Chicago is back with their 38th studio album “Born for this moment” their 44th album overall and their first non Christmas album in eight years. This is their first album with their new lead singer Neil Donell who is their 3rd Peter Cetera replacement (Jason Scheff & Jeff Coffey) who has a great tenor voice like the men before him but he doesn’t play bass like them (they have someone else on bass). This is also the first album without Tris Imboden their second drummer and without Walter Parazaider due to health concerns one of the original members who plays saxophone, flute and other wind instruments.
If you were to listen to this album without any information on who it was you would be like this is a great pop-rock album with a great lead singer that has a great tenor voice, talented musicians/amazing brass section and great harmonizing because it is not really a Chicago album. Robert Lamm wrote only seven songs but they don’t appear till five songs in and then appear randomly throughout out the album and supposedly he played bass on a few besides usual keys which no one knew he could play. He got help from Illinois songwriting legend Jim Peterik (of Ideas of March & Survivor) to help right a few songs too. Songs “Our New York time”, “Crazy Idea”, “She’s right”, “House on the hill” are not bad songs as some are catchy/funky, with the usual great brass section.
The issue is on “She’s Right” his vocals are bad, the track “The Mermaid- Sereia Do Mar” is the worst song on the album it doesn’t know if it’s a yacht rock or Latin rock, and “Our New York time” doesn’t know if it’s a funky song or have a guitar solo to end it. The weirdest thing is the start of the song sounds exactly like “Beginnings” an earlier hit of theirs. The other two Lamm songs are really good as one is the lead track/album name/single “Born for this moment” as new lead singer Donell sounds great and has the old Chicago feel to it with all of the elements. While “For the Love” should be the final song as it is a beautiful emotional song with great acoustic guitar and a violin solo.
James Pankow(trombone) wrote three songs; “Firecracker” a funky/catchy song, “Someone needed me the most” which is a very emotional song that sounds like their music from the 80s with great brass work and is one of the best songs on album .“Make a man outta me” has great vocals/rocks out but has a good 80s RNB love song vibe. Funny thing Keith Howland previously their lead guitarist actually co-wrote that song/plays lead guitar and also plays lead guitar on Lee Loughhane’s(Trumpet) “If this isn’t love” which is another great catchy/funky song that rocks out. Lou Pardini who replaced Bill Champlin appears on some tracks with his keyboard playing too despite not being in the band also.
Other tracks “If this isn’t goodbye” sounds like Peter Cetera sang instead of Donell with great harmonizing and its one of their singles. “You’ve got to believe” has a very 80s style to it with the synthesizer /keyboards. One of the best songs is “Safe Harbours”(written by Donell) as it is very emotional with great harmonizing and great strings on it. Sounds like Seal & Crofts/Dan Fogelberg but not a Chicago song.
Lamm gets credit for finding a great new lead singer who can sing tenor, getting Petrik to help write some songs, and having Lougane/Pankow help out with the song writing because this is a great album with only one bad track for a band that has been around for fifty five years. It is not a cohesive album with funk, RNB, Rock, Pop and 80s music but because we know it’s a Chicago album we know it hits all the marks, great tenor lead singer, great musicians, great song writing, a great brass section and great harmonizing. It is another fine addition to their long history of discography, and Lamm is correct they have been born for this moment since 1967.