Chicago

Chicago II

US jazz rock cooperative’s 1970 album now fine-tuned by producer Steven Wilson.

Chicago’s run of Roman numerically titled albums has continued almost but not completely unbroken up to 2014’s Chicago XXXVI: Now. In 1970, Chicago II (originally titled Chicago, just to confuse matters) delivered four sides of brass-driven classical bluesmeets-soul-meets-politically charged rock. The multipart suites Ballet For A Girl In Buchannon and It Better End Soon were composed in the shadow of the Vietnam War, but also in that postpsychedelic, musical Age Of Aquarius. Guitarist Terry Kath’s gruff vocals and keyboard player Robert Lamm’s socially conscious lyrics (“They’re killing everybody/I wish it weren’t true…”) are often paired with chamber music strings and screaming horns in the space of a few bars. One song, 25 Or 6 To 4, distilled the whole chaotic mix into one brilliant hit single. But while Chicago II’s dizzying scope and ambition is of its time, it’s a journey still worth taking.