>I do wonder if it was a combination of Kath dying and the
>change in the music scene as a whole accounted for Chicago's
>definite change in sound.

1978 was when a lot of rock (pop) acts like Chicago were making a bit of an attitudinal shift. There were signs on Chicago XI, but when they moved onto HOT STREETS, their sound got a lot more, shall I say, "sophisticated". Not that it wasn't ever, but there was a little more sheen on those records that you'd find elsewhere in their discography. Many blame Donnie Dacus for that (I, for one, believe he did a fine job filling in for the two albums he was on considering the material)... but that was the way that side of the industry was going.

I give them credit for not really diluting their sound until the lot of them had crossed 35 and Columbia had given them the boot.

CHICAGO XIV (the thumbprint album) is one of those lukewarmly-received albums I tend to ride for (other cases in point: Stanley Clarke's ROCKS, PEBBLES AND SAND and LET ME KNOW YOU), because it was the last hurrah for "Old Chicago".