Bon Jovi, "Keep The Faith" (album) [1992]

[jazklash]

For now, all I have to say is, no matter what the sales numbers tell you, this might have ended up, in many respects, to be their most important album in their career.

[Glove Slap]

Legacy wise, I think Slippery takes it since it produced their 3 best known hits (which the youth of today know very well despite not being born or too young when that album came out), but yes, this album was very crucial in their survival in the early '90s. The shift in sound that they made was what kept them from the same fate as Def Leppard.

[jazklash]

That's exactly where I was trying to get. Keep The Faith came at an extremely delicate time for them. One shouldn't forget that by the time the album was released, the tolerance towards anything hair metal-related was already hitting its lowest in the American mainstream. And, after all, Bon Jovi were one of the undisputed kings of the genre in its 80's heyday. Furthermore - as they themselves admitted later -, they had been on the verge of breaking up in the post-New Jersey days. So a lot was on the line for them. And for the third time going, they had something to prove.
Somehow, everything fell into place. The shift in their sound was noticeable, as if they definitely took notice of the changing tides. But it wasn't as if that shift was too dramatic. They just toned down the metal tendencies in their music and Jon Bon Jovi was now free to pursue his ever barely disguised Bruce Springsteen fixation. And all of this without - and here's the main key - losing sight of what made them popular in the first place: the big, arena-ready hooks. It was this combination that managed them the feat of keeping their old fanbase and, somehow, conquer a new one on their way. In a nutshell: it was the album which proved that, yes, Bon Jovi would be able to survive the decline of the trend which gave them fame and fortune, and be here for many years to come.