The legendary unreleased 22
rd album. Shelved in 1993 by a label that didn't know its assets from its liabilities.
It has now been released by the rather more enterprising (and clearly more astute) Rhino Records label, with 4 bonus tracks - 3 demos, 2 of tracks that appeared on the album in finished form and 1 that didn't, plus an interestingly alternative mix of the title track.
The key to '
Stone Of Sisyphus' was the selection of Peter
Wolf to produce.
Wolf's production credits include a number of high profile artists, like Heart, Starship, The
Scorpions and two personal favourites, Lou Gramm and Wang Chung.
Like that other highly respected producer, Mutt Lange,
Wolf seems to have an ability to pull more out of his customers than most. Whether that's through inspiration or just a cold eyed professionalism I don't know. At the outset,
Wolf's pronouncement was this: the band needed to return to what had made it great in the first place - collaborative songwriting, jamming and workshopping the songs, experimentation, camaraderie.
From the opening salvo to the closing note, there's no argument. The band met
Wolf's challenge head on and delivered 11 tracks that sound fresh, exciting, powerful, overflowing with conviction in their ability as artists and filled with affection for their art.
It's nothing if not collaborative, with Bill Champlin, Jason Scheff, Robert Lamm, James Pankow and Lee Loughnane all contributing to the songwriting, in various combinations, occasionally teaming up with "outsiders" like Bruce Gaitsch and John McCurry.
The result is a truly magnificent collection of songs.
The opener and title track, '
Stone Of Sisyphus' is a lesson in how to do it and get it right.
Horns, guitar motifs and looping rhythms sound powerful and melodic, busy but never cluttered, creating the perfect scenario for Lamm to deliver a towering vocal performance. Written by guitar man Dawayne Bailey and horn man Lee Loughnane, it is unarguably the album's outstanding track.
That said, several of the remaining 10 tracks come tantalisingly close.
'Bigger Than Elvis', an eye watering, yet resolutely unsentimental tribute to Jerry Scheff, Jason's father and erstwhile member of Elvis's backing band almost gets there.
The anthemic ensemble number '
All The Years' takes centre stage for a showstopping 4 minutes, with the big, all-join-in chorus masking a hard hitting political message.
Elsewhere, an awesome piece of rapping (yes, rapping) from Lamm, a fabulous arrangement from
Wolf and the band - full of rifling, pounding rhythms, charging guitars and fiery horns - elevates '
Sleeping In The Middle Of The Bed' to killer cut contender.
The balladic, heart shaped, chart shaped
'Let's Take A Lifetime' is probably the nearest the band get to the Cetera era, further demonstrating the band's incomparable versatility.
Strangely, the gripping, compulsive '
The Pull' initially has an eighties' feel to it, vaguely recalling Richard Marx before casting off these restrictive references like a snake shedding its skin, launching into an articulate, soaring chorus that just lifts you off the ground.
The truth is, of course, that every track has something going for it.
Wolf clearly inspired the band members to write and perform without the distraction of Boardroom expectations.
The irony is that having produced what was, unequivocally their best work for many years, the short sighted suits in the boardroom rejected the album.
They say great things come to those who wait. We've waited for 15 years.
The moment has finally arrived.
Written by
Brian Thursday, August 14, 2008
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