What do you think of the Destination Anywhere era of 1997-1998?
 

I personally dig the album - and I liked the live performances I've heard. Jon still sounded great and clearly enjoyed performing during this era.

His band was tight as well.

What are your thoughts?

A few songs I generally skip but there is some great songwriting and some tunes are really intense. I love listening to that album in the autumn/winter time and on long car drives (especially in the night). It has a certain fitting mood.
I also discovered that you can really "get down" after a show with that. On the drive back home from the Munich concert in 2011 I was still quite hyped and really chilled out by listening to it twice.

It's Just Me might actually be my favourite song from Jon solo wise. I'm also always liked Staring At Your Window, the mood of Little City, the desperation of Cold Hard Heart and the anger of August 7, 4:15 (though it's a carbon copy of Rockin' In The Free World).

Love it, simply put.

I didn't "discover" this album until 2002 or 2003. Once I did I fell in love with it. I really like the whole album and its atmosphere.

Absolutely adore it to this day. I rank it above the Bon Jovi records.

Awesome solo record. Always enjoy listening to it from start to finish.
Like Dominik and Kathleen already said it has a very special, very intense atmosphere. Songs like Midnight In Chelsea, Staring At Your Window, It's Just Me and the title track Destination Anywhere are true gems.

The live performances were fun as well. Jon really was into performing those songs live. An aspect that we miss with most of the new material nowadays.
And the fact that he played some songs for the upcoming album live (Just Older, Hush, Life's Too Short) made them even more special.

Half of its good half of its a bit too bland for me. But Im not a fan of solo albums in general.

When good its really good though.

I love the era and I love the DA album. It doesn't contain those big hit songs like the band did on previous albums, but it has very pleasent songs that I really really enjoy. I'm not very sure with the timeline of the songs but I guess that besides the DA album we can also count in songs like Sad Song Night, Gimme Some, Hush(the live performance from 98 ), Talk To Jesus, Good Ain't Good Enough,Life's to Short For Days Like These, in that era, all of these are songs I really love.

I enjoy listening to almost everything from DA, my favorite song from the album being Staring At Your Window. This song has song has something very special for me, something I can't exactly put my finger on, I just really enjoy listening to this track when it's dark outside and also when I take random car drives where I just stare in the blank and meditate.

Same here. I adore this album. It's brilliant, beyond brilliant... totally underrated by most fans. If Jon did every album with the bravery, intelligence, and sheer talent that he did Destination with, I think I'd died and gone to heaven. I also think he'd be far more recognized critically than he is.

The radio shows he did to promote the album were excellent. Some of them are among my favorite recordings.

I think that after little depressing "These Days" it was time for Jon to reset his faith, to clear what he want to do and find again who he is and who do he want to be. For me it's time when he tried to find inspirations and motivation for rest of his life. It was the same thing like he did in 1991. He recharged his battery again. At this time he made songs by using all his fears and hopes and even little angry which he hide inside at that time.
And he made it with in very poetic way so it's the reason why we have so great album with fantastic atmosphere.
It's very good time for fans but people usualy don't like that little depressing periods on their lives.In life we have ups and downs. TDays/DA representing "downs" in BJovi and "Crush" is defenitely representing "ups" in Jons life.

Ive never liked Midnight In Chelsea, Staring at your window, Naked and Little City.
Dont particularly like the sha laa laa laas in QoNO either

Sad song night and Talk to Jesus were good but my fav is august 7 and Its Just Me.

At a time when Soundgarden and STP were tearing it up, here comes Jon with his Sha LaLa's... it was a little tough to be a Bon Jovi fan but looking back now on it, i get where he was going... Just bad timing for America.

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Was grunge at it's height in 1997, 1998? I remember Midnight in Chelsea on the Muchmusic countdown and it was a lot of britpop and Hanson alongside it.

I personally love the album, but I could see how it would bore a lot of people. It's artistic as hell but so far removed from the Bon Jovi world.

At it's height? No! Still mainstream radio and the go to choice for Rockers? Absolutely! If you go to a bar or pub, that's what they are playing... If you see a cover band, that's what they were covering... Most grunge bands were going on their 3rd albums at this point so they were practically legends.

Go back and look at all the albums that came prior to DA, in '96 / '97 (Albums released in '96 were still pumping out singles in '97) - This was a time when Emo was just starting to cross over too...

- Load/ReLoad - Metallica
- Down on the Upside - Soundgarden
- Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop - STP
- Endless List

BTY, MMMBop was one of those flukes... They were just one of those Justin Bieber acts of today.

Hanson was the one hit wonder of the day and the major trend in my recollection was "angry women." Alanis Morrisette had started the trend and was followed by Shawn Colvin, Merdith Brooks, Paula Cole, Natalie Imbruglia, goodness.... I can't remember all their names because most of them were in the few-hit wonder category. There were a LOT of women on pop radio/VH-1 in 1997.

Interesting! It must have been different here in Canada. We had a ton of pop on the charts, Spice Girls especially. The rock scene wasn't charting too well at that time here.

For me personally, DA is one of those albums where every time I listen to it, I notice something different. Every song is likable in one way or another, and the album art, production, and themes are all very consistent and interrelated. The feels very connected with the real world, and yet remains relatively 'arty'. Ugly, Every Word Was A Piece Of My Heart, Queen of New Orleans, Learning How to Fall, It's Just Me, Little City - they're all greats songs in my opinion and speak to the listener in quite an intimate and real way.

I love this album, though I do prefer the Jovi records of that decade. The live performances I've seen on YT from this era are phenomenal and very unique - they have a distinct identity. Unreleased songs were being thrown around, plenty of album tracks, high energy from Jon, and solid vocals. I only which I was around to experience it first-hand!

It was probably very similar but music was so divided back then (IMO - In A Good Way)... You are looking at this One Dimensionally / Black and White... Today music seems more divided by era but back then it was divided by type...

There really aren't any mainstream rock stations anymore devoted strictly to rock but in '97 there were actually 2 or 3 of them... There were also other stations devoted to pop acts or the main stream acts like Madonna, Spice Girls, Hanson, Salt & Pepper, etc... (and it's been like that since the 80's - or maybe even longer)... Midnight In Chelsea did get some airplay on those mainstream stations but it really didn't have a target audience. Those rock stations wouldn't even dare to play it and Bon Jovi weren't the acts they are today... Today, they are legends that earned respect through longevity. In '97, they were just 80's rock stars trying to stay afloat in a dominant rock world.

You are making it seem like the grunge bands were out and poof, 80's bands are back... Grunge might not have been the dominant genre of music but it was still around and there were other harder rock acts making their marks like Alanis Morissette, Creed, Smash Mouth, Foo Fighters, Third Eye Blind, Sublime, 311, Everclear, Live (which was one of my favorites for a long time), etc... I don't know what you categorize them as but like I stated from inception, Jon's Sha LaLa's just weren't what people wanted to hear in that rock world...

Now songs like Bed Of Roses and Always did give the band an edge over some of the other 80's bands like Poison but it still wan't enough to warrant instant success for a JBJ Solo album... Music took another 3 years to change and find a Bon Jovi niche which it obviously did with IML...

That's close enough to what I was saying. My world of music consumption was what my friends were listening to in school, the Muchmusic countdown, and the radio. Those markets were catering towards a newer rock sound (Foo Fighters, Our Lady Peace etc). I think we agree with each other. Jon's sound fit in really nicely with the Britrock/pop sound, an era that was just about ending when D.A came out.

That's what Jon was going for, admittedly... These Days catapulted the band internationally and not only was Jon trying to ponder to that audience but trying to bring it here. Oasis were really the ones but I guess Jon wanted to be the first American rock band to bring it... I give him Kudos for the attempt and it ended up being a treasure for most diehards but at the end of the day, it failed miserably in the US... Along with that Movie...


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This.

I completely lost the band after 1993. Started a bit again in 2008 or so. But still feel the best work was done during the 80s.

I find songwriting on Destination Anywhere being very lazy and uninspiring. There's no passion, no hooks whatsoever....I really tried to listen to this record couple of times but there's something missing....

Totally agree... To some people, maybe even most, the 90s supercede the 80s but the 90s were almost too perfect. The songs were well crafted but lacked something. Passion? Emotion?

The 80 weren't perfect and I think with rock n roll, that's a good thing... I feel the passion and emotion with each vocal out of Jons mouth and each string Richie plays... This includes the first album and 7800...

I still enjoyed the 90s but the 80s just speak to me...

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Interesting to read how different the opinions can be.
To me, DA is a hell of a passionate and inspiring record. There's no comparison to the 80s Bon Jovi stuff, that's right. But it's the same problem we got nowadays: Music has changed, Slippery and New Jersey most probably wouldn't be hit records today either. And in the 90s the band seemed to try everything to get away from that 80s stamp.

I started fanship in 2003, so for me it's much easier to get back to the old stuff and appreciate each record than for someone who started with the band in the 80s and was forced to join this development.

I have to agree what I totally loved about DA was Jon's honest and introspective lyrics. And I loved the moody atmosphere of the songs. Yes, no big hooks but the record wasn't going for that. No way would I have called the writing lazy just the opposite.

That goes for me as well.

New Jersey was the peak. That era for songs, live performances & set lists will never be touched.
They were bigger (in uk) around the Always & These Days albums but nothings come close to the 80s.

'Destination Anywhere' was written in the UK when Jon was filming a movie there. At the time Britpop was all over the charts in my country whilst America had grunge.

We had Blur, Oasis, Stone Roses, Echobelly, The Charletans, Black Grape (all bands I can't stand by the way) and Jon was listening to them.

Personally there's only three songs I like "It's Just Me," "August 7" and the title track. The rest is awful Britpop.

I used to listen to DA (and the Live CD) sitting in my dining room waiting for the 56k to connect (and then probably to go on backstage and slag people off) so it always brings back some memories. I likes it.

Just been looking at a lot of 1997 stuff on YouTube. It's a fantastic era, it really is. He was a proper artist back then.

Jon often gets criticised, and always has, for not evolving. But if I look at the 90s, Bon Jovi and Jon evolved hugely. Before I became a fan (around 1994), my knowledge of Bon Jovi was the big hits. Then in 1992 the KTF single came out - I remember hearing it and it was a lot less radio friendly than the stuff that had gone before. There was an edge to it. That whole album was so much more mature than the first 4 albums.

Then These Days followed, in terms of studio albums, and my first thought was "What is this shit?" when I heard 'Hey God' and the album tracks. But, to me, that's the greatest album they've ever produced. It was so different, in terms of mood and maturity, to their other albums.

When Midnight in Chelsea came out, I thought it was garbage. Couldn't have been further from Prayer, Bad Medicine, Bed of Roses, Always and TAALS. But it grew on me and it's such a great song and that album is such a great album lyrically and musically. Maybe the sha-la-las weren't what was going on in 1997 but, for me, that album stood the test of time.

Sadly, Jon wasn't popular in the US in the 90s and IML and Crush, which artistically, were such a step backwards but commercially were huge, set the tone for the last 15 years. Such a shame. The 90s, for me, really were Bon Jovi and Jon at their peak.