This has been a hectic week–between work and family issues, I haven’t been able to get online to do much more than moderate comments and purge spam for the last several days. So I haven’t gotten to hear the new track until this afternoon. (Finding it turned into a bit of a bugger; my home connection seems to have on-and-off problems with content networks, including Xbox Live.)
The first thing that I noticed about the song was that Jon’s voice seems to be all nasal again. I’m not sure if this was recorded before or after the performance of ‘Stand By Me’ that was released earlier, but Jon’s voice seemed to be a lot stronger on the recording of Stand By Me. I’d guess before–’We Weren’t Born to Follow’ is a fully produced album track and was probably already in the can and being mixed by the time the whole fuss in Iran started. I’ll be interested to see if any of the other tracks on The Circle show the stronger, smoother vocal performance from ‘Stand By Me’. I hope they do; I much prefer that sound over the nasal twang on this track.
Subject matter is standard issue Bon Jovi fare; their song topics don’t often shake up much. I find the lyrics to be slightly more in the vein of ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’ than they are like ‘It’s My Life’–more about hope in the face of adversity, rather than the raw defiance of ‘It’s My Life’ and its sequels ‘Everyday’ and ‘Have a Nice Day’. Also, the lyrics of the verses are a tad bit flat and don’t say much at all. All the punch seems to have been put into the chorus of this song, but at least it’s a very solid chorus.
Soundwise, this is not the rock sound promised in the weeks leading up to this release. This is, if anything, even more of a pop sound than ‘It’s My Life’ and ‘Everyday’. Richie’s talent does not shine in this song. The lead guitar seems a bit lost, and they didn’t use the talkbox or bring Dave’s keyboards to the front to make up for it. The guitar solo is so short as to be almost nonexistent, and having Jon yell “Guitar!” before it just makes it seem shorter than it really is. (Also, yelling “Guitar!” before the solo always seems like more of a Bret Michaels/Poison thing to me and kind of sticks out funny in a Bon Jovi song.)
In the long run, I think this song won’t be a favorite of mine–it just doesn’t have good enough lyrics, and it doesn’t leverage Richie’s ability to play the guitar. On the other hand, I don’t see it ending up on my permanent skip list like the ‘Mystery’ tracks on Crush.
Note: My review of the entire The Circle album starts here.
Related posts:
- We Weren’t Born to Follow (Album Track)
- We Weren’t Born to Follow Will Have a Real Solo
- We Weren’t Born to Follow Video
- Reserving Judgment: We Weren’t Born to Follow
- Random Song: Born to Run
Tags: Bon Jovi, The Circle
[...] 8/22/09: My actual review of the song ‘We Weren’t Born to Follow’ is up now. [...]
Hey man, I agree with this blog 100%. Bon Jovi let me down when I heard this song, they just proved with this song that they were indeed born to follow the pop success they’ve had. I wouldn’t care if it was anyfucking else cause I know what Bon Jovi can work wonders if they try hard. I’ve literally had verbal and physical fights with many metalheads(even though I am also a Megadeth and Iron Maiden fan)supporting BON JOVI. But, listening to this song makes me feel that they could’ve waited a year more or two to polish a nice album. Its the same band that gave us These Days and Keep The Faith. I hope the other tracks in the album cut it nice.
I just read an article at MusicRadar that said they’re re-editing this song–in response to fan complaints about its sound. We’ll see how much they actually change it. Hopefully the new solo takes some of the pop out of it.
[...] this is the same as the already released single. (The review of the single version is here.) Most of the points that I already made there still hold true for this [...]
[...] Review: We Weren’t Born to Follow My review of We Weren’t Born to Follow, from when it was first posted on the splashscreen at the official site. [...]