{"id":41528,"date":"2009-05-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-28T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/chicago-viii\/"},"modified":"2009-05-28T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-05-28T00:00:00","slug":"chicago-viii","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/chicago-viii\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago VIII"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is an old analogy that is applicable to a situation that doesn\u2019t reveal itself immediately; one form in which you might see it expressed is something along the lines of \u201cthe ship kept steaming forward, yet it had begun to sink\u2026\u201d It is amazing how well the music industry reflects such sentiments. By the time a band has reached its true peak, their moment has passed and it\u2019s too late to do anything about it.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Chicago definitely went on to have success following the release of Chicago VIII<\/i>, but their true chart dominance at this point had begun to spiral downwards and was only reclaimed in 1982 with Chicago 16<\/i>. After five years of intense touring and recording, it was becoming rapidly apparent that the seven members of the group were exhausted mentally and physically when the time came for this album to be recorded.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The jazz experimentations that had permeated the first half of Chicago VII<\/i> was apparently out of the band\u2019s system at this point; little on VIII<\/i> veered away from the pop\/rock foundation that had previously delivered winners for the band. Admittedly, when Chicago put their minds to it, they were capable of crafting excellent mainstream tunes. \u201cOld Days\u201d was the blockbuster single from the record, and while inherently cheesy, remains a fond ode to reminiscing. The second half of \u201cBrand New Love Affair\u201d remains one of the group\u2019s most underrated compositions, foreshadowing the success of \u201cHard To Say I\u2019m Sorry\u201d seven years later.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Yet despite the occasional glimmer of a good song, there are too many dull tracks to dig through here. \u201cHideaway\u201d finds a Chicago attempting to be edgy and tap into a hard rock vibe, only to fail miserably on both accounts. The song wastes the talents of guitarist Terry Kath and bassist Peter Cetera with a middling tempo and boring riffs. The same could be said of \u201cOh Thank You Great Spirit,\u201d which finds Kath in a mystical mood. His guitar work is impressive, but his bandmates fail to hold up their end.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The energy level picks up on the second side of the record, but the songs come across as stop gaps and nothing more. \u201cLong Time No See\u201d has a personal connection for me as it is my father\u2019s favorite Chicago tune, but it wouldn\u2019t be confused with any of the bands more successful material. \u201cAin\u2019t It Blue\u201d does deserve recognition; it not only features the band at its most frenetic pace, but it features all three lead vocalists. Chicago was blessed with three solid vocalists during its classic period, and the chance to hear all of them interplay is a rare treat.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

There is little denying that Chicago VIII <\/i>contains all the elements of what made Chicago unique from their contemporaries, but the final mixture rarely results in much compelling, worthwhile listening. Drained of ideas and energy, Chicago offered up their weakest album at the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":29906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5830],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-41528","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-chicago","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41528"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41528"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}