Hot Space

It's a double standard, simple as that. If you like the album, you don't mind it being a sequel. If you dislike it, being a sequel is a reason to criticise it.

If it was discovered tomorrow that Brian wrote a song for Justin Bieber, half of the Bieber-haters here would instantly begin to like him. Others would simply think less of the Dr.

I think that Races is a superior album to The Works, however my problem woth both is that they seem to me to be a step backwards. While Hot Space was no Opera, it did see the group taking risks; just as with SHA/ANATO. I don't consider either Races or the Works to be ordinary albums; Races features several brilliant songs, while The Works was extremely consistent. However neither excite me as much as the previous albums.

Actually, Hot Space was NOT taking risks: they were going in the direction they'd already explored with Another One Bites the Dust. It's as if Sheer Heart Attack had been 13 Seven Seas of Rhyes, or if Opera had been 12 Killer Queens, Races 10 Bo Rhaps, News 11 Somebody to Loves, Jazz 13 Rockyous, etc.

Sure, Hot Space was not 11 Dusts, but several of the songs (the main bunch of the album) were going in that direction, so they were NOT exploring anything new to them. And for the remaining ones: Put Out the Fire was as typical Queen as it could get, Life Is Real was similar to Play the Game. With the only exception of Cool Cat (and UP which was not new at the time), Hot Space wasn't taking any actual risks. On the contrary, they were following the trend of the moment. They lacked the guts they had in the past to actually come up with something different.

I'd just like to add that Backchat is one of my all time favourite Queen songs.
The chord progressions give it a sense of melancholy.
Whenever I hear it now I just glaze over remembering the hot summer days of 1982.

It's just my opinioin, but Queen were never really the same after Hot Space.

Hot Space was made to capitalize on the success of Another One Bites the Dust.  However, the band hedged their bets by including mostly traditional-sounding Queen songs on side 2, as well as the previously released Under Pressure.  BTW, Under Pressure is, let's face it, not one of Queen (or Bowie's) better moments, with its silly, nonsensical lyrics and music that sounds like they were put-together on the fly, which they were.

Hot Space signalled the decline of Queen throughout the 1980s, when they went from being a brilliant rock band to an above-average pop band that occassionally released a song recalling their former glory.  In fact, you can almost count the number of Queen songs, which were released after The Game but measure up to their previous output, on one hand: I Want It All, Was It All Worth It, One Vision, Innuendo, The Show Must Go On, Let Me Live - and then the pickings get slim.

In addition, after 1980, Freddie all but stopped writing piano songs, and the synthesizer began playing a much larger role in Queen's songs.  This is a shame, because Freddie wrote such beautiful ballads - and several great rockers - on the piano.   The second side of The Game should have warned us fans that something was amiss: Other than Save Me and, perhaps, Sail Away Sweet Sister, it had very little quality to offer.

Of course, Queen continued, for a few more years, to be a big draw on the live circuit, albeit not in the USA, where they lost most of their fan base after Hot Space.  So, once again its just my opinion, but Hot Space signalled the beginning of the end of Queen as we know and love them.

> after 1980, Freddie all but stopped writing piano songs

Er... no. Life Is Real, It's a Hard Life, Keep Passing the Open Windows, Man on the Prowl, Friends Will Be Friends (with John), The Miracle (sort of), Made in Heaven, I Was Born to Love You, There Must Be More to Life Than This, Man Made Paradise (sort of), Love Me Like There's No Tomorrow, Living on My Own (sort of), She Blows Hot and Cold, Barcelona (with Mike), Fallen Priest (with Mike), Guide Me Home (with Mike), Golden Boy (with Mike), How Can I Go On (with Mike).

> The second side of The Game should have warned us fans that something was amiss: Other than Save Me
and, perhaps, Sail Away Sweet Sister, it had very little quality to offer.

Both of which were from the previous decade.

Sebastian wrote: > after 1980, Freddie all but stopped writing piano songs

Er... no. Life Is Real, It's a Hard Life, Keep Passing the Open Windows, Man on the Prowl, Friends Will Be Friends (with John), The Miracle (sort of), Made in Heaven, I Was Born to Love You, There Must Be More to Life Than This, Man Made Paradise (sort of), Love Me Like There's No Tomorrow, Living on My Own (sort of), She Blows Hot and Cold, Barcelona (with Mike), Fallen Priest (with Mike), Guide Me Home (with Mike), Golden Boy (with Mike), How Can I Go On (with Mike).

> The second side of The Game should have warned us fans that something was amiss: Other than Save Me
and, perhaps, Sail Away Sweet Sister, it had very little quality to offer.

Both of which were from the previous decade.

Every band has a prime.  Queen's was 1973 to 1980.   Nothing wrong with that,  but i will say freddie's Barcelona ranks with his best stuff from his heyday. I know it's not Queen, but still.   Even Zeppelin was losing their edge after a certain amount of albums. It happens to the best of them.  Only the Beatles I think never would have lost their edge.  Even if they lasted through the 70's and 80's.  john and paul were amazing songwriter's.   On the comments about freddie's piano songs.....Mike's playing fit perfectly on the Barcelona album,  and freddie did play a decent amount of piano on The Works.  A kind of magic is where freddie didn't play enough piano.  That continued on the the miracle and Innuendo, which was one of Queen's better moments by the way.

Sebastian wrote: Actually, Hot Space was NOT taking risks: they were going in the direction they'd already explored with Another One Bites the Dust. It's as if Sheer Heart Attack had been 13 Seven Seas of Rhyes, or if Opera had been 12 Killer Queens, Races 10 Bo Rhaps, News 11 Somebody to Loves, Jazz 13 Rockyous, etc.

Sure, Hot Space was not 11 Dusts, but several of the songs (the main bunch of the album) were going in that direction, so they were NOT exploring anything new to them. And for the remaining ones: Put Out the Fire was as typical Queen as it could get, Life Is Real was similar to Play the Game. With the only exception of Cool Cat (and UP which was not new at the time), Hot Space wasn't taking any actual risks. On the contrary, they were following the trend of the moment. They lacked the guts they had in the past to actually come up with something different.

Hot Space took HUGE risks..

Back Chat, Staying Power, Dancer etc are about as similar to Another one Bites the Dust as, say, Hammer to Fall is to It's Late or Stone Cold Crazy is to Let Me entertain you. 

It's Late, Stone Cold, Hammer and Let me entertain you are of the heavy rock genre and on every album prior to Hot Space you could find a group of songs that fitted into that group.   

Hot Space was a wholesale genre switch because the one 'generic' group of songs on the album were those of the 'funk. black category'.

I'd call that a bit risky..

Staying Power — 6/10 to album version and 8/10 to extended (althrough live versions are much better)
Dancer — 4/10 (one of Queen's worst songs)
Back Chat — 10/10 (very good one)
Body Language — 2/10 (worst Queen's song)
Action This Day — 3/10 (bad, even if author is Roger)
Put Out the Fire — 8/10 (good rocker)
Life Is Real (Song for Lennon) — 6/10 (boring)
Calling All Girls — 7/10 (not as bad as it could be)
Las Palabras de Amor (The Words of Love) — 10/10 (great ballad)
Cool Cat — 6/10 (bad, but a little bit entertaining)
Under Pressure — 10/10 (one of Queen's greatest songs)

Body Language (1991 Bonus Remix by Susan Rogers) — 2/10 (remix of a bad song)

Soul Brother — 4/10 (too boring)
Under Pressure (Rah Mix) — 10/10 (great remix)
Under Pressure (Mike Spencer Mix) — 10/10 (great remix)
Under Pressure (Knebworth Mix) — 10/10 (great remix)
Under Pressure (Club 2000 Remix) — 6/10 (bad remix)