Sure, being forced to drop ticket prices is a bitch. But it's hardly the same as losing your job, your house, your life savings. So Bon Jovi (2008-2009 earnings: $50-million) don't sound entirely convincing when preaching to their blue collar fans about pulling through the recession.

Cue song titles like 'Work For The Working man', 'Brokenpromiseland' and 'We Weren't Born To Follow' featuring such grin-and-bear-it platitudes as "When life is a bitter pill to swallow/ You gotta hold on to what you believe" and "No time for praying get up off your knees".

Amid "woahwoah's", "yeahyeah's" and "oohooh's", lines like "Empty pockets full of worries/ I had to get two jobs and it was hard enough just getting by/ But with the grace of God I'm getting us through" and "I gave up on luck but I'm still getting by/ Yeah I'm going to be alright/ You can test my faith/ But you can't take my pride" are delivered with all the sincerity of a televangelist.

The accompanying music is equally contrived — stadium-size choruses, stratospheric guitar power chords, chiming piano crescendos, rolling drums — but as impossible to ignore as the Coldplay and U2 hits it's based on. Ditching the country twang of 'Lost Highway' and the loveydovey ballads, 'The Circle' is essentially a sequel to 2005's 'Have A Nice Day' — ie bigger and bolder, but not necessarily better.

With the songwriting core of frontman Jon Bon Jovi and guitarist Richie Sambora once again joined by regular collaborators Desmond 'Livin' On A Prayer' Child and Billy Falcon there's a real familiarity to the songs. And while returning producer John Shanks has clearly pushed the band — especially Sambora and drummer Tico Torres seem reinvigorated — his clean, unfussy production only highlights how samey it all sounds.

A straightforward rock record for the masses, then. But damn that recession for ruining an otherwise good time.