Jazz

Mustapha - OK song, bad song to open the album with though

Fat Bottomed Girls - Awesome.

Jealousy - Pretty good.

Bicycle Race - Awesome.

If You Can't Beat Them - Average.

Let me Entertain You - Great live song, OK studio song.

Dead on Time - Amazing, one of their most underrated songs.

In Only Seven Days - Beautiful song.

Dreamer's Ball - Another great song.

Fun It - Absolutely horrible.

Leaving Home Ain't Easy - Average.

Don't Stop Me Now - Easily one of Queen's best songs, outstanding.

More of That Jazz - Average.

I think Jazz is an awesome album.

Mustapha - 8/10
Fat Bottomed Girls - 10/10
Jealousy - 9/10
Bicycle Race - 10/10
If You Can't Beat Them - 10/10
Let Me Entertain You - 10/10
Dead on Time - 10/10
In Only Seven Days - 9/10
Dreamer's Ball - 9/10
Fun It - 8/10
Leaving Home Ain't Easy - 8/10
Don't Stop Me Now - 10/10
More of that Jazz - 8/10

Mustapha — 9/10 (interesting song)
Fat Bottomed Girls — 10/10 (one of my favs, to me it never get boring)
Jealousy - 10/10 (very good ballad)
Bicycle Race — 5/10 (most overrated Queen's song)
If You Can't Beat Them — 7/10 (gray, and inconspicuous)
Let Me Entertain You — 8/10 (good as intro rocker)
Dead on Time — 7/10 (not bad, and not good)
In Only Seven Days — 7/10 (not best)
Dreamer's Ball — 5/10 (boring)
Fun It — 6/10 (not best Roger's song)
Leaving Home Ain't Easy — 9/10 (very good ballad)
Don't Stop Me Now — 9/10 (energic and powerful song)
More of that Jazz — 10/10 (one of Roger's best rockers, and one of best songs from this album)

Fat Bottomed Girls (1991 Bonus Remix by Brian Malouf) — 10/10 (Malouf made another good remix)
Bicycle Race (1991 Bonus Remix by Junior Vasquez) — 3/10 (strange remix of overrated song)

"Mustapha"  - I love Freddie's vocals. 9/10
"Fat Bottomed Girls"  -  I like it. 7/10
"Jealousy" - It's one of my favourites. 9/10
"Bicycle Race"  - Catchy, but never a favourite. 7/10
"If You Can't Beat Them"  - Don´t like it. 5/10
"Let Me Entertain You"  - OK. 6/10
"Dead on Time"  - Nothing to say about it. 5/10
"In Only Seven Days" - Don´t like it. 5/10
"Dreamer's Ball"  - I absolutely love it! 10/10
"Fun It" - Hate it. 4/10
"Leaving Home Ain't Easy"  - Don't like it. 5/10
"Don't Stop Me Now"  - Wow. Gives me lots of energy. Queen´s most optimistic song. 10+/10
"More of That Jazz"  - Don´t like it. 5/10

ole-the-first wrote:

[QUOTE]Dreamer's Ball — 5/10 (boring)[/QUOTE]

Listen beyond the main melody - it is far from boring.  It is one of most musically interesting tracks Brian has ever written.

I love Dreamer's ball.   An easy 10 star song.  The guitar is pure Queen.

Every now and then I blast through all of Queen's albums, and Jazz is one of the albums that I'm always reluctant to listen to, even though it contains a number of great songs. It opens with four great songs, the first three of which I feel give an example of how diverse Queen wanted to be and that they weren't afraid to try anything.

However what the album really lacks in is the writing talents of both John and Roger. I'm as big a John fan as anybody, but I didn't like either of his songs on the album. IIRC even John disliked "If You Can't Beat Them", while "In Only Seven Days" feels dated, even for the time, and doesn't really belong on the album. As for Roger, the drums on "Fun It" are clearly an indication that he's perhaps getting tired of the sound of the time, which was evident with the sounds he used in "Fun In Space". And then More of that Jazz is just another one of his soapbox-style rants. I'm all for artists using music to relay their opinions (indeed, it's why I love Arcade Fire) but Queen is where, largely, I feel you can get away from this. Credit to Roger, he has the right to be outspoken but I'm not a fan of it.

Brian on the other hand really excels in Jazz. Dead On Time is full of energy, power and excitement, a classic rocker and I'm very surprised that they never contemplated doing it live. On the other side of the spectrum you have Dreamer's Ball, a calm, gentle song which is rather classy change in tempo. I even think Leaving Home Ain't Easy is a great song.

As for Freddie, his take on the album is performed in true Mercury style. Flamboyance (Let Me Entertain You), daring to go where few would bother to go (Mustapha) and electrifying pizzazz (Don't Stop Me Now, a song I actually dislike but I have overplayedness to thank for that) suggest that Freddie still had as many ideas as ever.

However it's somewhat evident that he didn't have as many ideas as he always had, at least that's the opinion I come to when the decision to include synthesisers in The Game was apparent. Jazz, to me, reflects the end of an era that really had to be ended. Freddie did say that he felt that Queen had to move on with the times and while the 70s era is always looked at with great fondness, I agree that moving on was the right thing to do. Jazz has its moments, but as an album it lacks substance and new ideas. If I had to give it a rating, I'd give it a 5.5/10 which is very harsh, but it's the lowest I think I'd ever give a Queen album. It's my least favourite Queen album, not to say I don't mind listening to it at times, but it was definitely a sign to mix things up.