man go back to the closure of a DHL factory in Ohio, where an entire workforce was suddenly left without jobs. Watching the story unfold on the news, employees handing in ID badges which had once been worn with pride, tore me apart. As a band we felt that a return to straight-ahead rock music was the only way to give that anger and heartbreak the weight it deserved.”

– Jon Bon Jovi

Raise Your Hands

Bon Jovi promised a return to rock… and rock they do.

Richie Sambora fires out crunching power chords at a rate we’ve not heard in years, and cuts like Brokenpromiseland and Bullet prove the band still possess an uncanny knack for chorus-driven bangers.

But it’s mid-album rocker Thorn In My Side that really steals the show – a track that’s packed with the grit which has kept these New Jersey veterans alive for decades.

Yes, it leans on a familiar musical template recalling past glories like In These Arms, but it’s modernized just enough to reflect the cynicism of where Bon Jovi find themselves today.

The People’s House

Bon Jovi were finally given the political recognition they’d long craved when the lyrics to one of The Circle’s storming rockers were hung in the Oval Office during Barack Obama’s presidential run.

Titled Work For The Working Man, the Springsteen-esque single tackles the struggles of a working class reeling from the fallout of the 2008 financial crash, with chief advisor David Axelrod reportedly using its message as a daily reminder of his duty to the American people.

Of course, there’s an argument to be made that it’s ironic hearing a group of forty-something multi-millionaires lamenting hardships they’ve long since left behind.

But Bon Jovi have always positioned themselves as a band for the people, and we mustn’t forget that these New Jersey cowboys earned their status through the same elbow grease and work ethic they celebrate within their music – making the sentiment of this track feel earned rather than performative.

"With the grace of God I'll get us through,
I only know what I know how to do,
I'm the only one who's gotta look my family in the eye."

WORK FOR THE WORKING MAN

“I originally played a slow guitar solo on We Weren’t Born To Follow.

But when it got leaked to radio, fans were like:

“We love the song, but what’s with the solo? We want a burnin’, rippin’ Richie Sambora solo!”

So I went back into the studio and cut a new version which will be on the finished record. It’s a monster!”

– Richie Sambora

“I originally played a slow guitar solo on We Weren’t Born To Follow, but when it got leaked to radio, fans were like “We love the song, but what’s with the solo? We want a burnin’, rippin’ Richie Sambora solo!” So I went back into the studio and cut a new version which will be on the finished record. It’s a monster!”

– Richie Sambora

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.

It’s precisely the kind of highly polished inspiration-fest we’ve come to expect from 2000s-era Bon Jovi, but fans were quick to notice that it bears an uncanny resemblance to 1988 hit Born To Be My Baby from New Jersey.

So, is it even possible to plagiarize yourself?!

Listen to the two back to back and the similarities are hard to ignore.

That said, We Weren’t Born To Follow arguably surpasses its very obvious source material, bolstered by strong lyrical moments and a rollicking guitar solo from Richie Sambora. Still, the band’s decision to never publicly acknowledge the comparison leaves it hanging over the track like a ghostly shadow.

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

HAPPY NOW

Circle Of Trust

John Shanks has essentially become part of the furniture at this point.

With this third consecutive collaboration, he’s now the most-used producer in Bon Jovi’s history.

There’s no doubting he’s a master of his craft, having helped the veteran rockers achieve massive success with the Nashville-tinged Have A Nice Day before steering them through the full-blown country rock experiment of Lost Highway.

But now that the band have returned to their rock roots, the partnership is beginning to show signs of strain.

For the first time, Shanks’ influence feels impossible to ignore. What was once a tasteful studio sheen has hardened into an unnecessarily thick layer of polish, with the man in charge seemingly determined to leave his fingerprints on every corner of the record.

That’s an unfortunate place for The Circle to land, because one of Bon Jovi’s greatest strengths – particularly throughout the 1990s — was their roughness around the edges. Here, that excess tinkering leaves the rock songs lacking bite and the ballads stripped of genuine emotional weight, their intended impact smoothed away in the mix.

Bon Jovi: The Circle

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

Few expected them to re-establish themselves at the top of the rock food chain at the dawn of the millenium, and fewer still predicted their successful detour into country.

That’s what makes The Circle a frustrating listen – an album that, on paper, should have been an easier slam dunk than either of those reinventions.

Aside from the aforementioned standouts, the record’s best moments arrive when the music briefly escapes the shackles of John Shanks’ overindulgent production and is allowed to breathe. There’s enough light in these flashes – the stylish verse arrangements of Happy Now, the storytelling lyrics of Fast Cars, the astonishingly strong bridge of Work For The Working Man, and the grand chorus of When We Were Beautiful – to suggest that there’s still plenty of life in these old dogs yet.

But if Bon Jovi want their material to truly land again, their next outing will need fewer layers of polish and a little more faith in the grit that made them great in the first place.

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