Chicago "Now"

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. It was written and recorded in 2013–2014, and was released on July 4, 2014. Aside from the occasional few new tracks found in the band's many compilation and cover albums, Now is the band's first full album of new compositions since 2006's Chicago XXX, (not including Chicago XXXII: Stone of Sisyphus, which was released in 2008 but recorded in 1993). This album has the first original Chicago credits for veteran musicians Walfredo Reyes, Jr. and Lou Pardini, since joining the band.

The album was produced in a geographically distributed, "just-in-time" fashion. Noted by the band's cofounder Robert Lamm as "a very sort of disjointed way to work", 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".

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

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

Beginning in April 2013, the Something Else! webzine engaged the band's progressively released 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". "Watching All the Colors" is 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". 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."

It entered the American Billboard 200 at number 82.

Track listing

1. "Now" Jason Scheff, Greg Barnhill Vocals: Jason Scheff with Robert Lamm and Lou Pardini 5:03
2. "More Will Be Revealed" Lamm, Phil Galdston Vocals: Lamm with Pardini 5:11
3. "America" Lee Loughnane Vocals: Pardini 4:04
4. "Crazy Happy" Jason Scheff, Lamm Vocals: Lamm with Scheff 5:02
5. "Free at Last" Keith Howland, Tris Imboden, Lamm Vocals: Lamm 5:13
6. "Love Lives On" Barnhill, Scheff, James Pankow Vocals: Scheff 5:21
7. "Something's Coming, I Know" Gerry Beckley, Lamm Vocals: Lamm with Loughnane 3:48
8. "Watching All the Colors" Lamm, Lou Pardini Vocals: Pardini 4:15
9. "Nice Girl" Howland, Imboden, Scheff Vocals: Keith Howland with Scheff 4:02
10. "Naked in the Garden of Allah" Lamm, Hank Linderman Vocals: Lamm 4:24
11. "Another Trippy Day" John Van Eps, Lamm Vocals: Lamm with Pardini 4:04

Hank Linderman – coordinating producer, engineer, editing, mixing

Phil Galdston – additional production and arrangements (Track 2)

Drew Hester – drum track engineer

Keith Howland – engineer (Tracks 5 and 9)

Dave Collins – mastering

Rick Walsh – additional horn transcriptions

Robert Lamm and Trent Gardner – art direction

Trent Gardner with Rigel Blue Agency and Lucky Thirteen Designs – package design and graphics

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