Excellent quality and plays faultlessly
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
This Bon Jovi C D album is awesome there is not one song I don't like a must for fans and music lovers
New Jersey rockers Bon Jovi return with their eleventh album and are reunited with Lost Highway producer John Shanks, fresh from recent stints working with Take That and Alesha Dixon. Bon Jovi fans, and there’s plenty of them, who have not been put off by recent output will find plenty to love here. The band long ago developed into a slick, stadium-filling act, and although this album marks a slight return to their more traditional rock roots after the Nashville-influenced Lost Highway, not much has changed. Like a hairier and less-subtle version of Bruce Springsteen, they like to give voice to the blue-collar worker and refuse to progress stylistically beyond a form that's served them so well already. Long-standing bands often believe their own hype; indeed, they are often the last ones left believing it, and someone’s clearly exploded a lyrical cliché bomb in the studio here. They’ve even titled a song Live Before You Die, which is wrong on too many levels to even begin listing here. There is no denying their skill with a tune, but there is the lingering sense that were Flight of the Conchords to do a heavy metal pastiche of, say, millionaires sticking it to the ‘man’, it would sound exactly like Work for the Working Man. It is commendable that Jon Bon Jovi can keep a straight face while writing lines such as “working man, empty pockets full of worry / had to get two jobs”, presumably referring to a rock star’s need for an acting career on the side. That said, other than the band, few listen to Bon Jovi with a straight face, and stupid grins are to be found. The atmospheric Broken Promiseland could be lifted from Slippery When Wet, while swelling keyboards herald moments of genuine emotion, such as on Fast Cars. Love’s the Only Rule also utilises synthesized strings to great effect, and perhaps illustrates where referees are going wrong around the country. The Circle is not going to surprise anyone, but maybe in such turbulent times this is exactly what people need: dependable drive-time rock dripping with references to getting up from your knees and not giving up.Read full review
This is their best album since 'Keep the Faith'. Like most fans, I agree that each album since has had just two or three strong tracks on it and if you combined the best of the songs from These Days to Lost Highway then you'd have a killer CD but The Circle, whilst not a reinvention, is certainly a stronger offering. 'Love's the Only Rule' is a great track but they are all (aside from the rather weak 'Bullet') good songs and I can imagine many would sound fantastic in a stadium full of loyal fans. I think 'Learn to Love' will really grow on me over time too, a so-called "slow burner". The Circle is not a return to the heady days of Slippery or NJ but well done the Jovi and bring on the tour.....
"The circle" for me is a little step back among the precedent "Lost Highway",the songs are principally melodic and there's no great rock tracks,maybe the first"We weren't born to follow",as tradition of Bon Jovi's album.I can tell that the last great album was "Keep the faith" in 1992,after the other albums are all in a normal standard.Only for fans.
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