To my ears the drums on Jazz sounded thin and weak with poor dynamics, while the cymbals sounded harsh and toneless. The guitars sounded great, and bass, piano and vocals are good too. It was not as warm as N.O.T.W. but remember in mid '78 Punk ruled and bands stripped back to complete, while New Wave bands like The Cars, Blonde and Talking Heads had that economic stripped, energetic sound. Even though Roy Thomas Baker produced Jazz it is still stripped and pretty restrained for a rock band like Queen. I reckon the band did follow trends to a certain degree, like U2 and did not want to sound like an early 70s metal band anymore. Dinosaur's as they were labelled by Punks! You can understand this from a marketing point of view and 'Bellbottom Rock' couldn't last forever. Queen were contemporary. Queen did strip back even more on The Game a year later. From A.D.A.T.R. to Jazz was only two years but a lot had changed in the music world. While A.D.A.T.R. had shades of A.N.A.T.O., Jazz was in another galaxy, but a natural progression from N.O.T.W. I like Jazz and for me it is in the essential S.H.A., A.N.A.T.O., A.D.A.T.R., N.O.T.W. and Jazz camp where every song is different on each LP. Queen and Queen II are in the classic early heavy rock camp and The Game, Flash Gordon and Hot Space are in the Pop Queen camp! Then the last four, The Works which I like far more than A.K.O.M., probably my least satisfying Queen LP alone with the Miracle but I love the mighty and tragic Innuendo. So getting back to Jazz, it's a great Queen LP with lot's of variable themes. Mustapha is a cracker in outright crazy nonsense which they never attempted again on any LP after Jazz. Fat Bottomed Girls is a Southern Stomp for fans of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Jealousy is a brilliant piano ballad reminiscent of McCartney no less. Bicycle is the most musically complicated 7" single ever to chart I reckon while If You Can't Beat Them is a stinker! Let Me Entertain you is great and I love the lyrics. Dead On Time is old Queen, but not as good as. In Only Seven Days is a beautiful song that Al Stewart could have written. Dreamers Ball pure entertainment and a great Manhattan Transfer tribute! Fun It ain't much fun and points to The Game, but misses the mark. Taylor's two songs on Jazz are the weakest I'm afraid. Leaving Home Is Brian May wishing he's on the West Coast of L.A. and Don't Stop Me Now needs no description but it is a brilliant pop single. No More of That Jazz is the most pointless Queen track and should have been left off the LP, I never liked the edited track inserts either, this action confirms it's weakness and the line 'No More of That Jazz' is like he's saying 'Turn off this bloody LP'! Bizarre, but that's Queen, massively entertaining, massively artistic and massively brilliant!