Bon Jovi’s return to rock is the focus of this week’s New Reviews as Jon, Richie and the rest of the New Jersey band release their 11th album, The Circle, today. After exploring Nashville with their country-influenced 2007 album Lost Highway, Bon Jovi break out the big choruses and arena anthems their fans have come to love. “It does rock — if your idea of rock is Aerosmith doing Diane Warren songs,” Christian Hoard writes in his three-star Rolling Stone review. “Predictable and immaculately produced, these arena-shakers offer a familiar brand of Jersey cheese, but where Jon Bon Jovi once was kind of quixotic (”Livin’ on a Prayer”), he’s more contemplative than ever, turning out meditations like “Live Before You Die.”
Also out this week is the long-awaited debut album by D.C. rapper Wale, who previously made waves with a mixtape dedicated to Seinfeld and an opening slot on Jay-Z’s Blueprint 3 tour. Attention Deficit features guests like Lady Gaga and Pharrell while boasting production by heavyweights like Mark Ronson, Cool & Dre and Dave Sitek. Nothing on Wale’s debut is as strange as him rapping about Jerry and Elaine: “Wale instead fashions himself Kanye East, a mix of aspiration and anger, given to jazzy moralizing á la the Roots yet not above tapping Lady Gaga for the single ‘Chillin,’ ” Jon Dolan says in his three-star review.
Dashboard Confessional’s Alter the Ending earns a four-star review this week. Jody Rosen writes that the emo godfather’s sixth album “is a return to full-bore rock after the mellow The Shade of Poison Trees (2007), and songs like the raucous ‘New Morning’ ooze craft.” One more release of note this week is Snow Patrol’s Up To Now, a collection of the Irish rockers’ biggest, Coldplay-esque hits.
And for all of Rolling Stone’s album reviews, visit our Reviews page.
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- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC.
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