Chicago XXXVI: Now

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Chicago XXXVI: Now
NOW Chicago XXXVI Album Cover thumbnail.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedJuly 4, 2014
Recorded2013 (2013)–2014 (2014)
Genre
Length50:27
Label Chicago Records II
Producer Chicago, Hank Linderman
Chicago chronology
Chicago XXXV: The Nashville Sessions
(2013)
Chicago XXXVI: Now
(2014)
Chicago at Symphony Hall
(2015)

Chicago XXXVI: Now, sometimes stylized as "NOW" Chicago XXXVI or Now: Chicago XXXVI, is the twenty-fourth studio album, and thirty-sixth overall by Chicago, an American rock band. It was written and recorded in 2013 and 2014, and released on July 4, 2014. Now is the band's first full album of new compositions since 2006's Chicago XXX , [1] not including Chicago XXXII: Stone of Sisyphus , which was released in 2008 but recorded in 1993; [2] and notwithstanding the occasional new tracks released in the band's many compilation and cover albums.

Contents

This album has the first original Chicago credits for veteran musicians Walfredo Reyes, Jr. and Lou Pardini, since joining the band. It entered the US Billboard 200 at number 82. [3] . It is also one of the group's last albums to feature original saxophonist / band founder Walter Parazaider before his retirement from touring in 2017 due to a heart condition and his 2021 diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.

Production

The album was produced in a geographically distributed, "just-in-time" [2] fashion. Noted by the band's cofounder Robert Lamm as "a very sort of disjointed way to work", [1] Now's production model was largely enabled by a fully mobile system of the band's own design called "The Rig". It was recorded primarily in hotels and secondarily in studios along the band's American tour, constructed mostly from each musician's isolated performances between concert dates, and then synchronized via a private Web portal site for final overdubbing by coordinating producer and engineer Hank Linderman. The band's songwriting members are each respectively credited as each track's "supervising producer". [4]

During the album's year-long development, audio preview clips of each track were released to the public online — some before they were completed by the addition of the band's signature brass section. [2] The first preview, "Naked in the Garden of Allah", was released in April 2013. The album was made available for preorder in April 2014 and released July 2014. [5]

The ultimate goal was to make music — and now we're doing that. We're going to see how far we can go with this. Thank goodness we have 46 years of track record behind us. We're just trying to grow the legacy even more.

Chicago cofounder, Lee Loughnane, on Now [1]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [6]

Beginning in April 2013, the Something Else! webzine reviewed the band's preview clips. They said that "Naked in the Garden of Allah" "reanimates" the band's early "cutting" political messages, wherein "the lyrics, and the song's turbulent textures, speak to both the horrors of war and to Lamm's enduring pleas for peace". [5] "Watching All the Colors" was said to resemble Robert Lamm's 2008 solo sessions from The Bossa Project, and "Something's Coming, I Know" "rumbles along with a more scuffed-up cadence — until it's broken up by this sun-streaked, Beatlesque bridge". [2] Recorded on the tour bus, Tris Imboden's drums on "Crazy Happy" are said to "sound modern and appropriate for the song and mesh seamlessly". They complement the album's percussion, as provided by "the great Walfredo Reyes Jr." [7]

AllMusic's Stephen Erlewine rated the album 3.5 stars out of 5, calling it "united in sound and sensibility, anchored upon the splashy horn-fueled jazz-pop they pioneered in the '70s but usually returning to the slick professional adult contemporary of the '80s", with songs that are "big, smooth, cheerful, and bright, emphasizing melody over instrumental interplay, explicitly evoking the past without re-creating it". [6]

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalsLength
1."Now" Jason Scheff, Greg Barnhill Jason Scheff with Robert Lamm and Lou Pardini 5:03
2."More Will Be Revealed"Lamm, Phil GaldstonLamm with Pardini5:11
3."America" Lee Loughnane Pardini4:04
4."Crazy Happy" Jason Scheff, LammLamm with Scheff5:02
5."Free at Last" Keith Howland, Tris Imboden, LammLamm5:13
6."Love Lives On"Barnhill, Scheff, James Pankow Scheff5:21
7."Something's Coming, I Know" Gerry Beckley, LammLamm with Loughnane3:48
8."Watching All the Colors"Lamm, Lou Pardini Pardini4:15
9."Nice Girl"Howland, Imboden, Scheff Keith Howland with Scheff4:02
10."Naked in the Garden of Allah"Lamm, Hank LindermanLamm4:24
11."Another Trippy Day"John Van Eps, LammLamm with Pardini4:04

Personnel

Chicago

Additional musicians

Production

The band's composers are each respectively credited as each track's "supervising producer". [4]

Charts

Chart (2014)Peak
position
UK Independent Albums [8] 24
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [9] 56
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [10] 100
US Billboard 200 [11] 82

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References

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  2. 1 2 3 4 "Something Else! sneak peek: Chicago, "Somethin' Comin,' I Know" and "Watching All the Colors" (2013)". Something Else!. April 4, 2013. Archived from the original on August 10, 2014. Retrieved May 1, 2014.
  3. "Billboard 200: 1991: Chicago" . Retrieved July 25, 2014.
  4. 1 2 ""Now" Chicago XXXVI Liner Notes". Chicago Records II. April 5, 2014. Archived from the original on April 15, 2014. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
  5. 1 2 Deriso, Nick (April 10, 2013). "Chicago offers insight into the construction of new song "Naked In The Garden Of Allah"". Something Else!. Archived from the original on June 27, 2014. Retrieved April 30, 2014.
  6. 1 2 Chicago XXXVI: Now at AllMusic. Retrieved July 25, 2014.
  7. Frazier, Preston (January 7, 2014). "One Track Mind: Chicago, "Crazy Happy" (2013)". Something Else!. Archived from the original on March 15, 2014. Retrieved May 1, 2014.
  8. "Now - Chicago XXXVI". officialcharts.com. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
  9. "Offiziellecharts.de – Chicago – Now - Chicago XXXVI" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  10. "Swisscharts.com – Chicago – Now - Chicago XXXVI". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  11. "Chicago Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved November 16, 2020.