The Great Planet Skaro Queen Time Team: Made It to Made In Heaven!

[Dino]

Ironically, I come to this thread just as my hearing gets better.
And I come to the last album of theirs I have. (Until a few albums later, promise I'll be more with it that time)

WE WILL ROCK YOU

My main memory of this is growing up and hearing it played by my local Labour candidate in the 80's, as they drove around with one of those cars that had a loud hailer on top.
Clearly Peter Mandelson had a say in future Labour campaigns. So this tactic was abandoned from 1992 onwards. Pity really. Plus if you really didn't like what Labour did, then you can't deny that New Labour actually didn't ROCK YOU? (Whether ROCK YOU was what the country actually needed etc...)
Yeah, I like the song. Makes you think the album is going to be full of stripped back songs. Well...

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS

Bit gutted to read on it's wiki page that this was a song began a few years earlier. Another song I grew up hearing in some way. Seeing the lyrics for it in one of my brother's football programmes. It does what it says on the tin. My favourite bit is the PUMP! PUMP! PUMMMP! leading into the chorus. In fact I like that bit more than the chorus. Although that said, the ending is a bit rubbish.

SHEER HEART ATTACK

Well you're just actually 16 and you want to get acceptance of your friend in school. Who happens to be a Queen fan, he keeps going on and on about it, so you find this album in your brother's collection and think "This'll do".
1990. What was happening in rock? I didn't like Guns'N'Roses. Or The Stone Roses. The Smiths bypassed me. Super Furry Animals didn't exist in the form we know them yet. Manic Street Preachers were about. But on a small indie label and I didn't watch Snub TV. The dog turd on the back of the Sex Pistols compilation put me off playing it. So as well as Helter Skelter, Jimi Hendrix and "The King Is Half Undressed" by Jellyfish (And I STILL didn't get around to buying their debut album...) I also had this song for my rock fix. Hopefully it's blowing the head of a 16 year old at the minute (Unlikely, their probably into Foo Fighters, if they are into rock in the first place) so this song has a place in my heart. Not a great vista in my heart. But not a cat food cupboard either. Just a little bit bigger. And even then, this is another left over I've just learned about. Is there nothing on this album that's fresh and up to date?!!!

ALL DEAD, ALL DEAD

Sung by Brian May? Amazing! I seriously thought it was Freddie. For some time. When Freddie died I played all the Queen albums I could get hold of. But I skipped this song. Didn't seem appropriate. Not as overblown production wise compared to the stuff on the last two albums. If I was into Queen a few years earlier I would have done a tribute to Sophie Aldred called "Aldred, Aldred" which you can only imagine would have been awful and gotten me a restraining order!

SPREAD YOUR WINGS

Well my brother liked this song so much he wrote his own song (Lyrics in the inside sleeve) which I feel need to be shared with a larger public.
Ah... can't find the album. Oh well, it was basically the chorus with a few extra bits that weren't that memorable. And I think he even did that "Copyright" with a fictitious music publisher. Well we've all done that, right?...
This song is not as good as "You And I" for Deacon goodness. But it's quite good still.

FIGHT FROM THE INSIDE

"Aaahhh.... ahh ahhh."
*dum *dit *dum *dit
"Aaahhh.... ahh ahhh"
*dum *dit* dum *dit
"AAAHHH.... AHH AHHH!!"
You can't win with your hands tied. But you might be able to write a better song than this!

GET DOWN MAKE LOVE

If human society ever collapses like the fundamentalists say, then I hope this makes the cut of "The Best Sexual Predator Songs In The World... Ever!!!" with an album cover of Jeremy Clarkson leering from his car window at a tearful child crawling away. (Note to PS legal department: The above is a "What if?" about society collapsing, and in no way suggests Jeremy Clarkson is a child sexual predator. I'm just saying he might do if there was nothing left to lose)
I like the guitars that crash in on the "Every time I get hot/ You wanna cool down" bits. And I do like that SFX dragging and grinding effect. But (And this is from a 21st Century perspective) it's a bit... b-side?

SLEEPING ON THE SIDEWALK

I love this one as well. Sounds quite cheap when you hear more than one Queen record. But it's still got a charm to it. I think it's a really underrated track. And it does a great job in bringing the album back to greatness after the last two songs. It wouldn't work on any other part of the album. It would create a different impression if it started the album and it sounds too casual to close the album. So there it sits. And it knows it's place. Good little song.

WHO NEEDS YOU?

Even more stripped back and softer than the last song. I never really paid that much attention to it. It's pleasant enough. I'd rather hear this than Get Down, Make Love for a start. In fact, it might be the campest song on the album. You could do a thumping techno cover of it and it'd still work. Very "Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair" feel to it. I like the percussion on it.

IT'S LATE

I've always like this one. It has electric guitars on it! It builds. You can picture yourself doing weights to it (why didn't I get into weightlifting when I was 16? Oh well, I love falling asleep in the afternoon, and who needs bodybuilding when you've been prescribed Mirtazapine?) I love the chord sequence just before the bit where the verse goes to the chorus the "But there's something inside" part. I've no idea if this was performed live, but I'd imagine it would have been a fistpump fest. (Unless it was performed nowadays where people in the audience sing the entire song instead of waiting for the bits when they might actually sound better- in smaller doses)
Good winding down element to it. Winding down, but still HARD. Would have been better if we'd had more hardness, but you know, Punk is a distant memory these days. So I've no idea how well this album stood up back then.
Oh! Oh! OH! OH! NOW it picks up the pace! And then back to the start. Full curtain call.

MY MELANCHOLY BLUES

The album doesn't rock out at the end. It just puts on a soft piano piece as an encore. The best piano Freddie plays on the record. Quite decadent. A feeling of "Oh. Little Mr and Mrs Rock want something to take them into the night? Well no. This is how I feel!" about it. No crash, no orchestral loop, no feedback, just a fade out with a "PLINK!" from the piano.

So, there's some great Queen rock stuff on this album. Just not as many as you'd think. It's still my favourite album cover. And I can't wait to see the Family Guy episode where Stewie is apparently scared of the cover... so Brian buys it to torment him. No idea why NME rated it their best album *coughInnuendo*cough but that's the NME for you. I do like this. I haven't sat down and worked out my ranked Queen albums. Not sure it'd be top three. But it wouldn't be lower than 5TH.

And now I can't wait to read your journey through "Jazz". Another album that I meant to get hold of. But there's a queue of albums first. Like that Jellyfish debut. And that Curve debut. And Let It Be. I've heard bits of it, just not in full. And Band Of Gypsies and... *continues to the end of sodding time!

[Rob McCow]

You can't win with your hands tied. But you might be able to write a better song than this!

:rofl

Really enjoyed reading your comments (and autobiographical stuff!) which seem directly opposite to my own, especially over Sheer Heart Attack. Maybe I've been unfair on that song, but I still get that feeling of annoyance when it starts and relief each time it finishes.

[Si Hunt]

Queen - Jazz!

Mustapha

A most unusual start to the album. "Ibbbbbrrrrraaaaaaheeeeeemmmm!" Mercury calls. What follows is something fairly tuneless and mostly inexplicable. You have to ask what was the intention? Is it a joke? It's not very funny, and as a song it's not very successful either. Not the worst song Queen have ever written but certainly given what we know from elsewhere that this songwriter was capable, listeners would be forgiven at this point for exclaiming "What IS this shit?" 3/10

Fat Bottomed Girls

This, on the other hand, is more like it! Hurrah, it's Classic Queen. May's ode to large ladies is both hilariously cheeky ("Left only with big fat fanny/she was such a naughty nanny/You big woman/You're gonna make a man of me!") and pleasingly rocky. There's a treat for those getting the album late, as this version has an extra handful of rocky bits. The fact that these were unpretentiously scissored out the single version is testament to how lean and perfect Queen were willing to make their singles. May's harmonies "Ohhhh you gonna take me home tonight?" are beautiful on this song. A treasure. 8.5/10

Jealousy

Wow, this is a total lost gem! How was it not a single? A classic and simple Mercury ballad with a gorgeous title and lyrics. "Got a hold of my possessive mind/turned me into a jealous kind". He makes it seem easy. This falls firmly into my middle category of "Lost Classic" and is almost - ALMOST! - good enough to be a classic single. 8.5/10

Bicycle Race

My Mum loves this one. A curious brother of May's "Fat Bottomed Girls", this is one of those extraordinary musical pieces that seemed to mark Freddie out among his pop contemporaries. I don't think there's any other song of which you could say "That's a bit like bicycle race isn't it?". The contemporary references to John Wayne, Star Wars, Superman, Jaws (Freddie had it in for blockbuster films didn't he?) are fresh and different and I've just noticed that the album version is missing the ringing bicycle bells at the end. What's it ABOUT though? *snort* *snort*. This is shaping up to be one of the best Queen albums EVER! 9/10

If You Can't Beat Them

And this is where things begin to unravel. This just isn't very good I'm afraid. The central melody is forgettable, so it's a bit of filler. The thing with Queen is, when they were good they were Amazing, when they were bad they were usually very average. The gulf between this slight tune and songs 2,3 and 4 on this album is like a chasm. 4/10

Let Me Entertain You

Ditto. Checking the tracklisting I see that this is the second of a whopping SIX tracks of which I have no fondness or memory at all. A shame. This is one of the best of those slices of filler though, mainly thanks to the hilarious ad-libs of Freddie, Roger etc. at the end. The lyrics of this are gloriously camp. "We give you rock ala carte!" yells Freddie. Presumably "Stickells will see to that!" is a reference to Gerry Stickells, their tour manager. It's flamboyant and full of energy, it just doesn't have much of a tune. 6/10

Dead on Time

Credit where it's due, this isn't by Roger and it's still rubbish. The song just doesn't take off, it's nothing special and the title isn't even in the lyrics. The quality has just tailed away into a cocaine-addled sludge. Halfway through this, the third tuneless rock-out in a row, you just think "Sorry, but this is shit". I turned it off and put Rod Stewart on this morning. Thirty odd years ago, I reckon most people did the same. 2/10

In Only Seven Days

This is a dreamy affair. It's not bad, but a little loungey and forgettable, like a wine bar tune. At only 2:30 it's also slight and there's not really a lot to it. 6/10

To Be Continued...

Si.

[Jon Masters]

Mustapha *** WTF is Freddie up to ? Clearly a track of its time (anybody got a fatwah handy ? ) but it is a lot of fun with some very clever guitar work. And despite the nonsense of its lyrics its eminently hummable.

Fat Botttomed Girls **** A certified classic – multilayer vocals, down and dirty guitar riff and very funny lyrics. Hit written all over it. It deserves the extended instrumental ending because everyone is on such top form.

Jealousy ***1/2 Another winner – love the sitar effect and Freddie’s plaintive vocal before it settles into a well structured pop song but with Queen touches to make it their own. It has a real sense of melancholy about it, with the singer realising too late how jealousy has led him to a state of loneliness.

Bicycle Race **** I challenge you to listen to the first 10 seconds and not start singing along. It may be a ‘list song’ but it’s a very funny one and has that damnably catchy chorus, middle 8 ,bike effects and guitar battle to top it off. It’s nice to hear JD’s bass line coming through so clearly.

If You Can’t Beat Them *** – a great guitar riff for this one, and although it has a fairly simple structure the conversations between guitar and Freddie work well. And then a nicely structured bit of guitar work in the final third. Inoffensive but a solid song.

Let Me Entertain You *** - I like this one, where the lyrics take the piss out of the band themselves and their fans in as knowing a way as possible. Another stonking guitar riff, though I’m less keen on the guitar solo for this one. “We’ll have a Son of a Bitch of a Time !”

Dead on Time **** Love it, Love it, Love it !! The pace and energy are astounding, but the sound is so clean. “ Put it in your pocket but you never can tell”. RT has never been better on those skins and Freddie is clearly having a great time. The guitar work just drives on and on and on, and the ending is perfection. “You’re Dead !”
BTW The Title is the second to last line.

In Only Seven Days ***1/2 OMG what a contrast; possibly one of my favourite Queen ballads (and one that sings away in my head for days after hearing it). A beautiful story of holiday romance, and yet it’s got quite a complicated structure of time shifts.

Dreamers Ball *** Freddie’s voice and acoustic guitar just work so perfectly, and although we’re back in Blues mode the upbeat tempo stops it becoming a dirge. Love the old-style waah-waah guitar and backing vocals.

Fun It ** A sudden switch to rock-disco-funk fusion doesn’t really belong here, but it does have a good guitar riff in a ‘Bites the Dust’ style, and I like the switch on pace for the sort of chorus. The ending is a bit of a dog’s dinner though.

Leaving Home Ain’t Easy ***1/2 – Nice mix of slide and acoustics to start, and then a beautiful set of lyrics and singable chorus. Brian’s voice is much stronger on this one and suits it perfectly. Not quite so keen on the slidey vocals.

Don’t Stop Me Now ***** What is there to say ? A perfect rock-pop song that will be sung by generations to come. It’s great to hear Freddie’s piano work feature so strongly, but the whole band are playing in such synch that it’s impossible to hear the joins. As the lyrics suggest, there is no stopping them now. Difficult to be bettered.

More of that Jazz **1/2 Another great bass and guitar riff, but not really enough to raise this one above average. The snatches of other tracks don’t really work either without weaving them into the song itself better.

Now, its probably very obvious from the scores that I rate Jazz pretty highly as an album. Like ADATR for Si, I’ve grown up listening to Jazz on a pretty frequent basis and have come to love the vast majority of the songs as well as the way they are sequenced. For me, the highs are as high as any other album, and the lows are not particularly low. The singles are some of the best hits that Queen produced, but more importantly for me there is no really distinct ‘filler’ – at least 3 other tracks would have made great singles in their own right.

And that’s why I rate Jazz as one of the best Queen albums ever.

[Dino]

Now, its probably very obvious from the scores that I rate Jazz pretty highly as an album. Like ADATR for Si, I’ve grown up listening to Jazz on a pretty frequent basis and have come to love the vast majority of the songs as well as the way they are sequenced. For me, the highs are as high as any other album, and the lows are not particularly low. The singles are some of the best hits that Queen produced, but more importantly for me there is no really distinct ‘filler’ – at least 3 other tracks would have made great singles in their own right.

And that’s why I rate Jazz as one of the best Queen albums ever.

Fantastic review Jon! And it's made me listen to Jazz in full on You Tube. I'm at "Let Me Entertain You" so far and this is basically the album I really wanted NOTW to be (despite it's undeniable highlights).
I can't believe I left this album on the backburner for so long! Wow!
*Newly made Jazz fan

EDIT: I'M DEAD!!!!

[MacNimon]

I'll post my thoughts ASAP...I had it written out on my laptop weeks ago but I seem to be having trouble opening ANY of my Word documents at the moment, the program has frozen. And when I try copying them to another PC I can't open them because of different operating syatems. If I can't get it sorted by tomorrow I'll just have to type it all out again...

[MacNimon]

No such luck! Here we go again, then...

Jazz is an album which had basically passed me by over the years. It was the only Queen album which I had originally bought on cassette rather than LP, and unfortunately the sound quality was very poor compared to all the other albums. My initial thoughts were that that it was a reasonably good album, filled with catchy songs none of which I was particularly inclined to skip - just as well, given the limitations of cassette tape. But due to the dull sound, which was very flat compared with those albums I owned on LP, it simply wasn't an album I felt very excited about and would only play it occasionally over the years.

All this changed though when I was upgrading my collection to cd about 10 years ago...what a revelation; on cd the songs weren't merely catchy, they positively sparkled! They maybe weren't all classics but unusually for a Queen album there were certainly no duffers either...

Mustapha: While I can fully understand Si's reaction to this (it mirrors my own initial thoughts) I've got to agree more with Jon - this is more of a WTF?! moment which catches you off-guard when you're not expecting it. However on subsequent listens it becomes apparent that this is a VERY catchy, fun little number which maybe doesn't make any sense but sticks in your head for hours and hours. 8/10

Fat-Bottomed Girls: One of the groups best singles, and this extended version one of the albums highlights. I think they made the right decision to edit the single to a shorter, snappier version though. 8/10 (for both versions!)

Jealousy: A 'lost' classic. One of the most overlooked songs in Queen's back catalogue, a perfect example of how simplicity works wonders at times. Featuring great vocals by Freddie. 8.5/10

I'm out of time now, so I'll have to come back to this later...

[MacNimon]

Bicycle Race: Who else but Queen would even have thought of a song like this? Really catchy, great fun, and a cracking single 8.5/10

If You Can’t Beat Them: Again, a great catchy little rock number (surprisingly not by Brian May, but by John Deacon) but where it falls down is probably on the production side. It lacks a little punch (for which I've deducted a point), with this song they had an opportunity to really rock out as they did on Tie Your Mother Down. Sadly they didn’t and it feels a little flat…still, I really enjoy it and it’s deserving of at least 7/10. It’s just a missed opportunity, imo.

Let Me Entertain You: See above track….ditto. Written by Freddie this time, though.Another missed opportunity due to it sounding just a little bit flat and tinny rather then being full blown heavy rock. Could have been better. I still love it, though! 7/10.


Dead On Time: This raises the bar once again. Getting side 2 off to a cracking start, this is easily one of the highlights of the album with its up-tempo, fast-paced guitar and drums…everyone is clearly having a ball here. Strangely, this is another song which has never been performed live…8.5/10

In Only Seven Days: Deacon strikes gold again with this poignant little holiday romance song. Simple, but classy. 9/10.

Dreamers Ball: I like this one, but it’s not of quite as high a standard as the previous songs. Probably the only song someone who's never heard of Queen before would actually expect to find on an album called Jazz. 6.5/10.

Fun It: A bit of funk now from Roger, and (particularly after his disappointing efforts last time) I really like this one. Still not the most imaginative of lyrics, though. And see the complaints I had about toning down the heavy rock aspect of a couple of tracks earlier? Well that same tactic actually works here...Rogers song doesn't stick out like a sore thumb in the way that his work often did on earlier albums. I don't think it sounds out of place here at all. 7/10.


Leaving Home Ain't Easy; Another brilliant wistful Brian May ballad. Need I say more? 8/10


Don't Stop Me Now: The album's true highlight and quite easily one of the best, strongest and catchiest efforts at pop-rock that the group ever recorded. One of their best songs ever, period. 10/10.

More Of That Jazz: While not as good as Roger's earlier effort, this is still an enjoyable song. Unfortunately after the brilliance of the previous song, this one just feels tagged on to the end of the album for no particular reason. It's inoffensive though, and certainly not one I'd skip over. Still it's the weak point of the album, so I'd give this a 6/10.

Overall, despite a couple of disappointing moments this has to be the most consistent Queen album to date, it's great fun and like A Day At The Races it has slowly emerged as a firm favourite over the years. The best Queen album ever? Quite possibly...it's certainly up there with the best. And I've heard it referred to as 'the last great Queen album'...the coming weeks will tell whether that's true or not!

I've never been able to understand Rolling Stone's hatred of this album though, their review of the album ending with that infamous comment:

Indeed, Queen may be the first truly fascist rock band. The whole thing makes me wonder why anyone would indulge these creeps and their polluting ideas

.

[Rob McCow]

When this album was announced, it must have worried Queen fans. 'Jazz'? Seriously? Would Queen be embracing polyrhthyms, syncopation and lounge-style noodlings? Of course not! Having listened to this album several times now, I have not identified any reason why it might be called 'Jazz'.

Mustapha
This is a real curveball. It's incredibly far-out, even for a band with such a wide range of musical styles. It's easy to be put off by the wailing in a hotch-potch of middle-eastern languages, but I think Freddie does it rather well. His imitation of the style of a muezzin is spot on, although in true blasphemous form it's not a call to prayer, but a call to ROCK.

I like the production on this too, with the muted guitars giving way to something with more body as the chorus kicks in.

There may be some sinister agenda to 'Mustapha', but I reckon that they just liked the way the words sounded and wanted to fit it in to a rock song. I've never heard anything like it, so surely it must score on that front?

Top Wiki fact: '"Mustapha" was released as a single in Germany, Spain, Yugoslavia and Bolivia in 1979.' Dahhh-lings, I don't think we should release this in the UK but I tell you it'll go down a storm in Bolivia, honey!
8/10

Fat Bottomed Girls
We're straight back into solid-single territory here. A great rock-track that's equally good as a single or here as an extended version. This was never a particular favourite on 'Greatest Hits', but it's more than welcome here. I think it gets outshone by the other singles. The whole thing is rather silly, but it's fun.
7/10

Jealousy
This is a classic example of the Queen 'Hidden Gem'. You could listen to Jazz several times before realising that it's there!

The tone is reminiscent of 'Lap of The Gods', but much less pompous. I particularly like the guitar sound that May produces here. It's a much more heartfelt and serious song than the two ludicrous singles either side of it.
7/10

Bicycle Race
Ludicrous! From the basic idea right through to the bicycle-bell solo, this is patently ridiculous. It's a sort-of sequel to Fat Bottomed Girls, yet for some reason they stick 'Jealousy' in between the two! One thing worth listening out for is that John Deacon is doing all kinds of crazy bass pyrotechnics throughout the song. He's becoming more and more awesome all the time...
7/10


If You Can't Beat Them
It's a pretty decent rock song, but doesn't really do anything special in my opinion. It's not as exciting as Fat Bottomed Girls, but it has an engaging upbeat feel to it. Decent but disposable.
6/10

Let Me Entertain You
This one is quite plodding and irritating. I like some of the lyrics such as "I'll Cruella de Ville you!" and "We'll give you the tour de force - of course!" With mentions of Electra and EMI, this seems squarely aimed at providing an opening number for their live acts. Again, the album sequencing works against the songs as this should absolutely have been stuck on first.
6/10

Dead on Time
They're trying hard on this song, but for some reason it doesn't excite me much. Brian May's guitar playing reaches new heights of speed and action, it's got a huge amount of pace and vigour to it. I can't follow the guitar playing and I can't understand much of what Freddie says in this song, so maybe that works against it.
4/10

In Only Seven Days
This is a pleasant track, as distinctively John Deacon as it gets. I think I could get to like this one given time. I'm not too fussed by it at the moment though.
6/10

Dreamers' Ball
This one's a bit of a throwback to the seaside pavillion feel of A Night At The Opera, or maybe an ancient blues number best played on a crackly LP. But at this point on the record I'm losing interest quite badly, so a drippy, dreary ballad is perhaps not the best thing to include. And we haven't even got to Roger's latest yet!
3/10

Fun It
Here we are. This whole 'funk' side of Queen is starting to come together at this point and surely they're only a short way from writing a really good funk track.
4/10

Leaving Home Ain't Easy
After a great intro, we settle down into a nicely boring Brian May track. The lyrics are singularly dreadful, 'Leaving Home Ain't Easy' isn't a very startling revelation or soemthing you can really get excited about. Yawn. This album has hit a real dive and I'm finding it hard to remember the last decent song we had. If you've made it this far you've done bloody well.
2/10

Don't Stop Me Now
And here's the reward! Freddie is back in the saddle and it's an exciting ride, he's ready to woah, woah, woah-explode! This song is distilled excitement, expressed simply. It's Queen at their best. This has always been a favourite of mine.

And yet... this is the first example of Brian May turning up for the solo and little else. That'll happen again. It doesn't matter much because it's still a great song.
10/10

More of That Jazz
This one has a great intro, very 'Muse'. Yet it all goes on for far too long without really doing anything too exciting. So we're left with some great guitar work on a lack-lustre song, which kind of sums up the whole album. The idea of incorporating bits from the previous songs was a terrible, terrible one. There are a few albums where Genesis would re-work a few of the tracks into a new song and it would work extremely well. Here's it's all plonked together. Fun it!
5/10

And if that's not bad enough, there's bonus tracks!

Fat Bottomed Girls (Single version)
Yup, it's mostly the same as the album version but a bit shorter. Now you can sit at home for hours and ponder how and why the two versions are different!

Bicycle Race (Instrumental)
As ever, I absolutely adore the stripped-down instrumental versions of the Queen songs. That wonderful John Deacon bass is even more clear on this version and the piano part sounds completely different without the vocals over it. Magnificent stuff. And the bicycle bells survive intact.

Don't Stop Me Now (With long-lost guitars)
Ever wondered what Don't Stop Me Now would be like with guitar played all the way through it? The answer is like a gourmet burger - beefier but messier. It's all a bit too rich, although it was a brave decision to strip out the guitar parts. I think they made the right choice.

Let Me Entertain You (Live in Montreal, November 1981)
Yup - it works much better live. It's about 10% faster, 10% harder and 90% more exciting.

Dreamers Ball (Early acoustic take, August 1978)
Even at this early stage in the song's development it was really f'ing boring. They'd bring out that dullness for the final version, honing it to a fine point of tedium. I'm going to listen to the whole damn thing now before putting my review up. Plod, plod, plod. Freddie will be right on time, he's dressed so fine, for the Dreamer's Ball. Isn't that nice! There's a break for a solo but there's nothing there, all that happens is that Freddie stops singing for a bit. And there's still a minute to go! Bah. Roger's added in an extra bit of cymbal over to my left, making the end of the song sound different from the start. So is Freddie actually talking about falling asleep here?

There are some good moments, but overall I can't imagine ever wanting to listen to this album again.

[Jon Masters]

Has Si still not forced himself to listen to the rest of Jazz ?

[Si Hunt]

Mew.

Si.

[Rob McCow]

It's going to be The Game before too long. Hopefully I'll be doing a review this week (instead of getting ready for my trip)

[Rob McCow]

Queen: The Game

1. Play The Game
2. Dragon Attack
3. Another One Bites The Dust
4. Need Your Loving Tonight
5. Crazy Little Thing Called Love

6. Rock It (Prime Jive)
7. Don't Try Suicide
8. Sail Away Sweet Sister
9. Coming Soon
10. Save Me

[Rob McCow]

Queen - The Game

The Game
You know, synthesizer music was never all it was cracked up to be. When it was new and exciting, you got bands like Pink Floyd really pushing the limits of what could be acheived with synthetic sounds. You might have thought that in this modern world we'd be awash with amazing synth music from every direction, sonic soundscapes of breathtaking excitement and beauty.

Yeah, there certainly are a few music groups doing that and some of them have fulfiled their potential.

All of which is a very long-winded way of getting around to saying that the intro to The Game, the sudden blasts of swooping electronica that open the song, are absolutely stunning. I have no idea how they did them! Are they backwards cymbals?

But what a start to the album. The song itself is pretty gorgeous, Freddie singing in a beautiful, seductive style about how great love is. You could argue that the lyrics are trite, but Freddie sings them with such conviction and passion that it simply sounds true. Thinking about it, you could argue this about a lot of Queen songs!

And like a lot of their best tracks, the piano is at the heart of the song with the rest of the band embelishing around it. Great stuff.
9/10

Dragon Attack
And suddenly we enter the cave of funk! This is a fabulous, stripped down rock song, a really different and fresh sound for Queen. John Deacon suddenly unleashes his skills as a bass player to create irresistable grooves. Yet reading up, this was written by Brian! It possibly goes on for about half a minute too long, though there's great guitar work throughout.
9/10

There's a reason nobody ever talks about Dragon Attack though. It's called:

Another One Bites The Dust
It might be a bit belittling to describe this as 'More of the same', but in the context of the album it makes sense. It takes what Dragon Attack was doing and fine-tunes it to perfection.

The bass line is so incredibly simple. Practically anyone could pick it up after a few guitar lessons, you could play it on the piano or the xylophone and it would still sound great. But it was John Deacon who wrote it, so he's the genius.

It was a smart move to keep the song simple too. All you've got are the handclaps, a basic drumbeat, Freddie's vocals and a few other devices that come in one at a time, from the wah-wah guitar to the Doctor Who sound fx.

I've always wondered what the 'By-dah-doc-dah!' line that comes just after the 'Tiger!' was about. Or what the hell he actually says there. Is it 'Flying Doctor?' This has been bugging me now for nigh on 25 years.
10/10

Need Your Loving Tonight
Deacon returns to familiar territory with a nice-but-not-that-special ballad. If you put every Queen song in a big pile and boiled them down to the average, the end result might not be too far from this song. It's still pretty good though.
8/10

Crazy Little Thing Called Love
On reflection, Queen were absolutely stuffed for lyrics at this point. This is at least the third song that's solely about love and being in love and how to behave when you're in love. Never mind, everybody loves love songs.

And what a doozy this one is. It's typical Queen, to wander into a brand new genre, absolutely nail it with a song that people will remember forever, then never ever write anything like it again. They could have done a whole album of Elvis-style rockabilly, but this would still have been the highlight.

Again, it's simple and charming. Once you've mastered 'Another One Bites The Dust', then it won't take you long to learn the guitar to this one. It's a great, accesible, fun song.
10/10

Rock It (Prime Jive)
It's a pretty good Roger song! Sometimes you have to think a bit to work out who wrote the other songs on the album, but the Roger Taylor numbers stick out like a 1950's American Biker at a Royal Gala.

Although the intro by Freddie is a complete curveball, isn't it?
6/10

Don't Try Suicide
This is a deeply weird subject for a song. Was Freddie commissioned by the Samaritans or something? I can picture Queen playing this as a demo to the board of the Samaritans, thinking that they've nailed it and then having everyone sort of cough and act all embarrassed after it finishes.

"Trust me darlings, after hearing this number the suicide rate will fall off a cliff, honey."

Pretty good tune though, another funky number. Great!
6/10

Sail Away Sweet Sister
Oh! Oh! Quick, get your cigarette lighters out! It's a Brian ballad! It's such a shame that this track is buried away towards the end of The Game. This would be simply awesome live, with the audience singing along and swaying away.

And I really, really love that Freddie comes in to help with the bridge! Then there's a cracking solo from Brian and the wonderful pensive ending - it's a hidden gem!
8/10

Coming Soon
By far and away the least memorable song on the album. Or maybe that's because the title is so bland. It's decent enough, but it could have been on any album since 'Sheer Heart Attack'.

The guitar sound is pretty fresh. And er... um.
4/10

Save Me
Moving swiftly on, we arrive at one of Queen's most beautiful songs. This one gets me every single damn time. After an album full of songs about playing the game of love, here's a last plea from one of the losers.

It's absolutely chock full of emotion, of passion and desire, the agonising pain of being rejected in love. Every 'Save me!' is totally heartfelt and like a knife through the heart. A real anthem for the broken hearted.

In my opinion, it's one of Queen's greatest Greatest Hits!
10/10

So we have an album with five singles and probably two could-have-been singles. This might be their best effort yet, only let down by a couple of weak tracks. Awesome stuff, but there's better to come!

[MacNimon]

We seem to have stalled here, don't we?! I'll get to work on my thoughts on The Game over the weekend...

[Rob McCow]

Come on! Everybody play The Game....

[Dino]

Three cheers for You Tube Full Album videos!

1. The Game

This seems like the comedown from an album before. I like it, but it's quite a slow beginning. Like a song from a musical. They don't feel the need to go hammer and tongs for the opening of an album any more. This deep into their careers, they probably don't need to. Good use of the synths they previously hated. It doesn't dominate the song, but really adds to the solo. And a good single.

2. Dragon Attack

"Well that's the album finished, let's go clubbing!" Good riff on this. The image of Queen in their respective bathrooms getting dressed up for a night on the tiles. The lyrics are a bit phoned in. John's really deep on this. And good showing off from Roger. Brian overshadowed, wails with the best of them, but his guitar and solo isn't the most memorable. But the club owner hasn't taken too kindly to Queen's antics and has thrown them all out by the end.

3. Another One Bites The Dust

So Queen do what Queen do and mince off to another club. But they have to cross a few streets first. And that's where this song comes into it. This does what the last song tried to do but more effectively. John again the star of the show. Best Freddie vocal on the album so far. You can almost taste the cold air and the invincibility of walking with a group of people. Past darkened alleys, glances from windows and flashes of passing cars. That synth comes back. They still seem to favour one note doing a sweeeeeeeep across the channels. There's the next club, a slight trip (represented by the duh da dumf drum) on the enterance.

4. Need Your Loving Tonight

And it's a rock club they've entered! Albeit a soft rock club. Would have made a good single if it had appeared on any other album. But overshadowed by track one and three. Classic Queen harmonies on the chorus before the solo. Pity they didn't do more of those. Outgrown them? But it's so beautiful! Very short.

5. Crazy Little Thing Called Love

And like Another One Bites The Dust eclipsed Dragon Attack, this beauty eclipses Need Your Loving Tonight. One of those songs that always haunts you on the radio. (Am I the only one who stops what they are doing to hear this when the song comes on? Oh... OK...) Single handedly responsible for ruining economies the world over by being the ultimate "down tools" songs.
So 5 songs in and three strong singles.

6. Rock It (Prime Jive)

And then a quieter moment. With Roger Taylor's taste and Freddie's meat... it still seems a bit useless. Oh and then the drums kick in. Now Roger's taken over the vocals. Nobody in the group runs with "ight" rhymes like Roger. I think I see a pattern here. Maybe they thought this song could eclipse the track before. So they could keep the "Like that? Well how about this!" upmanship of the album. Yeah... it doesn't work. Bit throwaway. And I love "Drowse", "Tenement Funster" and even "The Loser In The End" as well! This probably wouldn't feature on "The Greatest Queen Songs Written By Roger Taylor". It would however feature on "Songs Written By Roger Taylor That Ended Up On Queen Albums"

7. Don't Try Suicide

Anything Roger can do, Freddie can do er... The chorus is a bit sunny. Lyrically it's awful "You're going to hate it". Yeah... that'll work! Not exactly life affirming as anti-suicide songs go. Even if there's a Police "Walking On The Moon" joke with one of the guitars. It does have a "How fast can we write a song" feel to it. And the first fade out on the album since the opening track.

8. Sail Away Sweet Sister

Good use of synths on this one. The Brian song. Eclipses the last two tracks for a start. Good use of restraint. The chorus wants you to wish the song went stomping off on it's chorus, but then it gets grounded by the acousitc guitar. Queen harmony! There it is again! Brian's best solo so far. This is the first time I've actually heard this. Wow, this is good. And then it seems to end on sound effects and John's bass. Not one last blast of the chorus? Victory lap? No? OK then...

9. Coming Soon

Another Roger Taylor song! With processed drums! And sorry, but the start makes me think of the theme to "Bookaboo" (A story a day/ Or he JUST. WON'T. PLAY!). Sounds better than "Fun It". But still too slow and relaxed compared to some of his other efforts. Coming soon... a Roger Taylor song worthy of being a single? Arf arf... Yeah. Really not a lot I can say about this. The endings good. Bit more pace and you'll have Breakthru. Better than Rock It at least.

10. Save Me

I remember this one. Think my brother might have had the single. Another one that reminds me of eating cola cubes. And is he singing "Save you" instead of "Save me"? Good guitar solo on it. And just when you think it's over... in it comes again. And the album ends with Freddie on his piano. Quite a quiet ending to their previous closers. Would have been a different album if Coming Soon was the ending.

Verdict: 5 songs I love, 3 are alright. And two stinkers (Don't Try Suicide and Rock It). The classic Queen rock is there. But also the blueprints for a new direction Queen could go down. They don't quite reach those uncharted places on this. But it's not a band against the wall lashing out. They are still clearly having fun. Of course as an album it doesn't out perform their 70's albums, but it's 1980! The decade is still young. And it's still theirs for the taking.

[Rob McCow]

And is he singing "Save you" instead of "Save me"?

Yeah, I've always wondered this. Is he actually singing "Save Mieu?"

I agree with your round-up, except that I reckon 'Don't Try Suicide' isn't really that bad.

Will Queen do well in the 1980's?! Will we ever get that far to find out?

[MacNimon]

Sorry for the hold-up, guys. I just don't seem to have had the time for lengthy posts recently, and simply haven't been working on this as a Word document bit by bit as I sometimes do. You'll just have to make do with my thoughts in smaller bite-size chunks this time round!

Part of my problem with this one is that it's not one of my favourites, simple as that. I don't know why, exactly, because I find myself broadly agreeing with Steve and Dino going through the album track-by-track....some of them are brilliant, others good/very good, and two or three patchier efforts. Not a bad album at all when you look at the pieces, but as a whole it just seems to be lacking something....again, I'm struggling to put my finger on it. It just doesn't quite gel, imo. I just never have the urge to play this album, in the way I love playing earlier ones.

Play The Game: I love this one, it wasn't initially a favourite but it has really grown on me over the years. I think it was the different sound created by the synths which originally put me off, but it has a cracker of a wee tune which shines through and has risen to become one of my favourites over the years. The strong vocals and harmonies the group are known for are all still present, giving a strong start to the album. Seems a bit strange having such a slow paced song to kick off the album though. 9/10.

Dragon Attack Another song I really enjoy. It has one of those tunes which sticks in your head all day(although that can really be annoying sometimes!), it's really simple and stripped down and has some superb bass playing by John. A great new sound for Queen, one which they pull off easily...I agree with Steve though, it's easily a minute or so too long and a shorter, tighter edit would have been so much better. Still, a strong 8/10.

Another One Bites The Dust They continue in the same vein and show us here just how good Dragon Attack could have been. Again, so simple it borders on genius. Deacon proves here that he's a master songwriter (not that there was any doubt before) and a quality bass player. Slightly off-topic, but it's only really when you listen to John's contributions that you realise how much that the modern Queen+(everyone) miss him. He just adds that extra touch of quality and class, and a new album with him in tow (regardless of who's the vocallist) would be much more appealling than The Cosmos Rocks. Sorry, back to the song in question...a solid 10/10. Sheer Brilliance!

More later...

[MacNimon]

Need Your Loving Tonight: Another strong Deacon song, but it's a poor second on this album following on from ...Dust. A nice, simple catchy pop rocker which was a single in America (reaching the lofty heights of No.44). It deserved better than this, and could easily have been a fifth hit single from the album if released in the UK. 7/10.

Crazy Little Thing Called Love It seemed that Queen couldn't put a foot wrong with this album, didn't it? Another classic rounding off a very strong Side One. Freddie wrote this one in the bath, iirc! Again , proof that they don't have to go OTT to create great songs...this is about as simple as you can get, and great fun to boot! 9/10.

Rock It (Prime Jive): I don't quite know what to make of this one...it's a decent enough Roger song without managing to be anything special. It's certainly not what you expect when hearing those opening Freddie vocals...6/10

Don't Try Suicide This is where the album starts to really go wrong, though. A decent enough tune to it but it just feels like filler to me. 5/10.

Sail Away Sweet Sister You can always rely on Brian to get things back on track, can't you? This is a cracking little tune, overlooked a bit because of all the great singles surrounding it, it's easily the strongest song of Side 2...so far! 8/10

Coming Soon: See above comment about Rock It...just remove the Freddie mention this time. Nothing special, but not great either. Another 6/10.

Save Me: The highlight of the album for me...one of the strongest, most powerful ballads Queen ever recorded. One of Freddie's greatest vocal performances...one of the all-time classics. 10/10.

Overall, this is probably one of Queen's better albums. Four cracking singles, and another three great songs. Even the three patchier efforts are decent enough efforts, so I'm at a bit of a loss as to why this album simply isn't one of my favourites...Side One is one of the strongest sides of a Queen album to date, I think it's the 3 poorer efforts being grouped (almost) together on Side 2 which breaks the momentum and does the damage for me.

[Rob McCow]

Strange... I can't imagine how anyone could prefer Jazz to The Game. Neither album is perfect, but The Game has a lot more going for it.

[MacNimon]

I've been playing about with the album's tracklisting today, and found the best results with Don't Try Suicide totally omitted. Amazingly (well, I was pretty surprised, because although it was a pretty weak song it was enjoyable enough) I found it to be a much more enjoyable album. For some reason it even makes the two Roger songs more enjoyable. It isn't the first time I've found a Queen album sounds better after a little tinkering, but it's the first time I've tried it with this one!

It's tempting now to add a point to each of Roger's songs and take one from Suicide, so much of a difference has such a simple change made. I'm still pottering with it though, seeing how the bonus tracks fit in now for maximum effect.

I still prefer Jazz, though!

[Dino]

I was indeed hanging on the edge of my seat for the rest of your review MacNimon!

So... will we be looking at their first greatest hits next? Or are we saving that until later?

[MacNimon]

I was indeed hanging on the edge of my seat for the rest of your review MacNimon!

So... will we be looking at their first greatest hits next? Or are we saving that until later?

I believe Flash Gordon is up next, Dino, the oddity that it is. Although what with this being a movie soundtrack album rather than a proper Queen album, I don't know if it was the intention to skip it or not.

I've listened to the bonus tracks a few times yesterday. The live ones were enjoyable enough, but I found the unused studio tracks to be the most enjoyable. The original version of It's A Beautiful Day fits in well in my Game playlist as an opening track even though it's just a demo, taking the same position as the fleshed-out version on Made In Heaven. I'm really enjoying Roger's A Human Body track, which was originally as the 'b'-side of the Play The Game single. I'd never heard it before, and I wasn't particularly impressed on first listen, but it's really been growing on me with repeated listens. You can really hear the sound of his Fun In Space solo album developing here, it's a much more subdued affair than the two tracks which actually appeared on the album. A hidden gem!

[Rob McCow]

Well, perhaps we should get people to comment on Greatest Hits before delving into the Mines of Mongo.

Everyone has got something to say on 'Greatest Hits', it's one of the bestselling albums ever made!