Album review: Bon Jovi's 'The Circle'
November 9, 2009 | 5:36
pm
These guys obviously mean business when it comes to the victims of big business.
Produced as were the band's previous two discs by Top 40 staple John Shanks, "The Circle" shows off Bon Jovi's still-sharp knack for wedding blandly optimistic sentiments to predictably soaring choruses. Unfortunately, it's getting pretty hard to tell one song from the next: First the singer's telling us "We Weren't Born to Follow," then he's remembering "When We Were Beautiful"; later, he reveals that "Love Is the Only Rule" before demanding that we "Learn to Love."
After all that sloganeering, "Fast Cars," near the end of the album, appears to promise something simple, refreshing, maybe even Ramones-like. Alas, no dice: "We are fast cars on the inside," Bon Jovi proclaims over a cascade of surging power chords. "There's no turning back on the highway of life."
-- Mikael Wood
Bon Jovi
"The Circle"
Island
One and a half stars (Out of four)