The Works

It could be Go Crazy didn't appear on the album because they needed an incentive for fans to buy the single. An unreleased B-Side is a bigger incentive than an album track. Queen really needed The Works to be a success, otherwise it was probably all over for them as a band (their own words).

Thanks to the beauty of iTunes playlists, I have my own "The Works - Resequenced" playlist, which i far far prefer.

1 - Tear It Up
2 - I Go Crazy
3 - It's A Hard Life
4 - Man On Fire
5 - Machines
6 - Let Me Live
7 - Man On The Prowl
8 - Radio Ga Ga
9 - Man Made Paradise
10 - Hammer To Fall

The Works?

At the time I loved it, but I would have anything Queen at the time.

Considering it was released in 1984 - when a lot of rock bands lost the way, it weathered the storm pretty good.  Radio Gaga is a strong song - yes I'm sick of it, but only because I've heard it 8 billion times.  Same for I Want to Break Free and Hammer To Fall.

The rest of the album is kinda meh.  It's a Hard Life is a decent ballad, Keep Passing Open Windows is a decent Joe Jackson cover...

I dunno, it's a solid 7/10 Queen album.  Nowhere near the greatness of the 70s or Innuendo revival, but IMO better than Hot Space or the Miracle... and yes, they definitely should have added I Go Crazy.

Radio Ga Ga:  Very good song musically but the synthesizer based sound is so dull and lifeless. To be honest, never liked the studio version. I prefer the more "natural" and rocker live take of this song, and then it is more listenable in my opinion. Vocoder was an excellent idea though.

Tear It Up:  A very very good riff! But the song repeats it's "hook" too much. If they had pushed the song more further, the results would have been much better. Perhaps even a challenger to another arena rock song...We Will Rock You.

It's Hard Life: It's ok. It consists the trademarks of Queen and is indeed a listenable ballad penned by Freddie. What else can you say?

Man On The Prowl: One of my favourites really! I don't get it why everybody hates it. Very underrated. Perhaps not catchy as Crazy Little Thing Called Love but I like more the piano base than the acoustic guitar base in this kind of genre. I like oldies! The piano finale is one of the best moments of Queen's music (don't kill me, I'm a pianist). The (dull) guitar solo just extends the song too much - straight to the piano ending would have been better. Note the use of occasional triplets by Freddie, very effective.

Machines (Or Back to Humans): The theme of the song is a nice idea but the song itself is boring. Actually one of the worst Queen song in my opinion. Never liked this, but I'll try.

I Want to Break Free: I think that no-one can deny that this is a nice catchy tune. A radio song. The overall pop sound is not for my taste though. The single version is much better than the studio version.

Keep Passing the Open Windows: It's ok actually. Roger's drumming work is very precise and admirable. The intro/pre-chorus is very catchy and I wished when I heard this song for the first time that it would have had more prominent role. Perhaps an another Don't Stop Me Now would have evolved from this? After all, average song I think.

Hammer to Fall: This totally rocks! My favourite from this album. Brian's solo is stunning. Very enjoyable song in live too. One of the best songs from Queen's 80's. Piano or Hammond organ should replace the "candy-floss" sound.

Is This the World We Created...?: I've always loved this one. Very sensitive and beautiful vocals by Freddie. Easily one of the best ballads of Queen, only second to Love of My Life in my opinion. Why everybody says "it's okay", it's fantastic! Queen never used a Mellotron as far as I'm concerned, but to this song it would have fitted magically.

I Go Crazy: A nice standard rocker by Brian. Not Tie Your Mother Down but still a decent song. I don't get it why the album didn't include this one.

My overall review is very critical and contains a lot of "what if...".
Sorry, not my favourite albums.  At least they tried.

maxpower wrote: Having not heard it from start to finish for some years now this is my opinion, it confirms what Queen became in 1980's a "singles" band which having 3 top ten UK singles backs this up & to add to only have 1 non album b-side from the singles is disappointing, I agree with Sebastian it isn't a great album, personally I think A Kind Of Magic is slightly worse as an album as a whole
When I heard this first time round it was such a "return to form" after the really experimental and change of direction Hot Space. As you say, Queen's first really "singles band" album of the eighties.  They were desperate for a successful single after the Hot Space album. Not their best album by a mile but better than AKOM, but a lot weaker than Innuendo which is their best of the eighties by a mile.

Their eighties albums are not a patch on their seventies albums. GH1 outselling GH2 is an example but then sequel albums are not as good as the originals anyway. Really an example of many supergroups over the ages - early works exceptional and then lesser, weaker albums over the yeras. However, Innuendo is a great album.

I'm a bad fan.  I've never really gotten 'Hammer to Fall'.  It's too poppy to be a proper rock song, and I find it wholly average.  I mean it's fun enough, you tap your toes, you sing along, there's some cool guitar, but ultimately it's fairly forgettable.  I'd never use it to try and inspire somebody to become a Queen fan.  If that's all I had I wouldn't even try really.

GratefulFan wrote: I'm a bad fan.  I've never really gotten 'Hammer to Fall'.  It's too poppy to be a proper rock song, and I find it wholly average.  I mean it's fun enough, you tap your toes, you sing along, there's some cool guitar, but ultimately it's fairly forgettable.  I'd never use it to try and inspire somebody to become a Queen fan.  If that's all I had I wouldn't even try really.

A forgettable song that's still played 26 years after it's original release?....and we're still discussing all these years later?....yea real forgettable!....lol.   Though i do agree that the 70's rockers like stone cold crazy, tie your mother down are the real deal and are better overall songs.

Can somebody explain what element makes a song a pop song versus a rock and roll item or heavy metal item ?

@mike

They don't play it here.  Not on terrestrial radio and not on satellite.  I've never heard it.

Brian wrote the book, slammed it shut, locked it up and threw away the key with TYMD.  Love that track.

I quite like the production on 'The Works'... sounds good to me. 'Hammer To Fall' and 'Radio Ga Ga' are still played on radio stations around here.

I just wished the LP contained 10 tracks instead of 9. A lot of bands did shit like that in the 80s, and the excuse was "they didn't have enough room", but that was just a load of garbage.

I guess putting down the 80's is the cool thing too do....that's all I hear are these clowns alway's saying how disposable the music from the 80's is, but why is all that garbage more popular in 2010 than it was in 1985?....millions of people still love that stuff.

Blue Roses Unlimited wrote: "I just wished the LP contained 10 tracks instead of 9. A lot of bands did shit like that in the 80s, and the excuse was
"they didn't have enough room", but that was just a load of garbage."


I completely agree. The album is far too short.

mike hunt wrote: "but why is all that garbage more popular in 2010 than it was in 1985?....millions of people still love that stuff."

Just because millions of people like something doesn't mean it's good, and vice-verca. Under Pressure is by far the most famous song off Hot Space, but I don't think it comes close to being the best song off the album.

GratefulFan wrote: "I'm a bad fan. I've never really gotten 'Hammer to Fall'. It's too poppy to be a proper rock song, and I find it wholly average. I mean it's fun enough, you tap your toes, you sing along, there's some cool guitar, but ultimately it's fairly forgettable. I'd never use it to try and inspire somebody to become a Queen fan. If that's all I had I wouldn't even try really."


I really like HTF, but it's not a song I go out of my way to listen to. Certainly, when I put on The Works, I look forward to listening to it, but unlike other (superior) Queen rock songs, I never feel an urge to listen to it.

The Works is IMO Queen's second weakest album. It's interesting as I've had a change of heart about it. I used to love it, but now while I don't regard it as a bad album by any means (no Queen album is bad), I think it is extremely disappointing by Queen's standards. There are several reasons:


Firstly, it's too short. It's not simply that it has less tracks than any other Queen album (other than AKOM), but it FEELS short. I listen to it, and I think to myself, 'is that there all there is?' It could really do with one or two extra tracks.

Secondly, there aren't really any 'quiet' tracks (songs which don't sound like hits to me); Machines, perhaps, but that's really the only one, and even that one I could imagine as a hit.

Thirdly, while it is extremely consistent, it has very few tracks which IMO represent Queen at their very best. It has a couple of tracks (IWTBF & KPTOW) which IMO are among Queen's best, but as good as they are, I'm not sure if they are among Queen's absolute greatest. Nonetheless, it is a good album, although not a great one, and I would classify it as Queen's second weakest.

Here are my thoughts on the songs:

Radio Ga Ga- A very, very good song, and among Roger's best songs. But I'm not a huge fan of it and I rarely listen to it in full.

Tear It Up- fun but forgettable.

It's A Hard Life- I've never been able to warm to this song. It strikes me as trying too hard; it wants to be taken seriously but it comes on far too strong.

Man On The Prowl- the weakest song on the album, I've always regarded this as a poor man's version of Crazy Little Thing Called Love.

Machines- I love Freddie's performance. Whilst this song feels a little dated, I think it's great fun.

I Want To Break Free- I love it. It's arguably among Queen's finest pure pop songs.

Keep Passing The Open Windows- My favourite song off the album. Apart from the 'love is all you need', I think it's almost flawless. One of Queen's best pop songs.

Hammer To Fall- A really good, albeit not great, rock song. One of the best songs on the album.

Is This The World We Created- Very nice.

Now thw Works is a bit more fluent and free flowing than it's predecessor.

However it's inconsistent and short of tracks.

Radio Ga Ga - 10/10 - A unique song
Tear it Up - 7.5/10 - Okay but a bit weak
It's a Hard Life - 10/10 - Fantastic
Man on the Prowl - 7/10 - The band knows that they doing a remake of Crazy ......
Machines - 8/10 - Quite Good
I Want to Break Free - 9/10 - Funny track, but single version is better
Keep Passing the Open Windows - 8.5/10 - Could easily have been released as a single
Hammer to Fall - 10/10 - Brilliant track
Is this the world we created? - 8/10 - Simple but effective track.