| Destination Anywhere | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Brenda Kahn |
| Border: | yes |
| Released: | 1996 |
| Recorded: | 1994 |
| Label: | Shanachie |
| Producer: | Tim Patalan |
| Prev Title: | King of Cairo |
| Prev Year: | 1994 |
| Next Title: | Outside the Beauty |
| Next Year: | 1997 |
Destination Anywhere is an album by the American musician Brenda Kahn, released in 1996.[1] [2] The album was set for an early 1995 ship date, but Kahn was dropped from Chaos/Columbia Records two weeks prior to its scheduled release.[3] [4] "Reconcile" was the intended first single.[5] Kahn supported the album with a North American tour.[6]
Destination Anywhere was produced by Tim Patalan. Kahn started recording the album at the end of 1994; she decided to abandon the folk direction of her previous album in favor of a full band sound.[1] [7] Due to record label restructuring, Destination Anywhere was not licensed to Shanachie Records until 1996, with additional recording in Detroit.[1] [8] Jeff Buckley played guitar and sang on "Faith Salons"; the demo, cowritten by the pair, was recorded with Kahn in a Brooklyn loft.[9] [10] [11]
The Wisconsin State Journal wrote that "great songs like 'Spoon' allow Kahn to rock out like a less melodramatic Concrete Blonde, but the album suffers when Kahn indulges her tendency toward heavy-handed poetry."[12] The Republican determined that, "at times a thrashing punk rocker and at other times an enticing beat poet, Brenda Kahn's a pretty complicated character, somewhat reminiscent of Patti Smith." The Chicago Sun-Times stated: "Kahn's gritty rock songs inhabit a world of desperation and disillusion. But there also is salvation in each story."[13]
The Columbus Dispatch opined that "Destination Anywhere sounded so much like Patti Smith's Horses that we were pining for the original... After a blazing start, Kahn's images weren't as compelling as Smith's, yet were still worth hearing."[14] The SouthtownStar concluded that "Kahn sounds a bit rougher, more blue collar bar performer than vegetarian restaurant folkie."[15] The Austin Chronicle noted that "Kahn discovered the rare middle ground between singer-songwriter fare and punk aesthetics."[2]
AllMusic wrote: "The bitter tone of the album might not settle well with some listeners, but the steady intensity of the music and Brenda Kahn's great vocal delivery make this album a minor masterpiece."