I hated Chicago XXX when it came out in 2006, and wrote a scathing blog post that said so.
I was told I was “disloyal” to the formerly great rock band when I posted a link to the review on an old, defunct Chicago message board. I responded by saying that listening to music is not about loyalty. It’s about the pleasure or fulfillment one gets from a piece that moves them.
I said this because many readers acted like I had to love the horrible album because it was by “our band.” I asked, “What am I being loyal to, the logo?”
The band certainly hadn’t been the same for a while. In fact, by the time 1991’s Twenty 1 was released, Danny Seraphine, Peter Cetera, and Terry Kath were already gone.
Robert Lamm was still with Chicago, but most of the keyboard work was played by Bill Champlin or studio musicians. The horn section was often completely missing, and when they were present their contributions were nearly irrelevant. So, it’s easy to say that no original members were playing on any given song. Chicago had become such a different band they could have, and maybe should have, changed their name.
The liner notes give no indication of exactly who played what on “Somebody, Somewhere,” the latest ordinary track from Twenty 1. It’s just another generic, hornless, Champlin-composed song and lead vocal from this era. By itself, “Somebody, Somewhere” isn’t awful, but when it’s bunched together with 11 other keyboard-heavy tracks with histrionic vocals and by-the-book, electric guitar solos that will never remind anyone of the real Chicago, it becomes quite hard to take.
I just can’t listen to Twenty 1 all the way through at one sitting. Fortunately, no one can make me.
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