Bon Jovi goes back to the good old unrestrained hard rock

Jon Bon Jovi and his team are not wasting their time. After the release of its successful tenth album Lost Highway, the New-Jersey band Bon Jovi traditionally made several live performances, and then, about a year ago Jon phoned the guitarist Richie Sambora, and the musicians united to write songs. It turned out that two of them had enough inspiration to quickly write almost thirty brand new compositions. Besides, both of them thought it was high time to come back to the beginning of Bon Jovi’s creative work, i.e. to the good old unrestrained hard rock. As a result the powerful tracks very rich in sound are concentrated on the band’s eleventh creation really reminding of its very first works. For this and for some other reasons the record has got a symbolic title The Circel, and many themes connected with this symbol are developed on its tracks. Naturally the album The Circle witnesses also of the huge experience of the Bon Jovi musicians who have become real professionals in these many years and yet remained young and bold in their spirits.

Guitars play the leading role on The Circle

The previous album was partially produced by John Shanks and the guys were so content with his work that the new work is entirely recorded with his direct participation. Since he is also a great guitarist, guitars play the leading role on The Circle after Jon’s vocals which seem to be absolutely out of time and age’s control. The album opens with the first single We Weren't Born To Follow which has already conquered the radio listeners but with a different solo – Sambora has changed according to their request as it was too sentimental. A splendid soulful composition Work For The Working Man is remarkable for the wise lyrics and the harmony of vocals and accompaniment, whereas one of the most powerful numbers is Superman Tonight. As for guitars they are notable practically on each song, though some especially bright moments are present, such as for instance Bullet – this solo is sure to bring you much delight. The only keyboard ballad on the album Live Before You Die is a very touching story, as always appealing to live a brighter life – Bon Jovi simply cannot create ballads without a deep meaning and a powerful message. The song with a complex title Brokenpromiseland conquers with Jon’s most soulful singing whereas the most interesting track here is Fast Cars, whose entire text is based on an unusual metaphor – people are compared to automobiles moving fast on the highway of life. Yet despite the hard songs prevailing on the album it closes with an optimistic mid-tempo ballad Learn To Love full of hope and life wisdom.

The best of the best – to the definitive variant of the album

Amazingly there are absolutely no failures on The Circle as well as on the previous album. Yet if you know how the process of creating new pieces happens with Bon Jovi, everything becomes much clearer. The point is that Jon and Richie have worked out their own strategy with the years: unlike the other bands, they never make demo-versions of the songs to better them later; they feel at once which song is more successful and which must not be heard by anybody including even the rest of the band. Thus it is only the best of the best that make it to the definitive variant of the album, and this is true about all Bon Jovi’s albums and especially The Circle, taking into account that they have really had much material, and each song has undergone tough and maximum nonchalant critics. And though the peak of Bon Jovi’s success was in the 1990s you will understand one thing listening to The Circle – this band is still one of the hard-rock law-makers and its new songs will definitely become classic in future.

Alexandra Zachernovskaya

02.11.2009

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