BON JOVI: The Circle

Produced by John Shanks with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora

Released: Yesterday

I'm not sure what "the Circle" is, but it could be something to do with the direction that Bon Jovi has been travelling for a while now. Despite some odd excursions into country-rock and deconstructive acoustic experiments (which, it must be said, was actually a pretty interesting thing for this band to do), most of the Jovis output has been pretty formulaic and predictable since These Days (and how many of us can remember a single song off that?). Have a Nice Day was their best album in a long time even if most of the songs sounded surprisingly alike, probably because the emphasis was on the good-time rocking out that made Bon Jovi so huge in the first place. The Circle isn't as successful at recapturing that vibe, instead trammeling a path of laidback contemporary pop-rock along similar lines to that of Bounce.

The Circle is very typical modern Bon Jovi, a safe, formulaic collection of straight-forward radio rock and heart-string tuggers that broach the usual Joviesque subjects: love, yearning and heartbreak, and workaday tales of ordinary people. The first two tracks are standard Bon Jovi, a sure-fire upbeat lightweight rocker in "We Weren't Born to Follow" and then "When We Were Beautiful" the usual balladic workout that is also from the soundtrack to the somewhat self-indulgent DVD of the same name that comes with the limited edition version of the album. In "Work for the Working Man", Bon Jovi revisits "Livin' on a Prayer" briefly (even stealing his own song's bassline) as he courts his Springsteen muse, but in the end he winds up a little off-target. The anti-war song "Bullet" is something of a surprise with its liberal use of heavy (for Bon Jovi) and distorted guitar and one of the most explosive solos Richie Sambora has pulled off in a very, very long time. For the most part however, it's all pretty innocuous and predictable fare: midpaced light rockers offset with wistful ballads, little in the way of musical interludes to distract the attention from Jon's voice and lyrics that are either corny ("Fast Cars") or direct steals from the Beatles ("I had a girl we fell in love/Or should I say she had me") or dozens of his other songs.

Bon Jovi freaks will love this because they'll be getting exactly what they want (and being married to one, I know this to be true), but most others probably won't find The Circle to be that exciting. I do quite like "Bullet" though.

1. We Weren't Born to Follow
2. When We Were Beautiful
3. Work for the Working Man
4. Superman Tonight
5. Bullet
6. Thorn in My Side
7. Live Before You Die
8. Brokenpromiseland
9. Love's the Only Rule
10. Fast Cars
11. Happy Now
12. Learn to Love

Rating: 50%

BON JOVI: Slippery When Wet

Produced by Bruce Fairbairn

Released: 1986

As Bon Jovi plays a sold-out Sydney show tonight a few hundred metres from where I'm sitting, perhaps now is the time to reflect on the recording that made them one of the biggest bands ever.

The band was on borrowed time after the disastrous ham-fisted attempts at metal on 7800° Farenheit and they needed something incredible to keep them from going where thousands of other young groups with big label contracts had ended up. Slippery When Wet not only saved them it set them up for a career as superstars that continues to this day.

Jon Bon Jovi has never won serious critical plaudits because inane ramblings about his looks and hair have always seem to preclude any notions of him as a serious musician, but time and again on Slippery When Wet Bon Jovi and their small band of helpers pull off pop rock genius. They're not all gems, as fillers like "Social Disease" and "Without Love" make perfectly clear, but the bulk of the album is near-perfect anthemic rock. "Let it Rock" opens with a big keyboard flourish like some 70s pomp song then shifts gear into fist-pumping territory as Jon Bon Jovi leads his crew from one party tune to the next. His lyrics are cheese personified but the hooks he writes are so enormous that this just doesn't matter, sweeping the listener through pure good time rocking like "Raise Your Hands" and "Wild in the Streets" with occasional detours into power ballads like "Never Say Goodbye", one of the lighter-waving classics of the 80s. The three songs that truly made this album however are "You Give Love a Bad Name", "Livin' on a Prayer" and "Wanted Dead or Alive".

The first is a song so simple and so effective that Bon Jovi decided to keep it himself after originally penning it for Loverboy and reaped the ultimate reward when it became a #1 smash. "Livin' on a Prayer" was the Springsteen-like tale of two working-class lovers trying to make ends meet. Initially written off by him, Jon was only convinced to keep this song by right-hand man Richie Sambora, who therefore deserves kudos for rescuing one of the most enduring hits of the last 20 years from obscurity.

Yet it is "Wanted Dead or Alive", the ultimate in Springsteen worship, that remains the pinnacle of Bon Jovi's achievements. With its slow burning introduction, rousing choruses and passionate delivery, this song has become one of the all time classic rock tales and established the band's rock n' roll cowboy image they carried through to New Jersey and virtually everything they've done since (particularly Lost Highway, currently in its seventh month in the Top 10 on the Australia Country Music Chart).

Two further keys to the album's success were the contributions of Bruce Fairbairn and Desmond Child, experienced professionals who took the band's bunch of decent songs and helped turn them into massive hits. Fairbairn sensibly realised that Bon Jovi was not a heavy metal band and instead emphasised the pop elements of their music and Child provided a guiding hand to the two songs that would top the American charts. It wasn't the last time they would team with the band, doing much the same thing on New Jersey two years later.

Bon Jovi's success seems incapable of being effectively dammed even as they waver between genres and styles but they never made another album with the pure pop clout of Slippery When Wet, a collection that can still get a party going even now.

1. Let it Rock


2. You Give Love a Bad Name


3. Livin' on a Prayer


4. Social Disease


5. Wanted Dead or Alive


6. Raise Your Hands


7. Without Love


8. I'd Die For You


9. Never Say Goodbye


10. Wild in the Streets

Rating: 95%