Love Songs [Bonus DVD] - Chicago

It's fair to say that most of Chicago's hit singles were love songs, which makes compiling an album like Rhino's 2005 collection Love Songs a bit of an easy task. There's not much risk that the collection will contain a bunch of little-known album tracks, since there are so many romantic hits in their catalog, and Love Songs proves that theory right, since most of the 18 songs here are among Chicago's best-known songs. This set leans heavily on the group's '80s recordings, both with and without Peter Cetera, but that's not a problem, since it gives the set a coherence. While this isn't a perfect collection -- it would have been nice if the original version of "If You Leave Me Now" was here instead of a live version from 2004 featuring Philip Bailey, and it's also strange that Bailey's group, Earth, Wind & Fire, is featured here with "After the Love Has Gone" in a live 2004 recording simply because Chicago's Bill Champlin is on the track -- it nevertheless contains nearly all of the band's biggest love songs, including "You're the Inspiration," "Hard to Say I'm Sorry," "Colour My World," "Look Away," "Will You Still Love Me?," "No Tell Lover," "What Kind of Man Would I Be?," and "Wishing You Were Here." That makes this disc an excellent choice for anybody seeking a Chicago album containing nothing but romantic music. Plus, the back cover art of candy hearts bearing Chicago song titles is kinda cute, too. [In 2007, WSM/Rhino issued an edition of the album that included a bonus DVD.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide