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 Keep It Simple
Van Morrison
Roger McGuinn @ the Huntington IMAC, Long Island, NY - April 4, 2008
Emily Saxe @ the Allen Room/Jazz at Lincoln Center - April 5, 2008
Another Country
Tift Merritt
Be Your Own Pet
Get Awkward
Paul McCartney – The McCartney Years (DVD)
Juno – Music from the Motion Picture
Various Artists
Yes - Their Definitive Story
Day and Night Driving
Seven Mary Three
InterMedia Arts Center 2/2/08
Huntington, NY
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Chicago
I have to admit that I feel somewhat embarrassed at having bought this two-disk set, but I guess it serves as a testimonial to advertising. Had it not been for my 10-year old son seeing the television commercials for this collection and then asking me to buy it, you can be quite sure that I never would have seen the inside of this jewel box. Besides, I already owned a slew of early Chicago albums (the first up to Chicago IX) and I had not given them much attention in the past, oh, thirty years or so. There’s a reason for that. The two-disk sets that they released habitually back in the early seventies were mostly bloated affairs, full of good playing but lousy music, with the exception of the radio-friendly hits that were interspersed throughout.
I guess that it comes as no surprise, then, that this collection is also a two-CD set, but with precious little padding. Throughout the seventies, Chicago virtually defined pop radio. If you were to draw a timeline of their career, they could easily be fingered for abandoning FM for AM, thus sounding the impending death knell for progressive radio. For these and a few other reasons, these guys were never favorites of mine, so I hesitated to buy this for my son, until the discounted price reeled me in (I paid $18). For the money, this collection does a remarkable job of covering the band’s hits, offering 39 songs, almost all of which were top 40 at one time or another. The question is, do you care any more than I do?
Essentially, Chicago were/are two completely different bands. The ‘classic’ Chicago is represented on disk one, with obvious hits like "Saturday in the Park", "Feelin’ Stronger Every Day", "Colour My World", "25 or 6 to 4" (whatever that means – after three decades, I still don’t know – or care) and "Make Me Smile". Arranged chronologically by chart appearance, some songs survive better than others; "Lowdown" still sounds pretty cool, and the new edit of "Beginnings" balances out nicely. Dated as all hell, these songs at least work well as nostalgia.
The real problem here is disk two. Some time in the late 70’s, Chicago dropped their stylistic calling card and became one of the most flagrant abusers of compression in the business. By taking a mediocre melody and drenching it in studio bombast – echo, reverb, and that ridiculous cannon-shot snare drum - I can hardly tell any of these twenty songs apart. Nevertheless, somebody was buying this stuff, if chart position means anything ("Hard to Say I’m Sorry", "Hard Habit to Break", "You’re the Inspiration" "Will You Still Love Me", "I Don’t Wanna Live Without Your Love" and "Look Away" were all top three singles). I don’t care. I still think this stuff sucks, but hey, the disk is cheap. You could buy it, bring it home, break out the old photo album, and play disk one. You can use disk two as a coaster for your cocktail.
Grade: 
 
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