Remember listening to it driving home from Wales and was so disappointed. Loved IML & Just Older but really struggled with the album as a whole.

It's still a patchy effort with tracks I skip although I like it more now than I initially did.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Save the world is a wasted track. I really like the sound but the lack of solo is bizarre.

Well I'm paraphrasing a 17 year old webcast that I watched in the middle of the night, but he definitely had high hopes for the song and made a quip about accepting an award for it. I'm sure someone could dig out the original concert as I'm sure it's in my loft gathering dust, but at the time pre-release it seemed that Jon had it as the next Always type hit.

Yeah, I think patchy describes it best.

Great tracks: It's My Life, Thank You For Loving Me, Just Older, Save The World, Captain Crash, I Got The Girl
Ok/filler tracks: Two Story Town, Next 100 Years, One Wild Night
Bad tracks: Say It Isn't So, Mystery Train, She's A Mystery

I'd have definitely included I Could Make A Living Out Of Loving You and maybe Neurotica instead of some tracks that actually made the album. And maybe added some more of the Sex Sells songs/demos...

This album will ALWAYS have a soft spot for me.

Crush was the album that made me become a fan. I will never forget listening to It's My Life for the first time and absolutely loving it. I was only 7 years old at the time but it was the first ever song that I connected too. The video was also superb.

My first ever Bon Jovi single that I got was 'Say It Isn't So' - My brother and I with a friend of his went into town when it came out and we went into HMV and seen a screen on the ceiling with a photo of the cover and all went 'YEAAAA' like little fan girls. He then bought me the single on cassette tape and I remember going home and listening to that and 'Ain't No Cure For Love' for weeks and weeks.

I was devastated that I couldn't see them as I was too young according to my parents but I remember having loads of tapes made with tons and tons of shows and live performances that I still have to this day.

Watching absolute rubbish on the music stations waiting for One Wild Night to come on. Just loads of little memories that I'll always remember.

Also it was around the time I got to meet Kev for the first time so it also has some really bad memories. I joke, of course.

In terms of album quality:

I don't think it's that good of an album, it's not bad but it's not great either. Some highlights that I will always love. It's My Life (Not in my top 50 songs probably but I love it for the memories), One Wild Night and I've always had a soft spot for Mystery Train.

Also remember gasping when I heard Jon say 'Shit' in 'Two Story Town' - I was only 7 years old!!! Jeez Jon!!

I miss the hype around Bon Jovi.

I wasn't following them then so I didn't hear it; but was it perhaps a Grammy award that he mentioned?

Nope, love that song.

Crush is the album I never thought we would see. I honestly figured that these guys were over. Everyone I loved had either quit or changed considerably in the mid 90s. Southside quit and moved to Nashville. Bruce fired the E Street Band and hired the "other" band and then eventually went solo. I figured after These Days - Bon Jovi was gone with maybe Jon doing some solo stuff - and he did.

But then came IML and Crush. I was not the slightest bit critical about the album - I was just glad that it existed. Bruce had gotten the E Street Band back together for a reunion tour in 1999 and once again they blew me away. I was worried that Bon Jovi might not do the same for me and I was really looking forward to the 2000 show at Continental Arena in November. I need not have worried - they sucked me right back in and I have been here ever since LOL.

I can be more critical about the album now but it's impossible for me to dislike it.

To me it's a mediocre album. Some good songs, some bad songs, some songs I don't really care about.
It's My Life was huge. Back then I wasn't a fan yet. But my friends and I agreed that it was an awesome song with a great video.
Thank You For Loving is the last real Bon Jovi ballad in my opinion...the last ballad in the vein of the big ones...I'll Be There For You, Bed Of Roses, Always and This Ain't A Lovesong. Every ballad afterwards just didn't come close to that quality. To this day I don't understand why it failed to connect with the fanbase.
I also like Captain Crash, it's a fun mid-tempo rock & roll song. But unfortunately played to death by Jon.
Next 100 Years stands out because of the outro solo. Not a bad song at all but except the outro nothing special either.
Say It Isn't So and Two Story Town are the two songs I will never understand how that could happen on a Bon Jovi record. Both don't fit the Bon Jovi catalogue at all. Every other "experimental" Bon Jovi track (Let's Make It Baby, Temptation, Put The Boy Back In Cowboy, When We Were Beautiful) somehow fit their style and thereby have their right to exist. But those two songs...no.

So looking back on that record with 17 years in between and all that knowledge we got nowadays it becomes obvious that it's a wild mix of Jon's third solo effort and band material. They tried to mix both and make it one. But under that aspect they failed miserably.
BUT...by saying that it's not a bad record at all. It just can't keep up with Bon Jovi's standards set with Slippery, New Jersey, Keep The Faith and These Days. And also later records like Bounce, Have A Nice Day or The Circle are a much better unit as an album than Crush.

Crush is the album that hooked me in Bon Jovi, I remember listening to the cassette tape in my dad's truck, and I loved it instantly! She's A Mystery and Thank You For Loving Me are the album's only two weak songs IMO. I for one love Captain Crash and the Beauty Queen From Mars! it's one of my favorite Bon Jovi songs