Chicago... the Band

Earlier this evening at dinner I played the brand new Chicago album through Spotify on our kitchen stereo. I regularly use that service to listen to new releases that I discover on other music sites such as AllMusic, Paste, No Depression, Pitchfork, etc. and then I put them in my Spotify album queue for later listening.

I thought I would give the new Chicago a listen because I really haven't heard anything new by them in decades. I looked up the album in AllMusic and saw that three of the original members were still playing with the group and although their last album of new music was in 2014 they do have a total of 38 albums that they have released over the years. 

The new album was titled Born For This Moment and I was curious to hear how they sounded and of course I was disappointed. The first three or four songs were actually very good and competent with well written sons and a classic sound but then things fell apart. There were fourteen songs on the album and after the first several the rest of the album just didn't hold up to the promise of the first few songs. The remaining songs were boring and cliched. Oh well.

Chicago was at one time one of my favorite groups. I saw them perform in concert for the first time in August 1969 at the Atlantic City Pop Festival and would see them a couple of more times in the early 1970's. They were booked at that festival as Chicago Transit Authority and I had never heard of them but their show blew me away. They were awesome and I had never heard anything like them with their combination of hard rock and jazzy horns. I found out shortly afterwards that they had an album titled Chicago Transit Authority that had been released that previous April. I went out and bought their album after I got home from the festival.

I would see them a couple more times in the early 70s and I would buy their first five albums as they came out and still have them on vinyl. Many years later I would grab some online versions of their other albums from 1973 to 1977 and then a couple more live albums and compilations. I never bothered with their albums from the late 70s. 80s, 90s or beyond and they had plenty of them.

I remember that they were very popular with some of my shipmates in the Navy and heard a couple more of their albums on cassette onboard the ship as they were released in the early 70s.

Chicago in my collection:

• Chicago Transit Authority, 1969
• Chicago II, 1970
• Chicago III, 1971
• Chicago IV - Live in Carnegie Hall Vol 1-4, 1971
• Chicago V, 1972

• Chicago Live in Japan, 1972
• Chicago VI, 1973
• Chicago VII, 1974
• Chicago VIII, 1975
• Chicago X, 1976
• Chicago XI, 1977
• The Very Best of Chicago, 1997
• Chicago Presents the Innovative Guitar of Terry Kath, 1997
• Chicago Live in 1975, 2011