Be interesting to see if he does a review of What About Now. Surely this is the bands worst ever album which I haven’t listened to see since the year it was released. I would imagine it may hold bad memories for Jon considering it was Ritchies last album and one he clearly didn’t really want to be involved with.

It doesn't matter what Jon says. I love this album, the songs on The Circle flow into each other so well.

The sound is a great thing for me, atmospheric, everything sounds in its place, it doesn't feel like a wall, the drums sound powerful, majestic, and the guitars had a great feeling back then, different from what they had done before.

If I have to put something negative, it is that they reuse or plagiarize other popular songs. Working Man's biggest flaw was that he copied the bass line from Living on a Prayer. Bullet did have those "yeah!" so mediocre they remind me of Backstreet Boys. Live Before You Die seems Joey... It's things like these that annoy a little, but as a whole, I think it's a good album (not perfect), and especially a post2000 personal favorite.

Remember when The Circle was released and Jon was at pains to stress that this was 'Richie's album'? I always interpreted that as Jon being gracious and supportive of Richie given what he had been through in the previous years. I wonder if Richie really did have a strong influence on this album and that is one of the reasons that Jon does not think too highly of it.

As others have said, it is so frustrating that his reviews are so short.

Did Jon ever actually say that this was "Richie's" album? Is there a quote? I know that some of the fans did, but I thought that was based purely on the fact that he had a co-write on every song. Personally I don't hear much Richie in this album at all, from a song writing or production perspective.

I loved this record when it came out and I still love it. In my opinion the songs that are good are superb. There are a few that are meh. But to me, Love's the Only Rule is a masterpiece.

He did say it's a Richie-heavy album, just like he did with TLFR back in the day.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entert...-drugs-1038928

He did say something along these lines in one of the countless promo radio interviews, I vaguely remember that David was with Jon when he said it. I still may have it, but I have a folder with roughly 50 interview snippets from back then, so I can't go through them all now. Not sure if it was "Richie's album", but it was a comment very supportive of Richie in terms of him stepping up and "being all over the record".

However, I've also heard from sources that Jon and Richie actually weren't seeing eye to eye at all when it came to the sound direction of it. Richie wanted to go for a much more guitar-driven, anthemic sound, reminiscent of their 80's stadium hits and Jon, knowing how the sound went in the decade afterwards, was pretty much striving in another direction. That "compromise" is probably why this album sounds a bit off production and sound wise.

This is an interesting read. "The four of us - me, bass player David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres and Richie - went into a room, closed the door and sat down..." How did this get botched so bad that David is listed as the bass player?

Also interesting to note both The Circle and What About Now weren't supposed to be albums before things picked up speed. His recollection of Lost Highway has changed considering it started as a duets album with him, Richie and various country artists before it morphed into what it became.

Jon probably just said their (first) names, and whoever wrote the article then figured "wait, they're a band, they have a bass player, don't they?".

I too remember a "this is absolutely Richie's album" comment in audio form. I might be thinking of TLFR, though, but I am pretty sure he said it about both albums.

So many great memories from that Era, meet and talk with Obie for the first time.Been in the from row in O2 ang high five wit Jon during concert..... saw them 4 times in O2 :cool: . I love this album, for me right after Bounce album. If that's "Richie album" that i love it even more!

That makes sense. If the guitar was more prominent on this album it could be better but this album is where solos got even shorter (follow didnt have one and only got one as the fans kicked up a fuss) and by the time WAN came round there were hardly any and thats how its gone from there.


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Gave The Circle a listen to based on he topic. Holds up better than I thought, even the production, whilst not at These Days or Lost Highway levels, is much clearer than the muddy mess that were to follow. Probably because it was the last album where they didn't have to do a huge amount of work to hide / improve Jon's vocals.

Even the weaker half of the album was more enjoyable than I remembered, plus studio versions of Follow and Working Man were a nice change, often miss out on listening to the original versions rather than concerts.

I would hope that Jon still rates Thorn In My Side, one of my favourite from the album and an absolute highlight for me live. The live era was the best time ever for me as a fan, thanks to going to multiple O2 shows and then HRC the following year.

I agree. I think it's VERY important to note he's not trashing the era (nor do I think he's trashing the album). To a LOT of us, it was the last great kick in the can as far as the band goes as a touring entity with Jon's voice and a good deal of rarities brought out of the cobwebs.

But hearing him talk negatively about something from 2009 brings me hope he's gotten more honest with fans.

I am torn on this one, like all post 2000 albums.

If you had a choice to mix in the 4 new tracks from the greatest hits what songs would you swap from the Circle?

I love The Circle so I wouldn't change much but the weak tracks on the album are When We Were Beautiful, Live Before You Die, and Fast Cars, and to a lesser extent, We Weren't Born to Follow and Learn to Love.

I think that This is Love This is Life, No Apologies, and The More Things Change are far better than these five album tracks. If This Is Our House could count, I would choose that one too. My tracklist would be something like this:

1. No Apologies
2. Work for the Working Man
3. Thorn in My Side
4. Superman Tonight
5. Bullet
6. The More Things Change
7. What Do You Got?
8. Brokenpromiseland
9. Love's the Only Rule
10. This Is Love, This Is Life
11. Happy Now
12. This Is Our House

Aloha !

He's only talking negatively because pretty much every song of the album went over like a lead balloon and it being the first album spawning absolutely no hit singles. This was supposed to be Bon Jovi's first "serious" rock album in 15 years and the plan was to convince everyone after Lost Highway that they were still a rock band as opposed to "having gone country". Yet instead they sound like a borderline parody/tribute act being neither.

Still, Jon kept insisting on playing most stuff when the atmosphere at every show during which more than 3 songs of that album were played was dreadful. Superman Tonight, When We Were Beautiful and Work For The Working Man sucked out all energy during every show and there's a reason why most other stuff was rarely played. The album's just full of mediocre songs that just didn't work. Instead of gaining back the fans they'd lost with their country phase they pretty much lost a large of that group of fans forever.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Always loved The Circle. I've probably 'grown out of it' the longer time has gone on but some songs still hold up.

Love's The Only Rule is one of my favourite songs by the band. Loved it from the minute I heard it and then the first live performance, even though Jon messed a bit up, shown a more energetic side to Jon that we hadn't seen in a while.

Brokenpromiseland & Happy Now are quality songs. Love the intro to both!

Thorn In My Side is great but I prefer the live version.

Superman Tonight is excellent. From the snippet we got on some TV show or film, I loved it. Not into snippets much but I just knew I'd like this one.

Learn To Love is probably my favourite closer to an album. Not sure why. It isn't the best song in the world but I'll always remember listening to the album for the first time and thinking it ended well.

Live Before You Die & Fast Cars are songs that people would skip but I have a soft spot for them. Love the rasp Jon has on 'YOU FIGHTT' on Live Before You Die.

Not a fan of Follow, Beautiful or Working Man.

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Yeah but Jon is iron-clad into re-writing history to fit his version. It feels rare when he admits failure.

The solos had actually gotten LONGER from Bounce to Lost Highway, and certainly more stand out-ish... as much as I like the track, Bounce's solo is more of a melodic bit than a typical Richie solo.