Robert Lamm - Subtlety & Passion

Our Price: $49.99
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $33.24 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more new music releases

Music CD Cover

Free Music Notes for Subtlety & Passion

Free Music Review: The Wait Is Over
Hit: 5 Stars

Drawing from Lamm's many and diverse musical preferences, influences and experiences (rock, pop, jazz, bossa, latin, world/urban), S&P offers listeners what few if any artists put out these days...music made for the sake of making music. Nowhere in these 11 tracks will you find the slightest hint of him "following the leader" in the hopes catching a current wave of popularity to garner sales or airplay.

What you will find is a collection of full-bodied, catchy pop tunes that lead you to one inescapable conclusion; that in every step of the creative process, from writing to recording to the final mix, Lamm enjoyed making this music as much if not more so than you are enjoying listening to it. And that in itself may be the defining difference between this project and its predecessors.

This work seems to be THE solo project where Lamm wasn't experimenting with a sound or style of music he was enjoying at the time, nor is there any attempt here to "sound" contemporary.

Instead, what you hear is a collection of music that encompasses ALL the many facets of his talent and influences and takes him back to doing what he's always done best: writing and singing songs that he felt something about.

While I am loathe to mention Lamm's "day job" as longtime keyboardist/vocalist for the rock-with-horns group CHICAGO here, it must be said that this may be the best work Lamm has been involved in since CHICAGO V was released some thirty-plus years ago. Certainly no other work, solo or with the band, has offered such consistent quality of writing, arranging, performance and production as you'll find here. And that's saying something.

And Lamm is no fool. When the recipe requires it, he enlists the services of his bandmates, former and present. In addition, he also calls on longtime friends Timothy B Schmidt, Gerry Beckley, Hank Linderman, Marty Grebb, Greg Eicher, Nick Lane, Larry Klimas and Jonathan Mitchell, the final result being a musical stone soup that turns the listener into a latter-day Oliver, asking, "Please Sir, may I have some more".

If you enjoy quality pop music, this album is a "must add" to your collection. Consequently, if you are a follower of his band's earlier works, you'll also want to pick this one up, as it finally serves up an answer to that long held question:

"What COULD Chicago do and how good would they be today...if they chose to be?"

Subtlety & Passion is just that. The brilliant, creative, subtle nuances Lamm's composing has always held, combined with the passion and awareness for his craft and (lyrically) for his subject matter that may have (for a plethora of reasons we won't get into here) been pushed to the back burner (or at least kept from our ears) for a couple of decades.

The Bottom Line: Go ahead and just try to listen to this one without breaking out in a smile or gettin' a little groove on...

I dare ya.

cheers!
Dennis Jones

Pop Music CDs

• Music > Styles
• Rock