DId Hot Space create an aversion to risk?

They didn't do "concept albums" as such (like Tommy or The Wall) but there were themes to their songs that wove through albums, even if not every song addressed it. If anything, The Works is arguably the closest thing to a tightly thematic album, discussing the human spirit, one trapped in a technological world.

I've said it before, I feel Innuendo is much more the successor album thematically to A Night At The Opera, rather than A Day At The Races. Opera is like a theatrical experience (like going to an old Vaudeville show) and Innuendo is like peeking behind the curtain during the show to see the mad, skewed world of this theatre troupe that may not have all it's marbles.

The Works thematic? Not really. Two songs deal with the whole machines vs humans topic. The remaining 77.78% of the album is unrelated to that.

rhyeking wrote:

I've said it before, I feel Innuendo is much more the successor album thematically to A Night At The Opera, rather than A Day At The Races. Opera is like a theatrical experience (like going to an old Vaudeville show) and Innuendo is like peeking behind the curtain during the show to see the mad, skewed world of this theatre troupe that may not have all it's marbles.

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Brilliantly put.  Innuendo was Queen's best record after ANATO in my eyes.  ADATR and NOTW were great records written by the band at their happiest, but Innuendo is a step above.  It's the only other time the Queen formula was perfected, as far as I'm concerned.

Sebastian wrote:

And that may have been the reason. I love choral music. That makes me very anal-ytical of it, and harder to please with it than most people. If I listen to, say, a school choir singing Now Is the Month of Maying (a piece I know fairly well), I can detect errors and inaccuracies on the bass part, for instance, because I *do* know how it's supposed to go. A non-expert on the genre/style may overlook that and content him/her-self with listening to good voices and/or appreciate the effort. For me, that's not enough.

I'm working as a choir leader and I have been singing in choirs since I was 8 (and I'm now 34), and I both agree and disagree with you.

Sure, in many cases you can hear what's wrong or not on the highest level better if you know your stuff, but you can also appreciate the effort more, since you know what it takes to be really good. In my opinion you have to be able to appreciate something on different levels. Just because I know choral music doesn't mean I can't enjoy an amateur choir singing "Now is the month of maying", you have to judge something for what it is.

After Hot Space, it looks like they didn't want to take "any more chances".

Freddie sang every song, and they said for The Works album, that they wanted to create something between A Night at the Opera and The Game - which were their most-selling albums (or at least singles, I think).

And it worked - they had (about) 4 singles from each album after Hot Space. But I think most fans agree that their best albums are the first 5.

>>> Sure, in many cases you can hear what's wrong or not on the highest level better if you know your stuff, but you can also appreciate the effort more, since you know what it takes to be really good. In my opinion you have to be able to appreciate something on different levels. Just because I know choral music doesn't mean I can't enjoy an amateur choir singing "Now is the month of maying", you have to judge something for what it is.                                       

True, but I wouldn't appreciate a choir (amateur, semi-pro, pro or world-class) that didn't bother doing it better, knowing they could. Just like I wouldn't appreciate if Fred's biopic stated something historically or geographically inaccurate, knowing they could've spent the same amount of time doing it well enough. So it's sort of a double-edged sword.

I can't speak a word of French, so if somebody spoke to me in that language with horrible pronunciation and flawed grammar, I still wouldn't know they're mistaken, as I don't know. But a person who's fluent on it would detect those errors immediately, and possibly get annoyed by them.

mooghead wrote: "Hot Space is an example of what happens when a democracy is pulled in one direction by an individual who has been given too much influence. Hot Space was a serious low point in every respect for Queen."

Disagree. I think it's a very underappreciated album. While it's not great by any means, it features Freddie at the peak of his powers, and having a hell of a good time. IMO Queen's lowest points were The Works & A Kind of Magic (neither of which I consider to be bad albums).

I can't believe it, but I actually agree with Amazon.

I can top that - I agree with her too :D

Bloody hell!

:D I know we don't always agree, but you don't need to act so shocked that we do agree on something. :D

Sir GH wrote: rhyeking wrote:

I've said it before, I feel Innuendo is much more the successor album thematically to A Night At The Opera, rather than A Day At The Races. Opera is like a theatrical experience (like going to an old Vaudeville show) and Innuendo is like peeking behind the curtain during the show to see the mad, skewed world of this theatre troupe that may not have all it's marbles.

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Brilliantly put.  Innuendo was Queen's best record after ANATO in my eyes.  ADATR and NOTW were great records written by the band at their happiest, but Innuendo is a step above.  It's the only other time the Queen formula was perfected, as far as I'm concerned.

i respect you're opinion,  but you really think Innuendo is better than Races?.....even NOTW?....Is there anything so average as The hitman, Headlong, and Delilah on those records?...I rank Innuendo clearly behind the first 6, and on the same level or slightly better than the next batch of good albums, like The Game and Jazz.

I would say that it goes back a little further than Hot Space. It started with the release of “Another one bites the dust”. They thought that’s what their fans wanted from them, but in reality the majority of their true USA fans despised that song. It was an otherwise hiccup on fine album. The problem with “Hot Space” is that it sounds flat, boring and uninspired. They simply copied what everyone else was producing at the time. Something they really didn’t do before hand. The choice of music style was not an issue, but they way it was recorded was beneath their standards. Had they done like what they did in the past, take something and make it their own, most fans would be praising “Hot Space”. Case in point, the live versions of “Back chat, Staying power, Action this day & Calling all girls” rock with their very best while their studio counterparts lack in every aspect.
From “The works to “The miracle” they stopped trying to be innovative. My feeling is they lost interest and became complacent. Freddie and Brian’s song writing waned for the most part. John and Roger have written some very good songs but have never been as consistent as Freddie or Brian. Also the production of the “The Works and “A Kind of magic” sound terrible compared to their 70’s output. Plus crappy songs breeds crappy sales and crappy fan reaction. You can take just about any song off “Hot space through “The Miracle” remove Freddie’s voice and you couldn’t tell it apart from most of the garbage being produced during the 80’s. Queen simply became just another “Euro trash synth band de jur”
It wasn’t any video, statement, appearance or lack of tour that did in Queen in the USA. It was very simply the rubbish on their records.

When Queen were promoting The Miracle they did an hour long interview on Britains Radio 1 - During which Brian says (paraphrased) "..we really want to please as many people as possible, we really do..."

This says it all for me - you can't please 'as many people as possible' by taking risks. I only really dig two songs after the AKOM album and that's, Hang On In There and Stealin'.
Queen always wanted to sell as many records as possible but they used to do this BY taking risks - not the trite they recorded on The Miracle and Innuendo.

Some of this is a bit harsh. While a lot of the 80's output wasn't as innovative as the early 70's albums, it is still good music, and Queen music, in its own right. It is true however that a lot of Hot Space is pretty bland.