Chicago - VII

**yogibear** · 03-04-2013

Originally Posted by MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER

this thread made me buy the remastered CTA and WOW is all I can say... that was one heluva Progressive (with a capital P) album for early 1969!

yep wonderful album and the sound has been upgraded but me not being an audiophile maybe i'm just hearing things lol. for me an almost perefect album marred by the freeform guitar thing.

**Vic2012** · 03-04-2013

the freeform guitar thing

Yeah that was "filler" but man did it rawk. I don't think I've heard more than 8-10 times over the last 40 years. It's kinda Chicago's version of "Revolution 9." It's noisy and hard to listen to but it's heavy and distorted and psychedelic. The other tracks from that album that I love are "Poem 58" and "South California Purples."

**Trane** · 03-05-2013

Originally Posted by Sean

The rest are that bad, huh? 14 seems like them at their creative low, though I love the opening cut.

The only thing good with that album is the fingerprint artwork... it made me smile...

**trurl** · 03-13-2013

Well whaddaya know- I pulled this out and listened to it Monday based on this thread, and I looked it up on Wikipedia today and that was the day it was released- March 11, '74! How freaky is that... Also mildly interesting (to me at least)- I got in the car and it came on right near the end of the drum solo at the end of side one and I thought I had put Thick As A Brick in by mistake and forgotten about it- it took almost 15 seconds to remember it was Chicago. There are some striking similarities between the two solos. Even the drum sound is somewhat similar...

**Rand Kelly** · 03-13-2013

Originally Posted by bRETT

The rest are a different band, with producers and outside writers calling the shots. 14 was the last real Chicago album (and I do think it's better than Hot Streets or the one with the high-rise, though I think the latter is their best cover).

The high rise you mention would have to be 13. A very low-level album energy wise. It seems that the cover is indicative of it's sound,lush,city,disco,smooth jazz,pop all rolled into one. Gone are the innovative arrangements,complexity,adventure, it just seems like the beginning to a tried and true formula that many love and fans of the Kath era despise. I don't know why I like 16 and 32 though,but I do. I think 13 was produced by Phil Ramone which would explain why I wrote what I did.