Destination Failure is the third album by the Chicago-based pop punk band the Smoking Popes, released August 26, 1997 by Capitol Records. It was their second, and final, album for Capitol and their last before their nearly seven-year hiatus; their covers albumThe Party's Over was rejected by Capitol and the Smoking Popes disbanded in December 1998, reuniting in November 2005 to record At Metro. Destination Failure was not as successful as the band's previous album Born to Quit; it failed to chart despite the release a single and music video for "I Know You Love Me". The album was recorded at the Chicago Recording Company and at Conway Studios in Hollywood with producerJerry Finn and recording engineer Phil Bonnet. Bonnet had worked with the band since early in their career, engineering and producing their EPs Break Up and 2 as well as Born to Quit. The songs "Let's Hear It for Love" and "Can't Find It" are new recordings of songs from the Get Fired. The Destination Failure version of "Can't Find It" is slower than the original version. "I Know You Love Me" references singer and guitarist Josh Caterer's newfound interest in Christianity, while "You Spoke to Me" refers to Blake Schwarzenbach of Jawbreaker and Jets to Brazil, who the Smoking Popes had toured with. "Paul" is about enduring an ex-lover's affection for her new man. Destination Failure also includes a cover version of "Pure Imagination", a song from the musical filmWilly Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
Reception
Jack Rabid of Allmusic gave Destination Failurethree stars out of five, saying that the band "humbly offer a singular style that is actually power pop in the early-'70s and early-'80s tradition — from the young Todd Rundgren to the Fabulous Poodles With a singer in Josh Caterer who can make the most melancholic, fretting passage seem like a whistling, carefree, Willy Wonka-kissed day and a band who is gleeful, but not in a churlish-youthful way, Smoking Popes are one of the most deceptively pleasant-sounding bands going." Tyler Barrett of Punknews.org gave the album a perfect score of five stars, calling it "a masterpiece. Caterer's songwriting dives head-first into the core of humanity, and the music is as good as the best pop-punk you've ever heard." Several artists covered songs from Destination Failure for the 2003 Smoking Popes Tribute album: Bad Astronaut covered "Megan", Saturday Supercade performed "Paul", Junction 18 contributed a rendition of "End of Your Time", and The Ataris covered "Pretty Pathetic". Dashboard Confessional also covered "Pretty Pathetic" on 2007's The Wire Tapes Vol. 1. Bayside covered "Megan" on their 2005 live acoustic EP, featuring Josh Caterer singing with them.
