Chicago V - CHICAGO***

A Hit By Varese/All Is Well/Now That You've Gone/Dialogue (Part One)/Dialogue (Part Two)/While The City Sleeps/Saturday In The Park/State Of The Union/Goodbye/Alma Mater

With Chicago V the group moved away from their original jazz-rock style towards a blander pop sound. This release is notable as their first single, rather than double, album. Includes the US No.3 single Saturday In The Park. (US:1 UK:24)

“Once again a great album by Chicago, with jazz, rock, soul and funk mixed up with fine lyrics of social criticism, that will always be a trademark of the group.”

“There's too much filler material. To make things worse, State Of The Union is a terrible attempt at funk that goes on criminally too long.”

“Chicago V is great for casual and hard-core fans alike and should be considered essential listening. This could be seen as marking the end of the classic Chicago period, as from this point on, the pop started to take more of a front seat to the more artistically challenging material.”

“The first single album released by them with nice mid and up-tempo arrangements. The songs tend to run towards the same pop/jazz/rock seen on earlier releases. The hit here was Saturday In The Park which is one of the better songs here. Another standout is the Dialogue (Part I & II) suite incorporating Terry Kath’s guitar fuzz workouts.”

“Chicago V, the band's first single album after an astonishing run of three double albums and a four-record live set, is the first in the band's history to be free of elaborate, and occasionally wearying suites. Instead, we get a compact ten song album filled with good, solid tunes.”

“There was a time when this group was inventive, socially conscious and even rocked now and then. This album still shows enough of the inventiveness.”

“The success of Chicago V can be attributed, in large part, to the strength of the hit single Saturday In The Park. This is truly a signature Chicago pop composition in every sense with Robert Lamm belting out the lead vocal with his warm timbre, the Chicago horns playing in classic style with great harmony vocal and rhythm section arrangements. This song stands as one of the all-time great pop music recordings.”