Chicago - Chicago X
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Music CD Cover Artist: Chicago Edition: Music CD Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered CD Release Date: 2003-02-25 Music Label: Rhino / Wea Soundtracks:
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Free Music Notes for Chicago X Album
Free Music Review: On the Road to Pop
Hit: 5 Stars
On the one hand, the style of "Chicago X" was much closer to pop than the challenging music of Chicago's earliest music. Thus fans of the first Chicago albums often decry the slow transition to pop. On the other hand, "Chicago X" offers outstanding music and a number of important milestones for the group. Additionally, while there were many more pop elements in this album than in previous albums, there were still sufficient jazz and blues influences in this album to recognize it as Chicago.
The album opens with several traditionally styled Chicago songs. The first is a jazz horn-driven love song, "Once or Twice." This Terry Kath song is powerful, fast, and upbeat. The song sets the upbeat tone for the rest of the album. The second song is "You Are on My Mind," a song of separation and love that opens in a mellow blues style that adds jazz elements. However, there is a break where the song speeds up and adds funk elements to momentarily change the style of the song before transitioning back to a jazz flavored song with a Latin tempo. This song hit #49 on the pop singles chart. The next song, "Skin Tight," is yet another love song, this time in a funk-flavored jazz style. This song remains upbeat, keeping with the opening song.
"If You Leave Me Now" was Chicago's first #1 song, on both the pop singles and adult contemporary charts. This beautiful pop ballad by Peter Cetera is stylistically different from Chicago's typical music, and the differences in musical direction would lead Peter to eventually leave the group. However, Peter's song revitalized Chicago's musical importance and generated new fans for the group, in addition to winning two Grammys and likely helping the album to win a third, and being instrumental in helping the album reach #3 on the pop charts. Further, the success of this song also influenced Chicago to head in a more pop oriented direction.
The previous song was but a temporary diversion, because "Together Again" by Lee Loughnane has a jazz influence. Yet again this song is a love song, which seems to be the theme for this album. "Another Rainy Day in New York City" by Robert Lamm follows. This song has steel drums and a reggae flavor. This song is the first song on this CD that is not a love or relationship song. This up tempo song has lyrics that should be at least a little sad, but the tempo keeps the song fun and relatively light. This song reached #2 on the adult contemporary charts and #32 on the pop singles chart.
Peter Cetera next sings "Mama Mama," a funky pop love song with horns. The musical accents betray the era of this above average Chicago song.
"Scrapbook" is an introspective song by Robert Lamm. The song is about the band, performing in various locations, hanging out with other groups, and recording at Caribou Ranch. The tempo continues upbeat even though the song talks about the stress of being on the road and the fights the group had. The instrumentals get very funky as the song closes out in a very mid-70s style. "Gently I'll Wake You" is another Robert Lamm song that has an opening that sounds heavily influenced by Harry Nilsson. The song breaks into funky portions, but returns again to the Nilsson-like sound; quite an interesting song that mixes two very different styles. The next track, "You Get It Up," yet another Robert Lamm song, has a fast jazz beat with a funk vocal style. I will let the listener figure out what this bawdy song is about.
The original album closed with the mellow and beautiful Terry Kath song "Hope for Love." The only problems with this song are that it is a reminder of Chicago's earliest days and of the loss of Terry Kath. The mellotron touches and the vocal style provide a poignant end to contrast with the upbeat music leading to it. This song is a well-placed end to the original album.
The remastered release has two additional songs. The first is a rehearsal of funky Robert Lamm song, "I'd Rather Be Rich." While the song is worth having, its upbeat tempo detracts from the layout of the original album and song would better have been placed before "Hope for Love." The second bonus song, Terry Kath's "Your Love Is an Attitude," could have followed or preceded "Hope for Love." While the song is generally upbeat, Terry Kath's voice stylistically places this song close enough to "Hope for Love" that there is a good fit between the two.
This album has a stunning variety of music. The general tone is positive and enthusiastic. The album shows a lot of pop influence, both in the style and tone of the music and in the length of the songs, which are all under four minutes. There is a lot of jazz and blues influence, but the songs are generally pop. It is likely the pop style that caused this album to be the first Chicago album to be certified platinum, and Peter Cetera's beautiful ballad had to have been a critical part of the that success. While those of us who liked the early progressive rock-jazz Chicago albums may decry the transition of Chicago to a pop band, the album was a commercial and critical success well beyond any of those earlier albums, and further elevated the musical importance of Chicago in the mid-70s.