Customer Reviews

Love Songs

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

After Rhino released the near-definitive 2-CD collection THE VERY BEST OF: ONLY THE BEGINNING in 2002, I was a bit confused by the title. "Only the Beginning?" Hey! Chicago hasn't had a top 40 hit since 1991's "Chasin' the Wind." But LOVE SONGS makes it perfectly clear. That album was only the beginning of repackaging Chicago's material.

There's really little new here if you already own THE VERY BEST OF. "If You Leave Me Now" is a live version with Philip Bailey. Another live version is "After the Love Is Gone" featuring Earth, WInd & Fire. "Never Been in Love Before" is from 1975's CHICAGO VIII. And "Here in My Heart" is a Lenny Kravitz-produced song from 1997's anthology THE HEART OF CHICAGO.

So what other creative ways can Rhino repackage this material? The Terry Kath years? The Robert Lamm-penned songs? Songs from albums whose titles don't contain a Roman numeral?

Don't get me wrong. If all you're looking for is Chicago's love songs--and ONLY their love songs, this is a solid collection. My only problem with this is that it presents the group as a bit too one dimensional.

A little over a year ago I submitted a fairly glowing review of Rhino's reissue of Chicago's Christmas album here on Amazon. My positive comments were based on two factors. First off, Rhino IS a reissue label first and foremost, and it would seem natural that they would want to reissue the Chicago Christmas album after they acquired the band's recorded output. Secondly, Rhino really did the reissue up right with the inclusion of no less than six new songs to augment the album's previous recordings. What's not to love, right?

It's the lack of those two mentioned criteria that I can't be more enthusiastic about the new "Love Songs" release. Rhino's already issued a superb greatest hits collection for Chicago, and this is really not much more than a rehash of that. With the exceptions of "Here In My Heart", "Never Been In Love Before", and 2 previously unissued tracks from the Chicago/Earth Wind And Fire tour from this past summer, (a DVD of which is rumored to be in the offing anyway), all of these tunes can already be found on Rhino's GH collection.

Don't get me wrong, this is a nice cross-section of Chicago's recorded history, and all of the tunes fit in very nicely with the album's Valentine's Day-ish concept. If you happen to be a casual music fan who may not have all of Chicago's previous collections and/or reissues, then by all means grab this up. You can't go wrong with the music.

My negativity stems from the fact that the Chicago diehard fan base has been through so much already with various and assorted hits packages from more than just the Rhino Records label in the name of getting a couple of never before heard items. It's time for Rhino to get to reissuing the remaining Chicago albums, (including the Carnegie Hall album), and putting the "hits plus two" concept to rest. Even Chicago keyboardist/singer Robert Lamm insinuated surprise on his message board when he surmised that there are still "people out there who need this music".

The great white hope for the future is that there has been work progressing on an all-new original Chicago album, with Rascal Flatt's Jay Demarcus in the producer's chair, commencing recently. A new album would certainly help the bitter pill of all these hits packages go down more smoothly as far as I'm concerned! It's been too long since people have been reminded of what a great band Chicago still is, instead of the greatness that their past recordings have illustrated.

Imagine my horror when I played my new Chicago collection of love songs and found out that If You Leave Me Now was an awful " live " version by another singer!

Not kidding, another group takes over Chicago's biggest hit,
and adds another live song later in the disc!

This ruins the flow of the collection of love songs by Chicago.
That's what I paid for (by mail order) and that's
what I expected.

Otherwise, it's a top-notch collection of all the romantic favorites from a legendary band.

A five star record loses two stars from me, for the weird
screw-up on the two live songs.

I like to think of myself as one of the biggest Chicago fans around; I've seen them many times in concert, including the most recent tour with Earth, Wind & Fire. I think it's great that they've included the two live tracks from the Chicago/EWF tour on this CD, but enough is enough! These are GREAT musicians, and it's time for a NEW STUDIO album! I simply cannot believe how many compilations and greatest hits packages Chicago has released in the past fifteen years! I will not buy an album of previously released tracks simply because there are two new songs. Chicago, be good to your fans and treat them to some new stuff...PLEASE!!!

As the writer below mentioned, it is time already to come out with a fresh new album, minus a greatest hits collection. Speaking as a die-hard fan from the 70s from NY, who remembers and belonged to the old "Chicago Express Fan Club", for those Chicagoholics out there who remember...please come out with a new album minus the great stuff.

Perhaps, with an ass kick'en album and who you know, they will enter a place in Cleveland where they belonged a long time ago. I love EWF, but if they're in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, why not the guys of CTA???

For those love birds out there, this is a nice album of soft ballads, etc...and it is nice to own, but this is my last greatest hits that I will buy from Chicago, except if they enhance the sounds on Carnegie Hall, which I think is impossible. Remeber true fans, the band itself never liked the sound quality of their 4th. But, as a true Chicagoholic, I love it for it's place in time and just to hear the greatest guitarist ever...Terry Kath.

So the choice is your's, you can't go wrong, but Bobby, Walt, Lee, Jimmy, I speak to the originals, please, as the vets of the greatest American Band of all time, give me a new album asap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!W/O the greatest hits, we have enough of those...

I snagged this import disc, and not only does it have Chicago songs, it also includes solo Peter Cetera songs including "Glory Of Love" and "Next Time I Fall." This is a must have for completists who want Cetera's Chicago and solo hit ballads in one package.

I'm sure Chicago ranks as one of the greatest American rock groups ever. I live in Spain and, perhaps, Chicago is my all time favorite group. I love songs like "You're the inspiration", "Chasin'the wind", "Look Away", "What kind of man would I be", "Hard to say I'm sorry" ...and many others. I have those songs in all the albums Chicago has released. I also have them in no less than 4 "greatest hits" albums. And enough is enough. I will buy every new album by Chicago, but buying all over again the same songs ...it just makes no sense. If you are new to Chicago's music, this is a great album. The problem to the grown-up Chicago fans is that we already have many albums like this. It's hard to say I'm sorry; but it seems like it's harder to say good bye...

Luis Mejia (son) - Chicago's first musical direction was a politically charged band with an extremely thoughtful and meaningful but undertaking rock, '60s style, but later they went through their most critical approach into pop, although it wasn't until Chicago 13 where they stablished firmly into the genre. Love Songs compilations are always among my main buys, as I'm a mellow guy who really likes sentimental and romantic music, and Chicago's Love Songs contains not only their best romantic hits, but a collection of their most soulful pop and beautiful melodies, famous or not, it does contains some of their biggest hits like "You're The Inspiration", "If You Leave Me Now", "Hard To Say I'm Sorry/Get Away", "Colour My World" and "Hard Habit To Break", all of the being their most famous love songs, while the rest of the songs are minor hits, and, as Chicago is a pop band, their most beautiful songs are obviously romantic ones, so, in this aspect, the album is really good. But then comes the vast majority of bad aspects from the album, mainly those like Chicago's early fans won't be comforted with this album, as it doesn't contain any of the early rocker style from Chicago, also the fact that a lot of love songs were unnoticed for this compilation, so a better title would be "greatest love hits". So, musically there is actually a bad aspect, but apart from it there's also the fact that Rhino got too exagerate with so many Chicago's compilations, so we're destined to hear the same group of songs over and over again. Anyway, if you like Chicago's heartful pop, and you still haven't buyed more than two of their compilations, this stands as a beautiful, joyful and correct release.

I was surprised that Love Me Tomorrow was left off this collection.Otherwise,see the first two reviews.-They pretty much sum it up.

Please...give up the "Greatest Hits" era. Let's try just one new release of unheard material or maybe it's about time to get S.O.S. off of the shelf, clean it up, and get it out there so those who haven't heard it get a chance to see what Chicago can do when they want to work it.
Time to stop treating us to more re-packages.