Paul Rodgers – Well Eye Never

Queen Album Review – The Game

Way back in lockdown, to fill some of the time, I wrote in-depth reviews of the 1970s studio albums by Queen, my favourite band, which took me from their self-titled debut up to the Jazz album. And they’re about to release a new deluxe edition of Queen II, which I’m looking forward to downloading and reviewing, just like I did for their Queen I box set.

However, it’s long been my intention to review the rest of their albums as well, and now I’ve got more time on my hands, I’m going to delve back into them at long last.

So we’ll kick off the 80s with The Game, the album that produced Queen’s best-selling single of all time, and the only two number 1 hits they ever had in America (where it was also their only number 1 album, selling over 4 million copies). The Game also reached number 1 in the UK for 2 weeks, and stayed in the top 40 for 15 weeks altogether. Overall it sold over 12 million copies worldwide.

Freddie Mercury, sporting a moustache and wearing a black leather jacket over a red top, leaning back against a railing overlooking a snowy landscape with trees and a couple of buildings.

Brian May, with his hands in his light brown jacket pockets, leaning back against a railing overlooking a snowy landscape with trees and a couple of buildings.

It’s also the first Queen album to feature a synthesizer (an Oberheim OBX), with their previous releases proudly stating that they never used them. Plus they had a new producer (Reinhold Mack, known simply as Mack), and they recorded the songs in a new location, at Musicland Studios in Munich. It therefore marked a new period of experimentation for the band, as they were persuaded to shift towards a more pop-friendly sound, although still infused with rock of course and it still sounds unmistakably like Queen.

It wasn’t always easy, with arguments in the studio as the band members were keen to be represented fairly on the record. But ultimately they were able to reach suitable compromises and produce another decent album with several great tracks. And as shown by the chart positions above, it enabled them to maintain their popularity in an era where other rock veterans were struggling, and even have their peak of success in the USA. The music scene was changing significantly in the 80s, but Queen were still very much in the game and still winning, at least for now.

So here are my reviews of all the songs, along with alternate versions, music videos, live performances, and a small selection of the many covers and remixes out there. And there’s lots more to see on my Queen & Covers playlists for this album as well that I haven’t mentioned here. I hope you enjoy!

Queen Album Review – Jazz

Following News Of The World, an album of raw energy that spawned the mega-hits We Will Rock You & We Are The Champions, on top of their previous successes, was always going to be a very tall order for Queen. But, as always, they weren’t deterred by that, and opted to explore a variety of musical styles on their 7th album (though not including jazz itself as the title might suggest). And it didn’t do them any harm, as the LP peaked at Number 2 in the UK charts (held off the top spot by the Grease soundtrack), and Number 6 on the US Billboard Chart, going Platinum in both countries.

Overall the album perhaps isn’t as stunning as some of their previous work, but only because of the incredibly high bar they’d set themselves, and it’s still really good in its own right. For a start, it gave us their well-loved songs Fat Bottomed Girls, Bicycle Race and Don’t Stop Me Now, a trio that makes it worth the price of entry alone (although surprisingly the latter wasn’t a big hit to begin with). And the other ten tracks are an enjoyable mixture too, with some relatively obscure gems amongst them as usual.

The heavy criticism it received in the music press at the time was certainly unwarranted, with the band even being described as “fascist” and “creeps” with “polluting ideas” by Rolling Stone reviewer Dave Marsh. But it was often fashionable for music critics to bash the band, and reviewers tended to be thrown off guard whenever Queen tried something different (which was always), not knowing how to react to it and simply not ‘getting it’. Queen’s humour and sense of fun often went over journalists’ heads.

Hindsight has been kinder though, with retrospective reviews often being more favourable, such as Loudersound ranking it as their 4th best album, and Rolling Stone magazine admitting they were wrong. It is now rightly acknowledged that the album is rather underrated, as it’s never had as much attention as some of their earlier work.

And so, as the latest instalment in my series of Queen reviews, this post is my personal run-through of all the tracks on the Jazz album, including the usual mixture of alternate versions, live performances, covers and more. I hope you enjoy!

Queen Album Review – News Of The World

1977 could have been the year that Queen’s reign came to an end. With punk rock very much in the ascendancy, having gained traction over the previous few years, there was a greater appetite for raw power and simplicity in rock music, rather than elaborate and fancy progressive rock. And Queen’s last album, A Day At The Races, despite being an excellent collection of songs, hadn’t sold quite as well as its behemoth predecessor A Night At The Opera, with some critics and fans feeling that it was more of the same without any notable improvement. So it was going to seem too repetitive if they did the same kind of thing yet again.

The band were perfectly happy to adapt and take on the challenge though, and indeed were already keen to try something different from the multi-layered, complex productions they felt they’d done enough of by this point anyway. So even without the emerging competition from the punk scene, it was already the evolutionary path they were heading down.

As a result, News Of The World marked a shift towards a purer hard rock sound, and took just 2 months to record (compared to 5 for A Day At The Races). The tracks still had some beautifully arranged harmonies and instrumentation thrown in, but not as lavishly and prominently as before. There was also a change in how evenly the writing credits were distributed, with 4 tracks now written by Brian, just 3 by Freddie, and an increase to 2 each for Roger and John. And the band produced the album themselves, with assistance from engineer Mike Stone, now they had the experience and confidence to do so themselves.

It all worked out very well, resulting in another great selection of songs. And so, as you’ll be accustomed to by now if you’ve followed my Queen reviews to date, this is my personal review of each of the tracks, including a look at alternate versions, music videos, live performances, covers, etc, along with other bits and pieces that I’m aware of. I hope you enjoy!

Queen Album Review – A Day At The Races

The time has come for me to review Queen’s 5th album, as part of my ongoing series of reviews. The musical majesty and stellar success of A Night At The Opera was always going to be a tough act to follow, and impossible to beat. But Queen were up for the challenge, and set about making A Day At The Races between July and November 1976. They produced it entirely by themselves for the first time, now that they had sufficient experience and were keen to give it a go, instead of employing Roy Thomas Baker like they had before. They continued to use engineer Mike Stone though.

The album was designed to be a companion piece to its predecessor with a similar variety of music. So it was again named after a Marx Brothers film, and Groucho Marx sent a note to congratulate them on their success and their “sage choice of album titles”. It also had a similar cover design to the previous album, with the colourful Queen crest on the front, but everything was on a black background instead of white this time. Brian later expressed a wish that both Opera and Races had been released together, as “the material for both of them was written at the same time, so I regard the two albums as completely parallel.”

The band are also credited in fun ways in the sleeve notes – in addition to the usual mentions of vocals, piano, guitar, etc, Freddie is the “Choir Meister” and contributes “tantrums”, Brian is the “Leader of the Orchestra”, and Roger provides “Pandemonium”. John is merely credited as playing Fender Bass and doesn’t get anything extra, which is reflective of his nature as the quiet one in the group.

Queen Album Review – A Night At The Opera – Part 3

This is the final instalment of my deep dive into Queen’s epic 1975 LP, following on from Part 1 and Part 2. The album of course finishes in style, courtesy of their biggest hit of all time, followed by a patriotic instrumental at the end. So let’s get straight on with it, as there’s plenty to discuss. I hope you enjoy!

Journal – September 2008

Here we go with another set of journal entries, featuring more socialising, DVDs, the new album by Queen + Paul Rodgers, and the Paralympics, among other things. So I hope you enjoy!

Journal – April 2008

Welcome to another month of journal entries. Again this hasn’t been a particularly busy month, but there’s been a little bit of socialising, a surprise contact from an old friend, the new series of Doctor Who, and various other bits and pieces. So I hope you enjoy!

Journal – January-February 2008

And so another year of journal entries gets underway. Well done and thank you if you’re still reading them! In these first couple of months I’ve had nice trips to socialise with friends in Exeter and bought some more DVDs, while on the downside I was struck down by the norovirus and we’ve had issues with our phoneline. Plus I’ve mentioned various news stories that have caught my eye as usual. So I hope you enjoy!

Journal – June 2006

Welcome to another set of entries from my journal. This month isn’t as eventful as the previous one, but there are still various bits and pieces to mention, including a training course at work, the World Cup, music downloads and DVD purchases, and other bits and bobs. So I hope you enjoy!

Journal – November 2005

Here’s another month of entries from my journal. This time I’ve had a lot of fun visiting my best mate to celebrate his 21st birthday, plus I’ve been assessed for support I might be able to get for work because of my visual impairment. There have also been lots of DVDs coming out in the run up to Christmas that I’ve been keen to get, and we’ve had Children In Need and other delights on TV. So there’s a variety of things here as usual, and I hope you enjoy!

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