I was talking more stylistically than quality.
News has more in common with Game and Jazz with Races.
Think News is more cohesive, but I probably slightly prefer Jazz as well.
QUEEN SURVIVOR: Results - Innuendo wins!
- Thread starter Mosh
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I was talking more stylistically than quality.
News has more in common with Game and Jazz with Races.
Think News is more cohesive, but I probably slightly prefer Jazz as well.
I'm not sure Jazz works as cohesive album, but as a collection of songs, I love it. One of their best efforts.
- Initially the eastern melodies and lyrics made Mustapha a little much for me especially as an opener. But it got better on each listen. Just a bold melding of sounds with a lot of energy and the production quality is so good.
- I think I may prefer the leaner single version, but Fat Bottom Girls is pure fun any way you slice it.
- I hear the Beatles in Jealousy, or at least a filtered-through-Freddy version. A poignant melody with some pathos and real emotion
- Bicycle Race is absolutely nuts. I mean how many time changes and melodies and harmonies and instrumental parts can you pack into a three-minute song? It's pure silliness and pure genius at the same time. Freddy is inspired, fully invested here as a writer and a singer.
- If You Can't Beat Them feels like it should be a Brian song as a riff rocker with anthemic chorus, but you can hear that Deacon smoothness once you realize it is one of John's. Just a good, catchy, hard rock song.
- Live is where Let Me Entertain You really shines best; it's one of Freddy's more muscular tracks with some good riffing and tight band interplay.
- And instead of sliding from heavy to light as Queen is wont to do, they slide from heavy to heavier with Dead On Time, second only to Stone Cold in the Queen metal scale. Love the tough, edgy Brian May riffing.
- We get the light next though with In Only Seven Days, a pleasant if not particularly memorable song.
- Is Dreamer's Ball, their last foray into "old" music? I think so. Again, it's pleasant enough if not particularly inspired.
- The first and only real stinker on the album is Fun It. They flirted with the funky on the previous album with solid results but this one slides too far in that direction. Queen always did schlocky well, but schlocky disco?
- Maudlin is the best word I can find for Leaving Home Ain't Easy. It works when I'm in a certain mood, but tries my patience in others.
- Don't Stop Me Now competed for my favourite song on the album until I heard the (With Long Lost Guitars) remix on the deluxe album. That pushed it past the competition for good. Great melodies insistent rhythms, outstanding performances, it's Freddy's promise to go out in a blaze of glory and he delivers completely.
- More of That Jazz has some good ideas and that nice crunchy, tight Queen sound, but doesn't quite come together. The sampled parts at the end were probably done to tie together a meandering album, but they just seem tacked on as a whim.
Don't Stop Me Now is easily the best song on the album. I also really like Dreamer's Ball and In Only Seven Days. Bicycle Race and Fat Bottomed Girls are good but I've gotten tired of them. I think Jazz has the best "deep cuts" so far. Leaving Home Ain't Easy is one I always forget about but it's also a great song. I like More Of the Jazz, but I consider it more of an outro piece. Doesn't work on its own. Mustapha is similar in that it is most effective as an intro, but I get more enjoyment of it out of context. Great album.
JudasMyGuide
The resident reactionary recalcitrant
We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions until they're dead. Won't even vote against that shite from Hot Space until these two are gone.
'39, The Prophet's Song, All Dead, Jealousy, Let Me Entertain You, Dead On Time.
The Prophet's Song, All Dead, All Dead, Dragon Attack, Rock It (Prime Jive), Don't Try Suicide, Sail Away Sweet Sister, Coming Soon.
Deus_Adrian
Prince of the Final Frontier
Agreed. And why is Best Friend still alive??
I get that The Game marks the turning point for Queen, where they shed what made them great before launching into a decade of at best uneven music.
Still, I have a weird affection for the album, largely because it was one of the first albums I ever bought, when I was about 12 or 13.
It was before I really discovered rock and metal, but it was one of the first music collections I ever fell in love with.
I largely forgot about Queen until the '90s, coming to understand the depth and glory of their '70s work only after Freddy passed. But I still get a wave of nostalgia for The Game that outstrips its actual impact.
In some ways it reminds me of Priest's Point of Entry: it is hardly a representation of what made the band great, but it is an excellent collection of perfectly played, perfectly produced, simple, catchy rock songs.
It's an unusual choice as an album opener, but Play The Game is the most "Queen" song on here — a melodic, dramatic power ballad with some rich harmonies and May showing off his killer tone in the break. I guess the synthesizers were a big deal for hardcore fans at the time but I don't notice them now.
When I hear the phrase "in the pocket" used in music, Dragon Attack is the song I think of. Part hard rock, part funk, but there is something jazzlike in the way each performer takes a turn stepping into the forefront and seamlessly steps back without ever losing sync. The sound is perfect, greasy, slinky, metallic and crystal clear all at once, and I don't think there is a better band performance on record. One of my favourites.
I probably bought the record for Another One Bites The Dust, I don't really remember. I've never figured out why it was considered a disco track; doesn't seem that danceable to me. But the bass groove is an earworm and Freddy is in fine form. A solid song if you don't know it was a hit.
Need Your Loving Tonight combines the anthemic hard rock of many earlier Queen songs with a New Wave sound and a touch of the groovier rockabilly you get on Crazy Little Thing. One of those lightweight songs I love with all my 12-year-old heart.
Same goes for Crazy Little Thing which perfectly captures the feel of my Dad's old Elvis records.
Rock It (Prime Jive) completes my nostalgiac trio of New Wave meets rock'n'roll faves. I've always liked the classic '50s badasses and the way Queen melds the spirit of that music with modern (for 1980) production values works for me.
It doesn't work for me though in the streetcorner '50s singalong meets funk of Don't Try Suicide. Catchy chorus, but it's just too cheesy, even for a band that always did cheese well.
The cheese is too thick for me on Sail Away Sweet Sister as well. It might have worked better with a Freddy vocal, but it's too lush and cloying.
It's my understanding that Coming Soon is considered one of the bands bigger duds by the fanbase. Its a bit of a throwaway, but that chugging rhythym and the chorus vocal are again pretty earwormy.
And then the album closes like it opened, with a textbook Queen ballad. Save Me is a solid track, elevated as so many Queen songs are, by Mercury's voice.
Still, I have a weird affection for the album, largely because it was one of the first albums I ever bought, when I was about 12 or 13.
It was before I really discovered rock and metal, but it was one of the first music collections I ever fell in love with.
I largely forgot about Queen until the '90s, coming to understand the depth and glory of their '70s work only after Freddy passed. But I still get a wave of nostalgia for The Game that outstrips its actual impact.
In some ways it reminds me of Priest's Point of Entry: it is hardly a representation of what made the band great, but it is an excellent collection of perfectly played, perfectly produced, simple, catchy rock songs.
It's an unusual choice as an album opener, but Play The Game is the most "Queen" song on here — a melodic, dramatic power ballad with some rich harmonies and May showing off his killer tone in the break. I guess the synthesizers were a big deal for hardcore fans at the time but I don't notice them now.
When I hear the phrase "in the pocket" used in music, Dragon Attack is the song I think of. Part hard rock, part funk, but there is something jazzlike in the way each performer takes a turn stepping into the forefront and seamlessly steps back without ever losing sync. The sound is perfect, greasy, slinky, metallic and crystal clear all at once, and I don't think there is a better band performance on record. One of my favourites.
I probably bought the record for Another One Bites The Dust, I don't really remember. I've never figured out why it was considered a disco track; doesn't seem that danceable to me. But the bass groove is an earworm and Freddy is in fine form. A solid song if you don't know it was a hit.
Need Your Loving Tonight combines the anthemic hard rock of many earlier Queen songs with a New Wave sound and a touch of the groovier rockabilly you get on Crazy Little Thing. One of those lightweight songs I love with all my 12-year-old heart.
Same goes for Crazy Little Thing which perfectly captures the feel of my Dad's old Elvis records.
Rock It (Prime Jive) completes my nostalgiac trio of New Wave meets rock'n'roll faves. I've always liked the classic '50s badasses and the way Queen melds the spirit of that music with modern (for 1980) production values works for me.
It doesn't work for me though in the streetcorner '50s singalong meets funk of Don't Try Suicide. Catchy chorus, but it's just too cheesy, even for a band that always did cheese well.
The cheese is too thick for me on Sail Away Sweet Sister as well. It might have worked better with a Freddy vocal, but it's too lush and cloying.
It's my understanding that Coming Soon is considered one of the bands bigger duds by the fanbase. Its a bit of a throwaway, but that chugging rhythym and the chorus vocal are again pretty earwormy.
And then the album closes like it opened, with a textbook Queen ballad. Save Me is a solid track, elevated as so many Queen songs are, by Mercury's voice.
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