It was just as I thought it would be. Delivery of the product was flawless and the product was outstanding.

This is a classic album. It was recorded when mega groups began experimental recordings. In this case Chicago used the languaje of jazz. Almost all members of the group have a composition. There is a song with a sea sound behind (Wishing you were here) top of ranking, were the Beach Boys collaborated with the vocals.
It is easy to listen and also very complex. There are some songs (Mongonucleosis) with latino elements that are very common today in Latin Jazz and Salsa, but this a 1975 recording.
Other songs have an acousting shape, like the MTV Unplugged of our days (Byblos),
There is also a funky song with the Pointer Sisters collaboration (Skinny boy)
In the first two songs, Prelude to Aire and Aire, if you are new you can thing you are listening SANTANA.
Other top of ranking songs are Call on me, Happy man, and I've been searching.
Jazzy pieces of art are Devil's Sweet, Italian From New York, Hanky Panky and Life Saver.

Luis Mejia (son) - At the time Chicago VII was released, the band had already been stablished as a notorious public icon, and Chicago VII represented their comeback to the double album structure with 15 tracks, although Rhino remastered version takes care of it and stucks all its material in one cd. But much more important than being a double album, this is one of Chicago' most personal works, while they've been doing a set of different styles and steel they hadn't stablished in a genre, Chicago VII is such a personal release because of the fact that the band's interests in jazz music where high above their expectatives among critics and fame, so they just decided to give themselves a gift and release a set of material that really makes them happy, an album full of jazz music. None of the bandmates were actually recognized themselves as jazz musicians, but just because of the fact that this inclinnation for jazz was such a strong feeling inside them, its the perfect result for a soulful and deeply emotional work. Still, the same facts that even Chicago was waiting for were the ones which take off talent from the album, this jazzy experience that they went through wasn't pleasant among critics and fans, hence their intelligent producer James William Guercio had to put a certain pressure on the band for they to release the second cd of the album, which it contained a much more comprehensible, soft, pop and more commercially attractive set of songs, some of them reached to be very famous among their later career. On its set of jazzy songs, is quickly notorious in the opening songs their jazz interests, as it is obvious in the first three jazzy instrumental tracks: Prelude To Aire, Aire and Devil's Sweet, all three songs possess a great influence from latin jazz sounds, just as its remarkable the start of later collaborator Laudir DeOliveira, and the three songs are the perfect proof of drummer Danny Seraphine underrated ability and fierceful talent, Prelude To Aire is precisely the prelude to the later song Aire, and its based on a bunch of jazzy style drumming and latin influenced percussion, while Aire is the jazzy instrumental in the album which keeps their greatest jazz talent and potential material, and Devil's Sweet stands as the longest song in the album, being a ten minutes long jazzy instrumental, I think that instead of making the song musically heavy, Chicago was trying to express their deep inspirations on Jo and Elvis Jones, I don't know who they are but they are named in the song's dedication as a fact of their inspiration. The later two instrumentals are Lamm's compositions, Italian From New York is another jazzy instrumental with the higlight of possessing some rather wild electronic forays from Lamm, while the 'italian' in the song is actually DeOliveira, a cuban who joined the cuban navy and took a ship to Canada, although he was often caught by the authorities, he claimed he was an Italian from New York, and Hanky Panky is a very brief instrumental with the higlight of Cetera's best bass performance, being a vehicle for Pankow's trombone skills, while the later Life Saver is also Lamm's composition, being the first sang song in the album, its a funky, upbeat song. The laid back Happy Man is a Cetera's composition, while being a very famous song, its a much more soft with a romantic flavour, still jazzy, while James Pankow's autobiographical (I've been) Searching So Long stays as another big hit, telling about a young man discovering himself as a person, its a beautiful and recognizeable balladry with a touchy orchestration, and its adjoining Mongonucleosis is a much more enjoyable, party like song, everything but serious. Later comes Kath's two compositions in the album, Song Of The Evergreen and Byblos, Song Of The Evergreen is a very beautiful, sentimental and emotional song still with a powerful performance, is there such a sensitive theme as singing about evergreens? I don't think so..., while Byblos is a reference to a jazz club in Tokyo where Chicago played for a long while, its a very jazzy song with Kath on lead vocals, but is his dextrous acoustic guitar what makes the song a delight. Wishing You Were Here is another Cetera's composition, he wrote it while driving a motorcycle (?), and as Cetera's compositions are a commercial magnet, this beautifuly melodic and melancholic balladry went off as being another hit, while also having Beach Boys' Al Jardine, Dennis Wilson and Carl Wilson on the backing vocals, while being two straight ahead enemy bands, they were pretty close with significant collaborations, the perfect harmony between these two giants, and the following Call On Me was Loughnane first composition with Chicago, it went lucky as being a great hit, although I compare it a lot with the later Hot Streets' song No Tell Lover. The last two songs are both Lamm's compositions, Women Don't Want To Love Me and Skinny Boy, I really like Women Don't Want To Love Me undertaking, uncompromising and hopeful but joyful style even refering to dramatic theme, while Skinny Boy is very good song but its disco style The Pointer Systers' chorus really hits off my nerves. Anyway, Chicago VII is a very personal and experimental jazzy album, but don't get freaked out, this was their only one like this, later they followed their pop style, and it still possesses a bunch of very famous songs, which are the ones wich I recommend most, because that's how pop is, the most famous ones are the best ones (at least on this album), isn't it?

I have said it in other reviews of classic Chicago albums, and it's true for Chicago VII as well: the tunes I avoided in my youth (in the case the cusp between high school and college) are much more interesting to listen to now that I am "mature." Whereas I used to love the big, bold and brassy, I can better appreciate the jazzy and the inventive. Both kinds of music are well-represented on this wonderful album.

The first side has no hits, but abounds with music that showcases Chicago as a mega-talented ensemble. The album start with "Prelude to Aire" a Satie/funk fusion piece that features Walt Parazaider's flute and showcases some very expressive melodic bass playing - what Peter Cetera always did best. "Aire" is a standard Chicago instrumental -- horn-heavy and urban-flavored - featuring some excellent Terry Kath guitar solo work "Devil's Sweet" is an experimental jazz piece that features everything from a sweet sax-trumpet duet to meditative solo drum work to hard driving space music. The unfortunately-titled "Italian from New York" is an interesting, unpoppy experimental piece that starts out with a synthesized repeating riff whose beeps and boops - the kind R2D2 would later make famous in "Star Wars" - are built upon by the rest of the band. The album's solid jazz section ends with "Hanky Panky," another hard driving jazz piece that features Jim Pankow - one of the best trombonists in the business - doing phenomenal ad lib solo work.

The entire album (all fours sides for those with phonographic memories) abounds with a sense of light and easy optimism and relaxed joy. There's little of the unrelenting heaviness of Chicago VI, with its leaden hits ("Feelin' Stronger Every Day" has all the charm of King Kong rampaging the downtown) and its downbeat take on life. Even the names are lighter - "Aire," "Lifesaver," "Hanky Panky." Whatever happened between Chicagos VI and VII should be bottled and sold on street corners.

The album's hits are sweet and fully formed. "I've been Searchin' So Long" (what does this band have about droppin' its `g's?) is an almost religious rhapsody about finding meaning in one's life. The form of meaning is unspecified, and there is something uncomfortably cult-like about it. The line, "When my days have come to an end I will understand what I left behind - part of me" seems to hint at some kind of afterlife, but what kind (philosophical, traditional religious or New Age) is anyone's guess. Regardless, the horn parts are subdued, in keeping with the prayerfully ecstatically tone of the piece. "I've Been Searchin'" segues into the party-fully ecstatic rhythms of Mongonucleosis, an infectious salsa piece that will have dance and shout "Que pe chesa!" (whatever that means) along with the band.

At this point, the album stalls briefly with a couple of Terry Kathy songs. "Song of the Evergreens" aspires to be a song about the beauty and serenity of natural the world, but only manages to be a song about skiing. The final lyric, "Snow! Snow! Snow!" is repeated endlessly and seems more suited to a Perry Como holiday special than ajazz-rock album. "Byblos" is musically interesting but lyrically weak. Kath starts daringly enough with an acoustic introduction that builds throughout the tune. The tune's narrative is an startlingly unpoetic description of Kath's meeting with a woman in Byblos, evidently a bar. Kath seems simply to have described each step of the encounter ("Then, soon she had to go; I sat there all alone and thought of things she said the whole day through. And then I realized I never took the time to find out where she lived...") and put them to music. I hate to speak ill of the dead, but vapid lyrics like these probably would have stopped any thoughts of a Kath solo career in their tracks. Definitely listen to these two pieces, but pretend not to understand English.

The album soon recovers with two of the bands' big hits. "Wishin' You Were Here" (there goes the "g" again!) -- one of Peter Cetera's best efforts -- is a sweet, lyrical and wistful and sung with the Beach Boys. "Call on Me" by trumpeter Lee Loughnane has a driving beat and wonderfully open and clear horn fanfare. The lyrics tell the hackneyed story of a breakup, but the upbeat tone dispels any sadness the story might have carried.

The album ends with a couple of Robert Lamm pieces. "Woman Don't Want to Love Me" has a driving beat that drives along, accompanied by horns and Terry Kath's waa-waa guitar. "Skinny Boy" is better than in ought to be, thanks to Jim Pankow's horn arrangement and backup work by the wonderful Pointer Sisters. Lamm reprised this piece (sans horns) on his solo album and it was a disaster. "Shows to go ya" that the strength of Chicago as an ensemble.

The CD extra is a rehearsal for Kath's "Byblos" -- accompanied by bass drums, congas and organ but lacking the overdubbed guitar solo and backup vocals on the album track. The track is more quickly paced than the album version, but otherwise is a fairly well-realized version of the piece whose shortcoming I discussed earlier.

Chicago VII is a completely different animal than its dour-sour predecessor. In my experience, this album is the high point of the later half of Chicago's period with Terry Kath. After this, with the exception of terrific pieces like "Mississippi Delta City Blues" on Chicago XI, the band slipped into pop-encrusted irrelevance, as far as I was concerned. Chicago VII is the last time the original band was together, producing the jazz/pop fusion that made it famous and moving in interesting new directions. A terrific addition to any Chicago fan's collection.

Released in March 1974, and reached number one quickly, spawned three hit singles. Chicago already an established group by 1973 wanted to make Chicago VII a jazz album. This album has jazz mixed in with rock and was quite creative as Chicago pulled this experiment off. Believe me, there is no filler tracks on this cd. The first five songs take you on an instrumental joyride my favorite "Devil's Sweet" clocks in at about ten minutes. Terry Kath has a brilliant moment with "Byblos". "Call On Me" is another favorite that really is catchy with a Jazz rythem and of course "I've Been Searchin For along time" with its suspensful long instrumentation. Chicago VII is really a brilliant unappreciated gem. Every lyric and instrument is precisly placed in this well produced album. Remember Chicagos golden years of recording 1969-1979 were produced by James William Guerico. Fifteen tracks of pure 1970s bliss including the extra sixteenth track "Byblos"(rehearsel). The literature booklet supplied with cd is very informal and must be read to fully appreciate this amazing recording. Rhino does an excellent job on this reissue, if you love Chicago do yourself a favor and get all the Chicago Rhino remastered reissues it is worth it. Chicago VII a brilliant unappreciated Chicago recording.