Chicago XXX (CD)
Sound: B Music:
B-
When they began, Chicago was one of the counter-culture
bands that may not have always been successful in making big political
statements when they tried, but their very existence, energy, joy, free-style
and hopeful lyrics of what was possible made them an unstoppable force until
Disco overtook them by early 1979. That
energy returned with a vengeance in 1982 and gave them a new life until Peter
Cetera left, then they still hung on with new lead singer Jason Scheff. That has been the band since, give or take a
few more changes, since 1985. With the
band’s 40th anniversary in 2007, they have reached their 30th
studio album in Chicago XXX, with the Roman numeral “XXX” literally
etched in stone in the cover picture.
One critic not a big fan of the band once commented their
music was as imaginative as their album titles, but in real life, they made
some great records into the Scheff era.
Good material is hard to find and create, especially when you are in a
corner of how you should sound in a certain Rock/Jazz hybrid state. That is not so much the problem here as are
the sound-alikes of past hits, which early 1980s revival producer David Foster
avoided with interesting new material. Why
Can’t We has snippets of Hard To Say I’m Sorry and is a duet with a
roll-free Shelly Fairbanks. Rachel
Flatts and Scheff are not as roll-free on Love Will Come Back, while
other songs just sound like better songs indirectly. There are also two versions of hoped-for hit Feel, but both
versions do not hit the memorability high mark the band’s best records
would. The musicianship and
professionalism is here, just not the material.
It is certainly not age that has hurt the band, with the
veteran singers (keyboardists Robert Lamm and Bill Champlin) still having their
voice in tact, even if they are only doing backgrounds here. Ironically, there is a constriction would
their should be freedom and the fact that the songs are only about relationships
instead of the bigger picture that made them a big band on the level of any
other in their post-Beatles time. Come
To Me, Do is the best, wittiest, most original and natural record in the
whole set, written and sung by Lamm. It
proves the beast is ready to rise again.
Maybe it will just take one more album.
The PCM 2.0 16bit/44.1kHz Stereo is typical of a current
recording, full, yet with a lack of character.
Of course, many were saying the same thing when David Foster took over
the band’s producing reigns on Chicago 16 to “update” their sound. The result was a slight New Wave
amalgamation of the James William Guercio productions that put the band on the
map. Here, the sound is lightly no wave
and trying to be a hard version of Emo Rock, the element the band should have
cleverly mixed in. Producer Jay
DeMarcus keeps the band sounding as they have since Cetera left, but that is
just not sufficient for a group with this caliber of talent. Let’s hope this is enough of a hit so they
get back into the studio.
- Nicholas Sheffo
