THE FAMILY WALKER 2010
Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much!
Blog
Eddie Walker's Internet Cafe Review of Chicago's New Album, Stone of Sisyphus XXXII
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Aloha to everyone! Well, the wait is over, as the TV commercials are saying, and, at long last, Chicago XXXII (Stone of Sisyphus) is finally here. Yes, you are reading this correctly. It was finally released, which means it isn't lost anymore. Thank God. It deserved to be released long ago. If the members of Chicago should by any chance, read this, I want to say, Thank you very much! As always, you didn't let down, even when it got tough, and Eddie loves ya for it!
In fact, no coffee tonight in the cafe, but we're puttin up fireworks and serving some champange! There ya go!In fact, here let me join ya!
I love this album. It comes with 4 extra bonus tracks, a never heard before song called "Love is Forever", sung by Jason, and is excellent. The liner notes are cool too, as always. Rhino did an awesome job on this release. You are listening to "Here With Me" co-written by Lamm and Pankow, which is rare and makes this special. I know they've colaborated on much of Lamm's material with regard to infusing the powerhouse horn arrangements, but this one was begun by both and I love it. It reminds me of the Dream Academy's "Life in a Northern Town", that was out in the late 80's. The title song "Stone of Sisyphus" really rips with powerful horns and a driving rhythm. Lamm is totally awesome vocally, and really gets into it. Other songs, "The Pull", "Plaid","Mah Jong", and "Let's Take a Lifetime", all different and really cool. "Bigger Than Elvis" also appears and should have charted years ago, a truly beautiful song. Lamm's "All the Years" is here too. Really cool arrangement. You'll recall, Robert released a different recording of this song on his "Life is Good in My Neighborhood" album he released in the early 90's, when I lived in Japan. Ironically, you can hear Richard Nixon's voice in the background of this song, the very same Nixon Robert blasted in his "A Song for Richard and His Friends" from Chicago IV. Also, "Sleeping in the Middle of the Bed Again" is totally awesome with powerful horn arrangements throughout. Robert previously released a different recording of this as well on his "In My Head" album, that came out in 1999. Also, I love Champlin's "Cry for the Lost", an awesome song about human compassion. I like the way Bill offers up the vocals here and the song's arrangement as well. There are the bonus tracks of "Let's Take a Lifetime" & "Mah Jong" demos from the studio, nicely done and both sound real cool. Lastly there is a different sounding "Stone of Sisyphus" Track 15, that is cool. I like the first version better, although there is some nice guitar licks at the end of this version that are mixed out in the final version.
As I said, I love this album, and I encourage all to go out and get it, if you haven't already. Aloha and Mahalo to all, thanks for coming here. Enjoy "Here with Me" in the background now, ok? I see ya later, and as always, Thank you very next....
Aloha to everyone! Well, the wait is over, as the TV commercials are saying, and, at long last, Chicago XXXII (Stone of Sisyphus) is finally here. Yes, you are reading this correctly. It was finally released, which means it isn't lost anymore. Thank God. It deserved to be released long ago. If the members of Chicago should by any chance, read this, I want to say, Thank you very much! As always, you didn't let down, even when it got tough, and Eddie loves ya for it!
In fact, no coffee tonight in the cafe, but we're puttin up fireworks and serving some champange! There ya go!In fact, here let me join ya!I love this album. It comes with 4 extra bonus tracks, a never heard before song called "Love is Forever", sung by Jason, and is excellent. The liner notes are cool too, as always. Rhino did an awesome job on this release. You are listening to "Here With Me" co-written by Lamm and Pankow, which is rare and makes this special. I know they've colaborated on much of Lamm's material with regard to infusing the powerhouse horn arrangements, but this one was begun by both and I love it. It reminds me of the Dream Academy's "Life in a Northern Town", that was out in the late 80's. The title song "Stone of Sisyphus" really rips with powerful horns and a driving rhythm. Lamm is totally awesome vocally, and really gets into it. Other songs, "The Pull", "Plaid","Mah Jong", and "Let's Take a Lifetime", all different and really cool. "Bigger Than Elvis" also appears and should have charted years ago, a truly beautiful song. Lamm's "All the Years" is here too. Really cool arrangement. You'll recall, Robert released a different recording of this song on his "Life is Good in My Neighborhood" album he released in the early 90's, when I lived in Japan. Ironically, you can hear Richard Nixon's voice in the background of this song, the very same Nixon Robert blasted in his "A Song for Richard and His Friends" from Chicago IV. Also, "Sleeping in the Middle of the Bed Again" is totally awesome with powerful horn arrangements throughout. Robert previously released a different recording of this as well on his "In My Head" album, that came out in 1999. Also, I love Champlin's "Cry for the Lost", an awesome song about human compassion. I like the way Bill offers up the vocals here and the song's arrangement as well. There are the bonus tracks of "Let's Take a Lifetime" & "Mah Jong" demos from the studio, nicely done and both sound real cool. Lastly there is a different sounding "Stone of Sisyphus" Track 15, that is cool. I like the first version better, although there is some nice guitar licks at the end of this version that are mixed out in the final version.
As I said, I love this album, and I encourage all to go out and get it, if you haven't already. Aloha and Mahalo to all, thanks for coming here. Enjoy "Here with Me" in the background now, ok? I see ya later, and as always, Thank you very next....
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