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album review
Recorded in 1993, Stone of Sisyphus didn't appear as scheduled in 1994 due to Chicago's record label, Warner, believing the album to be too uncommercial. As it often happens with unreleased records by major acts, a legend built up around the scrapped record, at least among devoted Chicago fans, the kind who would appreciate the musical stretching found on Stone of Sisyphus. Frankly, they may be the only group to appreciate the departures on Stone of Sisyphus, as it's a curious creature -- a splashy, expensive mainstream album that's restless yet not quite experimental but entirely devoid of pop songs. If this had been the Chicago of the early '70s, who specialized in ten-minute jazz-rock songs on their series of double albums, perhaps it would have been easier for the label to accept the variety of sounds here, but this was a Chicago coming out of five years of big placid adult contemporary hits -- songs that courted an audience that would bristle at the stiff funk of "Mah-Jong" or the Jordanaires singing harmonies on the airy "Bigger Than Elvis." Surely, any listener would shudder at "Sleeping in the Middle of the Bed," an absurd socially conscious rap track by Robert Lamm that almost certainly was the final nail in the coffin for Warner, as it's hard to imagine any audience that would find this appealing. "Sleeping in the Middle of the Bed" also goes a long way toward illustrating just how odd Stone of Sisyphus is: it's tame compared to any other record from 1993-1994, but judged alongside Chicago's other albums it's flat-out bizarre, the sound of a group desperate for a departure in the wake of a flop (1991's Chicago Twenty 1), so the bandmembers will try anything different within the confines of their sound. This means not abandoning the pristine productions -- this time courtesy of Peter Wolf, not the guy from J. Geils -- but it does mean leaving melody behind, switching up song constructions, getting a little jazzy again, and indulging a social consciousness, all things that reward the patience of loyal listeners and bewilder anybody else. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
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listener reviews
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An amazing album
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- By REO Fan
- 6/19/2008 17:42:02
- When I picked up my copy of Chicago XXXII: Stone of Sisyphus, I was almost too anxious to play the CD at all. I had read so much hype about this previously unreleased album, so many blogs, posts, comments, etc. that I was certain that there was no way that the disc could actually live up to the hype.<br/><br/>With this in mind, I ripped the package open and threw it in the player immediately. From the first notes, I was not disappointed!<br/><br/>This album is fun, exciting, fresh, creative, varied and well-crafted. There are radio-ready cuts ("Bigger than Elvis", "All the Years"), there are big, rock melodies ("Stone of Sisyphus", "The Show Must Go On"), there is even a rap ("Sleeping in the Middle of the Bed"). Throughout the CD, the presence of the big horn section is a joy unto itself.<br/><br/>THIS is what Chicago always used to be to me. No, this is NOT a return to Chicago II or their timeless debut. But it contains elements of the creativity of a band that crossed genres in order to invent their own genre. It contains political statements, tender ballads, social commentary... all the things that made Chicago what it was before the record companies decided to turn them into a cheesy ballad band.<br/><br/>This CD should have been released 15 years ago. Who knows whether it would have changed the direction for Chicago over the years or not or if it would have helped keep real Rock on the radio. But it most certainly would have kept more people interested in this excellent band.<br/><br/>I am thrilled that this CD has finally been released and that it does, in fact, live up to the hype. I highly recommend it to any and all fans of Chicago and melodic rock in general.
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