Robert Lamm (Chicago) - Life is Good in my Neighborhood (1995)

Skinny Boy, the first solo album by Chicago keyboard player and singer Robert Lamm, came out at the height of the group's popularity in the mid-'70s and never had much of a chance for independent success. Lamm continued with the group, his early prominence came to be eclipsed by Peter Cetera's. By 1995, when he finally released his second solo album, Life Is Good in My Neighborhood, on Chicago's own record label, the group had not had a new album out in four years. Lamm seemed to have labored long and hard over the release, which was full of well-written and powerfully sung original songs. In particular, his social conscience, expressed in early Chicago material but not much since, was given free rein, as he reflected on the state of things in "In This Country," lamented "All the Years" that had gone by without improvement, and wondered whether "Jesse" (Jackson, presumably) could improve matters. But as that reference (in a song copyrighted 1988) suggested, by 1995 much of the album was dated. This was especially true of its sound and arrangements, which were dominated by the icy keyboards, searing guitar work, and drum programming typical of the early and mid-'80s arena-rock style of performers like Foreigner, Journey, and Starship. If Life Is Good in My Neighborhood had been released by a major label at that time, it might have been competitive. By 1995, it seemed a throwback.