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Chicago XXXVI: Now (2014)

Where the lyrics of Chicago XXXVI: Now take you, and where it was really made.

Chicago's first all-new studio album since 2006 was mostly recorded in tour hotels, using a mobile system the band built itself.

Key places

Recording at Parsons Green Studios (2014)

Recording site Cocoa-Butt — Discogs lists Parsons Green Studios in Culver City, California as the recording location. The band's article says recording happened mostly in hotels and in studios along the American tour. The pin uses the Culver City city center, not the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Chicago XXXVI: Now is the 24th studio album and 36th overall by the American rock band Chicago
• Written and recorded in 2013 and 2014, released July 4, 2014
• First full album of new compositions since Chicago XXX (2006), not counting Chicago XXXII: Stone of Sisyphus (released 2008, recorded 1993)
• Entered the US Billboard 200 at number 82

Background

• Includes the first original Chicago credits for veteran musicians Walfredo Reyes, Jr. and Lou Pardini since they joined the band
• Last album with bassist and vocalist Jason Scheff before his departure in 2016
• Robert Lamm said the goal was simply to make music and grow the band's legacy, citing 46 years of track record behind them
• Some new tracks also appeared on the band's many compilation and cover albums in the same period

Recording

• Produced in a geographically distributed "just-in-time" fashion
• Enabled by a fully mobile system designed by the band, called "The Rig"
• Recorded primarily in hotels and secondarily in studios along the band's American tour
• Musicians recorded their parts alone between concert dates, then synchronized them through a private Web portal
• Hank Linderman, coordinating producer and engineer, handled the final overdubbing
• Songwriting members are each credited as "supervising producer" of their own track
• Audio preview clips were released online during the year-long development, some before the brass section was added
• The first preview, "Naked in the Garden of Allah", came out in April 2013
• The album opened for preorder in April 2014

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Chicago is an American rock band formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1967.
• The band described itself as a "rock and roll band with horns" and blended classical music, jazz, R&B, and pop.
• The group first called itself the Big Thing, became Chicago Transit Authority in 1968, and shortened its name to Chicago in 1969.

Members

• The original line-up was Peter Cetera (bass), Terry Kath (guitar), Robert Lamm (keyboards), Lee Loughnane (trumpet), James Pankow (trombone), Walter Parazaider (woodwinds), and Danny Seraphine (drums).
• Lamm, Loughnane, and Pankow have remained constant members since 2009.
• Terry Kath died in 1978 after an accidental gunshot wound.

Career

• The band's debut double album, Chicago Transit Authority (1969), was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2014.
• In 1971 Chicago became the first rock act to sell out a week at Carnegie Hall.
• "If You Leave Me Now" (1976) became the group's first number-one single and won its only Grammy.
• Billboard placed the band among the most successful chart acts in its history, and it has sold more than 100 million records.
• The original line-up was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016.
• Chicago received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award on October 16, 2020.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• The Something Else! webzine began reviewing the band's preview clips in April 2013
• It said "Naked in the Garden of Allah" revives the band's early political messages, with its lyrics and turbulent textures speaking to war and to Lamm's pleas for peace
• It said "Watching All the Colors" resembles Robert Lamm's 2008 solo sessions from The Bossa Project
• It said "Something's Coming, I Know" has a sun-streaked, Beatlesque bridge after a scuffed-up opening
• It said Tris Imboden's drums on "Crazy Happy", recorded on the tour bus, sound modern and fit the song, and that they complement the percussion of Walfredo Reyes Jr.
• AllMusic's Stephen Erlewine rated the album 3.5 out of 5 stars
• AllMusic called the album united in sound and sensibility, anchored on the horn-fueled jazz-pop the band pioneered in the 1970s, while usually returning to the slick adult contemporary of the 1980s
• AllMusic described the songs as big, smooth, cheerful and bright, putting melody ahead of instrumental interplay

Records

• Entered the US Billboard 200 at number 82

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The preview clips went online during the year-long development, and some were posted before the brass section was added.
• Something Else! said the drums on "Crazy Happy" were recorded on the tour bus.
• The first preview, "Naked in the Garden of Allah", was released in April 2013, months before preorders opened.
• The Discogs listing marks track 11 as a bonus track.
• Robert Lamm framed the project as making music and growing the legacy, citing 46 years of track record.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

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