Metal Reviews

Everybody talks about the Queen of the 70's and very early-80's (up to about 1981). With songs like Bohemian Rhapsody, Another One Bites The Dust, We Will Rock You, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Now I'm Here, etc. All are superb songs. But what about Queen's 80's material (from 1982's Hot Space through 1991's Innuendo)?

Quite frankly, I like it. Yeah, starting with Hot Space, they became a bit more of a pop band. But it actually seemed quite appropriate that they'd branch out in that direction since Queen was never a band to be lumped into one specific genre of rock music (they were, as far as I know, possibly the most diverse mainstream rock band of all time). Plus, despite the way their music was becoming rather moralistic/preachy, they still had a lot of great songs. Radio Ga-Ga, I Want It All, Hammer To Fall, Innuendo, It's A Hard Life, and possibly my all-time favorite Queen song: One Vision (hey Michael Jackson and Elton John: THIS is how you do a "make a difference!" rock song!). I even find The Miracle to be a very good song (despite its admitted sappiness).

Any comments?

You know, I don't think I have a right to comment b/c I've never heard any 80's Queen.

"A Kind of Magic" had some really good songs on there, including "One Vision", one of my favorite Queen songs. I enjoy earlier Queen songs as well (almost all of them), but I can still find a lot to like in the second phase of their musical career. "A Kind of Magic", "Under Pressure", "I Want It All" ( a very metal queen song), "Headlong", and a few others are standouts from that era.

The break in the middle of "One Vision" still gives me chills. Seinfeld should know what I'm talking about.

While they got poppy and more electronic with the albums following The Game, The Works and A Kind Of Magic being very mainstream-ish 80's synthie production-wise, I feel they also got more ROCK in the later part of their career. I'm thinking here The Miracle, Innuendo and some songs from the albums mentioned earlier: Princes Of The Universe, One Vision, Hammer To Fall. I loooove the last two albums, because they delivered some quality ROCK material: Scandal, Breakthrough, I want it all, Innuendo with that awesome middle-part, Headlong, Show Must Go On, ohh and the start from Was It All Worth It, when it's so silent in the beginning and it just bursts into a guitar chord (I almost fried my car speakers, hehehehe). I myself like their first and last albums the most: Queen I,II, SHA,AKOM,The Miracle and their MASTERPIECE Innuendo.

I do know what you're talking about. When the synth-violins come in (the same riff from the song's intro) and Freddie begins his brief "I had a dream..." speach. Again, One Vision along with Real American (Hulk Hogan's old theme song - which is I think by Rick Rubin's own rock band) are two examples of how to do a "Make the world a better place" rock song. As opposed to something like We Are The World.

I honestly think the success of Another One Bites The Dust probably had a lot to do with why Queen went in that "80's synth pop" direction, starting with Hot Space. Another One Bites The Dust was a very funky song with a lot of synthesized sound effects, a little proto-techno, and a definite disco influence. The band saw how popular the song was (their most popular in America, in fact), and basically decided, "Hey, why don't we just make an entire album like that?" Thus, Hot Space was born. With explicitly poppy songs like Under Pressure and Body Language (that's not a knock against these two songs, by the way). Then, after Hot Space flopped, they tried to regain their bearings a little with The Works and A Kind Of Magic. Mixing heavier classic-Queen songs like Hammer To Fall (possibly the heaviest song they ever did up to that point - along with may be Now I'm Here) and One Vision with some more 80's pop like I Want To Break Free and A Kind Of Magic. In a way, you can't really blame them for going in the direction they went in with Hot Space, The Works and A Kind Of Magic, since they had such a huge hit on their hands with Another One Bites The Dust. But I guess they neglected to realize that Americans were also crazy about songs like We Will Rock You, Crazy Little Thing Called Love (one of the coolest Queen songs ever, especially that 50's-style guitar solo in the middle), and Bohemian Rhapsody. Thus, their Stateside career was more or less ruined with Hot Space.

Actually, come to think of it, I guess there was one really good thing about Hot Space (in addition to it hosting Under Pressure): At least bassist John Deacon started getting more credit from then on.

I was once the owner of "a Kind of magic"

I found its spares contents to be mildly enjoyable. I have yet to buy any more queen albums. I'm just not into it.

I would say "miss" because musicians with far less talent and resources came out with far better records in the end.

I'm not a Queen encyclopedia, but I do enjoy their music, and while I don't like a lot of their later material, Innuendo is a masterpiece of a song. I'd have to say "miss".

I am saying it's a hit solely on the awesomeness that is "A Kind of Magic". Growing up and being a Highlander fan, Gimme the Prize was my favorite track and some of the more ballad-esque songs I didn't used to like are starting to grow on me as I get older.

I love all Queen stuff but I prefer the classic, more theatrical styles from the albums "Queen" through "Jazz". "The Game" was a turning point for the band but was still a very good album. As far as latter day stuff, I like "The Works" the best and "Innuendo" was pretty good too. "Hot Space" was the one that I liked the least, but it had some pretty good tracks like "Put Out The Fire", "Las Palabras De Amour", Calling All Girls" and "Under Pressure". Albums like "It's A Kind of Magic", "The Miracle" and "Made In Heaven" had their fair share of good songs but as albums they were not very good. I really haven't followed the stuff with Paul Rogers......

I had no idea how late in Queen's career I Want it All came. Speed metal solo waaaat?

I don't think it should be too surprising. The song sounds too "evolved" to really fit with the 70's/early-80's.

HIT

even though everything is not perfect on those albums, Hot Space(82), The works(84), A Kind of Magic(86), The Miracle(89) and Innuendo(91) still have their share of amazing songs. just take the song Staying Power from Hot Space , and the song Gimme the Prize from A Kind of Magic:the 1st one is a funk disco song, the 2nd one a power metal song; both are equally great, and done by the SAME band, which is quite impressive; just imagine Manowar doin a tribute album to Earth Wind and Fire...

Neither HIT nor MISS.
There are some cool songs but some pretty sucky too. Goes without saying that 70s Queen was far superior.

+1
And the most part of Hot space & Flash Gordon soundtrack are some of the most horrible shit I've ever listened.

i have to agree with you about the Flash Gordon soundtrack; and about Hot Space, although weak by Queen standards, most of the songs are enjoyable and fun to listen to; there's no way i can call ''horrible shit'' songs such as Dancer, Back Chat, Put out the Fire, Cool Cat or Under Pressure; ''horrible shit '' i would call Soilwork, or Meshuggah, for instance.

I've always assumed Hot Space was made in response to the success of Another One Bites The Dust. Queen knew they had a big hit with their funky bass-driven dance tune. And so they decided, "Hey, why don't we just make an entire album like that?" As it is, the album wasn't THAT terrible (Under Pressure is one of their best songs, even though it technically isn't a Hot Space song since it was really made for their 1981 Greatest Hits album) but definitely wasn't a Queen album.