By now, it should be evident that late ‘70s Chicago albums suffered from a serious lack of quality control. Songs that would never have made it out of the writing room in 1972 were being arranged, recorded, and pressed onto record a few years later. At the same time, better songs were left off the albums, not to surface until the Rhino re-releases many years later.
Peter Cetera’s “Loser with a Broken Heart” is one of these low-quality songs that had no business making 1979’s Chicago 13 album. Poorly written, lacking a trademark excellent Cetera melody, and depressing beyond words, its only bright spot is that Cetera uses his regular voice, not the ridiculous P.C. Moblee growl.
Do yourself a favor and don’t click on the above YouTube embed. Don’t waste your time listening to this song. But if you do, ask yourself: Do you want to be the person in this song? Of course not – you’d rather be the street player, or the Hawaiian surfer, or even the guy who must have been crazy to have done this so long.
Do you want to spend time with the person in this song? No way. If you had a blind date with this character, you’d listen to him whine for about three minutes, then excuse yourself, sneak out of the bar and go party with the Brazilians in the next block. At least they have fun while they’re complaining.
The true broken hearts here are those of the Chicago fans, who remember when this band put out top quality music.
