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Lee Kelemen
Former jazz, jazz-fusion critic, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Reviews
6
Lists
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Collection
23
Lee Kelemen's Album Reviews
Heath Bartlett has summed things up pretty well.
Here are my additions: This is the only Chicago album to make generous use of slide guitar on a few deep tracks -- "Flight 602" and "What Else Can I Say?"
The former provides a stunning, lush demonstration of what these guys could do with vocal harmonizing and acoustic guitar (no brass on the track).
The latter reveals a nascent Peter Cetera honing his newfound songwriting chops -- only his second song composed for Chicago. There are faint rumblings of his talent that would eventually emerge and grow to be Chicago's powerhouse balladeer and eventual "voice of Chicago."
Both songs make generous use of slide guitar in a way that had to have been influenced by similar sounds that emerged from Crosby, Stills & Nash around this time.
This is also the only Chicago album where you’ll hear a toilet flush (side 4).
Then there’s Terry Kath’s crown jewel — a five-part suite called “An Hour in the Shower.” As the title hints, the lyrics are mundane – about an average Joe’s workday that starts with a shower. But the mundane merges with the musically sublime here — lots of major key, up-tempo twists and turns, blues guitar riffs, majestic yearning, and even a spot where (I swear to God) Chicago’s singers harmonize like the Lettermen or guys on the Lawrence Welk Show. The lyrics that describe the ordinary, blend with music joyously sublime and also subtly humorous that will leave you with a smirk like Terry Kath’s. It’s like he’s saying, “Take my chops seriously! But not too seriously, because I’m just a regular guy.”
Compared to their other work, this is a somewhat overlooked album, maybe because it did not produce any top 10 hits. But it’s every bit as good as (and more experimental than) Chicago II.
Here are my additions: This is the only Chicago album to make generous use of slide guitar on a few deep tracks -- "Flight 602" and "What Else Can I Say?"
The former provides a stunning, lush demonstration of what these guys could do with vocal harmonizing and acoustic guitar (no brass on the track).
The latter reveals a nascent Peter Cetera honing his newfound songwriting chops -- only his second song composed for Chicago. There are faint rumblings of his talent that would eventually emerge and grow to be Chicago's powerhouse balladeer and eventual "voice of Chicago."
Both songs make generous use of slide guitar in a way that had to have been influenced by similar sounds that emerged from Crosby, Stills & Nash around this time.
This is also the only Chicago album where you’ll hear a toilet flush (side 4).
Then there’s Terry Kath’s crown jewel — a five-part suite called “An Hour in the Shower.” As the title hints, the lyrics are mundane – about an average Joe’s workday that starts with a shower. But the mundane merges with the musically sublime here — lots of major key, up-tempo twists and turns, blues guitar riffs, majestic yearning, and even a spot where (I swear to God) Chicago’s singers harmonize like the Lettermen or guys on the Lawrence Welk Show. The lyrics that describe the ordinary, blend with music joyously sublime and also subtly humorous that will leave you with a smirk like Terry Kath’s. It’s like he’s saying, “Take my chops seriously! But not too seriously, because I’m just a regular guy.”
Compared to their other work, this is a somewhat overlooked album, maybe because it did not produce any top 10 hits. But it’s every bit as good as (and more experimental than) Chicago II.
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