I think their direction has improved dramatically since 2000. I was watching interviews from the Crush era the past few days and it astounded me to be reminded that they had over 60 songs written for that CD because, when I listen to Crush, or attempt to listen to Crush now, I skip the majority of it. How did 60 songs result in one of their weakest CDs? I think Bounce holds up much better and HAND leaves both Bounce and Crush in the dust. I'm not getting the criticism of Jon as a vocalist either. I've been pulling out a lot of their past collection and revisiting it the past few weeks after ages of not listening to those older CDs. He sounds so much more mature with richer tone and depth on later releases than he did in the 20 years ago. I don't care if he's hittting ridiculously high notes like he did in Prayer and Runaway. Now I get why my parents said they thought he sounded like he was "screaming" when I made them listen to Bon Jovi. LOL I'd rather listen to him sing the way he sings now than then.