Customer Reviews

Twenty 1

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Being Chicago's last studio record full of original material, Chicago Twenty 1 offered a sonic glimpse of a power ballad dinosaur being put out to pasture. Only one song, "Chasin' the Wind," would barely chart in top 40 territory. For Chicago, this was a long-welcomed failure: the record company pushed Chicago's buttons, the hit machine gave them what they wanted, and the formula did not yield expected results! Sadly, Twenty 1 would mark another post-departure effort for the group: original drummer Danny Seraphine was allegedly voted out of the band in favor of session drummer, Tris Imboden.

Sonically, the record shimmers with Ron Nevison and Humberto Gatica serving as engineers/producers. This was Chicago's first slab produced entirely in the digital domain (recorded, mixed and mastered in digital). Even though a couple or so tunes have compromised or absent horn arrangements, I could still get into them (e.g. "Somebody Somewhere," "Man to Woman," "Holdin' On"). Expectedly, the studio musicianship is no let-down with help from Tom Keane, Michael Landau, David Foster, and Steve Porcaro. The songwriting is good, lyrically lacking, but good (Chicago never had a Bob Dylan or Roger Waters; their music always spoke volumes). Of course, Diane Warren makes contributions with encouragement from the powers that be. Sorry, but Diane Warren and Chicago, for the most part, do not pair well.

Twenty 1 is not as magical or hit-worthy as 17 or 18, but there's still some good stuff here. First off, let me express my lack of enthusiasm for certain tunes. "Chasin' the Wind," in typical Diane Warren fashion, is barely more than a 4 chord formula---not much that the horn guys could augment, arrangement skills notwithstanding (and basically, they didn't). There is something unsettling in the choruses of "Only Time Can Heal the Wounded," perhaps it's the repetitiveness. The horn solo and key change are really cool, though. "Who Do You Love" just doesn't do it for me, though Bill Champlin's voice almost redeems the track.

Now for positivity. "Explain It To My Heart" is probably one of Diane Warren's best songs. Jason Scheff and Bill Champlin share the lead vocal, complimenting one another nicely. In my opinion, Diane Warren is best known for lyrical sentiment and in this tune, it's as good as it gets: the mind can come to terms with a break-up, but the heart cannot. I love the key change with the horns, too (Diane Warren didn't write that, did she?). "If It Were You" is one of my favorites, with an upbeat tempo, killer horn arrangement and bassline. Presented with a critical relationship dilemma, "would you hold on... or just give up forever that part of your life... what would you do if it were you?" "You Come To My Senses" is a nice ballad... wussy, but nice. "Somebody Somewhere" is a good rock tune, co-penned and sung by Bill Champlin. "What Does It Take" is good. The guitar solo rocks! "One From the Heart," sung and cowritten by Robert Lamm, has a cool swing feel that reminds me of "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" "God Save the Queen" is an awesome, funky number about impending environmental doom: "God save the queen, dear Mother Earth is dying away." In shades of 18's "One More Day," the song offers the same optimism: "one more tomorrow depends on today." "Man to Woman" is another decent love song. "Holdin' On" is another Scheff/Champlin duet---a splendid ballad with a gorgeous vocal and instrumental arrangement (my favorite on Twenty 1, anyway). As the final track, it should have, perhaps, served as Chicago's testament for what it had endured and was about to endure again: waning commercial success, popularity, corporate support, etc.

After Chicago Twenty 1, it was definitely time for a change. The original studio effort, Chicago 22 (Stone of Sisyphus), would never be released by Warner Bros. They would not allow Chicago to creatively reinvent itself, despite lessons learned (?) in losing at Twenty 1. Twenty 1 ends another important chapter in Chicago's history, and is overall, a good listen---well worth the money. It's definitely a good buy that stands on its own as good music.

Was this cd the reason Chicago stopped making new music? It might be a disappointing effort but it isn't a total loss by any means. "Chasing the wind" "Explain it to my heart" and "God save the Queen" are very good cuts that I look forward to when I put this one on. But 3 good ones don't make up for the mediocre songs that remain. It's just that the tunes are not well-written because the production and musicianship are top-notch, as always. And the vocals are outstanding throughout. I only wish they had continued to push onward considering the great songwriters they have in the band.

Twenty 1, in it's unqualified commercial failure, proved to Warner Brothers that Chicago covering Diane Warren's generic, 3-chord power ballads doen't necessarily equal success. This idea paved the way for the fantastic (but still unreleased) all-original Chicago 22 (Stone of Sisyphus), a gem that all fans need to obtain.

Back to the topic, Twenty 1 does contain 3 breakout tracks which far exceed the similarly rated tracks on their last couple of albums. Jason Scheff's IF IT WERE YOU, Jimmy Pankow/Scheff's GOD SAVE THE QUEEN & Bill Champlin's WHO DO YOU LOVE do a whole lot for restoring the credibility of these guys as excellent songwriter/musicians. That they're sandwiched on bread containing the externally written EXPLAIN IT TO MY HEART, YOU COME TO MY SENSES & CHASIN' THE WIND, among other good but forgettable originals makes STONE OF SISYPHUS & hope for the future that much more positive.

OK - to start, let's take the typical "80s ballad formula" on which most of "Twenty One" is based: massive rhythm section, layers of fizzy keyboards, VERY high lead vocals, and a wailing guitar solo after the second chorus. Rounded off with a highly original key change thrown in for good measure (as on "Explain It to My Heart" and "You Come to my Senses.")

This approach certainly worked for Peter Cetera-period Chicago (and for that matter, innumerable 80s soft-rock groups.) Therein lies the major flaw with this release. While there are a few good tracks scattered around the album (the best being "God Save the Queen" and "If It Were You," funky & reminiscent of early Chicago with the famed horn section back with a vengeance!), much of the material could have been released by Bryan Adams, Michael Bolton, Def Leppard, or Bon Jovi. It's simply not "real" Chicago, just a collection of (mostly) externally-written, bland love-songs, most of which sound more or less identical.

"Chasing the Wind" sounds excellent when it starts with just keyboard & Bill Champlin's vocals, but predictably deteriorates into yet another over-produced power-ballad, with (you guessed it!) the cliched, way-over-the-top squealing guitar solo!

There are still some flashes of brilliance - in places, the horns nearly come to the rescue - but somebody in the record company killed this band's creativity - WHY was Stone of Sisyphus never released????

Well if recent talk / rumours are anything to go by, Chicago XXVII is on the way, which should be a big improvement & something to look forward to!

I recently had a little online chat between myself and Ron Nevison, the magical producer, who's skills revived Heart, Jefferson Starship and Chicago. In fact, Nevison's good sense gave Chicago their fastest chart topping song in group history. That song was "Look Away". Nevison had complete control on Chicago 19. Fast forward to Chicago 21 which followed a very successful Greatest Hits package with Nevison's remix of "What Kind of Man Would I Be?" The songs were recorded and mixed with Nevison's trademark drum sound. Unfortunately record companies often make poor decisions. In this case WB decided to scrap Ron's mix and soften it up with lousy samples. The result is an almost. In fact, "Chasin' The Wind" contained all of the elements that made "Look Away" a #1 including the pen of Dianne Warren. To no avail, top 40 was moving in a new direction, and the song had a more AC feel to it even for 1991 standards. The rest of 21 features a great mix of ballads and rockers that don't get the production they should have. Nevison's work here was diluted so much that none of it really shows through. It's sad that a record that could become another 19, fell flat thanks to some guy in a board room. This is still a great album for the Chicago enthusiast.

This CD opens up with a great track - Explain it to my heart then meanders along until What does it take - a super power ballad that sounds like Chicago with P. Cetera on board. Other than that, Holding On is about the other memorable track here. The others are ok and dont deserve the absolute caining that the critics are giving it. It is listenable but not a vital addition to your collection.

I am a huge Chicago fan. I am sucha huge fan that I am unable to hate anything the band has done. But I can disprove of it. Chicago 21 is one of those cases. While it does have it's moments, overall the album is marginal. The singles, Explain it to my heart and Chasin the wind, are the ballads of the album. EITMH is a great ballad, soudning different than any other Chicago ballad before it. Chasing the wind has too much synthesizer. However Bill does a good job on the vocals, which saves the song. Up tempo bits such as God save the queen, If it were you, and who do you love are the highlights of the album. With "God Save the Queen", I am reminded of a college fight song. The rest of the songs range from bad to mediorce. As of this point, Robert Lamm had not been a huge force in the band for the past few albums, and he really isn't here. RL wrote two songs and sang both. While I like them, the songs are not astounding. Then there is one of the worst song chicago has ever done: You come to my senses. Oozing with sappiness, high pitched vocals, and Jason Scheff's every time trying to sound like Peter Cetera make this song one of Chicago's worst. 21 is an album that ended an era. Chicago would not release an album for WB again, and helped Chicagio along to record their best post-Kath album, SOS.
(If anybody has noticed, many reviews have mentioned SOS so far. If you can , get it! You wll not be disappointed. Compared to 21, SOS is Sgt pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band

This album is largely a collection of highly produced, heavily synthesized power ballads, which had become Chicago's "sound" in the 80's. The difference between 21 and other albums from this era is that the core character of Chicago is, to my ears, almost non-existent here. This album could have come from any number of bands/singers/producers. Another reviewer said that 21 does not hide the horns behind synthesizers - well, we must be listening to different albums. The horns are mostly buried in the mix, or are doubled by synthesizers. Based on the many positive reviews, this sound is just fine for many listeners. But if you're expecting to put on this CD and recognize it as a Chicago album, you may be disappointed. If you're looking for recent recordings (i.e. Bill Champlin/Jason Scheff era) that really sound like Chicago, check out Night and Day or Chicago XXV (Christmas).

Chicago 21 tries to use the formula the band used for 19: Scheff and Champlin provide most of the material, Diana Warren throws in two ballets, Lamm manages two compositions, with Pankow and Scheff providing a needed social commentary about the environment. It should have made for a best seller.

Yet, you won't find any recognizable song titles on this CD because the band flopped on their late night appearance promoting the first release (Explain it to my Heart) and played few if any tunes from it while on tour. What a shame! This CD provides a range of music styles worth some listening.

Diane Warren wrote "Explain it To my Heart" which is the way a cresendoing ballad should be; although "Chasing the Wind" has some element missing which I can't determine.

Scheff provides a good rocker with "If it were you", though it can't distract one from the weak ensuing ballad "You Come to My Senses". (Please Jason, do NOT pretend to be PC).

Champlin's "Someway Somewhere" sounds more appropriate performed by the Eagles or John Cougar Meloncamp. Yet it's refreshing to hear the band's efforts.

"What Does it Take" works on a nice formula, although Scheff's screeching of "You are my Destiny" can rub one the wrong way.

Lamm's "One from the Heart" is a nice uptempo bit, although he clearly borrowed a lot of material from "I Stand Up" on 19. His "Only Time Can Heal the Wounded" is a tune which develops very nicely. It's a shame the effort of this composition is not in his others.

"God Save the Queen" is a high-point, certainly a straight forward composition and message about the environment. Pankow can be counted on for making quality compositions. It's a shame he's not writing more and taking more control of the band's musical direction.

"Who do You Love" is a rocking fun piece which Champlin seems to have a great capacity for while "Holdin On" is a nice cooling off piece to finish the listen to the CD.

As of this writing, 21 is the last CD Chicago released having all original compositions (though 27 is reportedly in process). It is not anything like the band started out sounding like. Yet over half of the tracts are done by the newest members. If the band returned to their creative roots (and they seem to have tried on some pieces here as well as the never released "SOS" CD) and stopped trying ballads for the airwaves, they would not always be labelled as "Past It"

Having scored 4 singles on the previous disc, Producer Ron Nevison returned for an entire album this time (well, 11 out of 12 anyway). But all the writers & studio musicians in the world don't guarantee success (are all those people really necessary?) and I'm afraid what worked on HEART and BAD ANIMALS didn't quite click on CHICAGO TWENTY 1. The cover speaks volumes: the logo is muddied down and shoved off to the side, as though the band wasn't even here when this happened. And I'm afraid many of the tunes just weren't that memorable. However, there were exceptions: "Explain It To My Heart" and "If It Were You" were a pair of songs whose lyrics cut right to my soul and wouldn't quit for many months! Also, "God Save The Queen" (Pankow & Scheff) and "Who Do You Love" (Champlin) added some excitement amid all the songs of sadness and heartaches. Once again, I'm glad for CDs-- I can play what I LIKE (and skip the rest).