Can Don Breithaupt and Monkey House live up to the impossibly high standards set by 2016’s ‘Left’?

Ben Levin, Making Movies and Mai Leisz are part of the latest edition of Five for the Road, an occasional look at music that’s been in my car lately.

“Dream Girl” is a effective gateway to the heart of Desmond White’s ‘Glace.’

“A Hit By Varese” leads off Chicago’s fifth album, one many of my colleagues and I feel is flawless. It is, as they used to say, “all killer, no filler.”

‘Chicago at Carnegie Hall,’ a sprawling four-record set, was ripe for abuse from so-called leading critics of the time.

Robert Lamm’s sophisticated deep cut recalls a period when Chicago was one of the preeminent jazz-rock ensembles – not just a rock band with horns.

M.A. Bakker’s jazz-rock debut boasts the expert musicianship of a by-gone era, and a vivid lyrical imagery that gives it a fiction novel feel.

Released today in 1968, Blood Sweat and Tears’ debut balances free-form experimentalism within a larger framework of American songcraft.

For co-founding member Danny Seraphine, Chicago’s transition into 1980s-era pop stars still represents a conundrum. He pined for the days of their early, more challenging music — but he relished their successes. You May Also Like: Danny Seraphine and Bill Champlin Defend ‘Chicago 17’: ‘Biggest Album We Ever Had’

They gathered for five days at this countryside studio in Finland, plugging in and recording whatever happened. You May Also Like: Projekt Gemineye, “Sacred Sons” from ‘In the Year 3073: Book II’ (2020): One Track Mind Los Lobos – ‘Native Sons’ (2021)