The Circle was released in the UK the same day by Father passed away, so I will always link the two together and "Live Before You Die" resonates especially with me for that reason.

More objectively....generally it's a decent bunch of songs* with average production. IMO the songs worked a lot better live, and the O2 gigs were generally great, even if we didn't get the full album nights that were mentioned. Plus the tour setlists were superb, and Jon put his heart and soul into Love's The Only Rule every night which transformed the song.


* I exclude Fast Cars from this - one of my least favourite Jovi songs.

I love half and the other half I can take or leave.

Superman Tonight, Thorn In My Side, Brokenpromiseland, Loves The Only Rule & Happy Now I absolutely LOVE.

Learn To Love I will always have a soft spot for and I don't know why. I always thought it was a nice ending to the album.

Live Before You Die & Fast Cars aren't great yet I listen to them and don't feel the need to skip.

This album will always hold a soft spot for me. It was released when I was in first year of sixth form. I walked to school most days listening to the album. Playing videos games with the album on etc... it reminds me of a nice time in my life when I was 16 and didn't have much to care about.



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I never got into this album. I like Love's The Only Rule and Superman Tonight. The rest I can live without

Same for me, didn't like it from day 1. It is trying too hard. I find it a cold album too, it all feels so calculated. Love's The Only Rule is the only song I like.

Bullet....awful.


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Sorry if this has already been discussed to death on this forum…

But I was just thinking about This Is Love, This Is Life. If I remember correctly, the song was supposed to be on TC as well. Didn’t JB say the song was something like 7 minutes long to begin with? It was a song he said he believed would become an obvious hit. Then, for some reason, it never made TC and later on, it was re-recorded for the GH album. They even changed the title, which was originally ‘This Ain’t Love’.

Does anyone have any deeper info on this? I would love to hear the original version on the forthcoming (?) box set (probably only in my dreams, though).


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I don't recall him saying anything about a 7 min version but the info stems from an interview he did with Masanori Itō to promote The Circle. It was a track Masa pointed out was very good but Jon said it was pulled so that tells you that if it was on the promo disc being given out to press junkets, it was pulled very very last minute.

The defunct torrent I found from before The Circle even came out had it by it's later title though so the whole thing is very confusing.

Thank you for the additional info.


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It's safe to say that torrent will still be discussed on this board on The Circle's 20th anniversary.

My favourite songs are Brokenpromiseland, Thorn in my side, We weren't born to follow and from the GH This is love, this is life. The rest of the album is ok, except When we were beautiful which is just boring. In my ranking of this century albums this one comes fourth, behind Have a nice day, Crush and Bounce.