Hot Space No 14 on Classic Rocks worst album list

billy bob wrote: "If Hot Space had been their 1st album then they wouldn't have made a 2nd. EMI would have dropped em."

I doubt that. Hot Space was more successful than their first album, and they survived that album. Record labels don't care about quality as much as they care about sales, and Hot Space went gold in both the US and the UK. It also broke the UK top ten, and produced a hit single. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, it did better than both of Queen's first two albums. So on that basis, if HS was their first, I think they would have definitely been able to make a second album.

@Bob:

I stand by my words: Hot Space is a mediocre album that could've been a pretty good EP.

i disagree
i think it's a poor album that could've made a mediocre EP

I presume that the magazine consider Hot Space bad due the songs but what about performance? Freddie's vocals are stunning and very enjoyable through this album, and I think that even the editors can't deny that.

It is true that the production could have been better, but here and there are quite nice arrangements and good performances. That's for sure. Songwriting or the track order cannot make the album bad alone.

Hot Space seems to have made this Bottom 50 list purely on the style of music contained there in. Disco or Dance or what ever.

Of the 11 tracks less than half fall into the offending category. The rest get little or no mention. Given Queen's track record with the press it's hardly surprising that Hot Space was slammed. Even funnier the same press that slated Hot Space, a year later were heralding Michael Jackson's Thriller album as being ground breaking and a truly great album. Wow Beat it had a guitar riff and an Edward Van Halen solo. So that's great but Dancer and Staying power aren't ? I guess that's the press for you.

Of course the press killed off the album but Queen continued to be come more successful everywhere except The US. I guess the American market Is more fickle and less open to artists being artists.

Listening to Hot Space now, it's very much an album of that period, production wise, but that's also true of The Works, in fact if you take the singles off the works what's left is not all great and is no better or worse than Hot Space, so why Hot Space. It was the last album on which they did something unexpected.

As far as being badly produced or played, as I said the production is very much early 80's. But live, watch Staying Power on live at the Bowl and then watch Radio GaGa at Wembley. The first is a band locked into the rhythm of the song with all the members visibly playing for the song, the second Is a band almost on auto pilot. Forget the catchy chorus and hand claps which is honestly the better and more challenging to play?

Hot Space is a few years and a million miles from being my favourite Queen album, but it certainly isn't the worst.

Any list of best or worse in a magazine is only there to make the short sighted minds of the journalists involved seem to be of importance, and to make Joe public run out and buy the Magazine in the hope that their favourite band gets a mention, or in this case doesn't!

HS was not groundbreaking
queen had already ventured into this territory with The Game
AOBTD don't try suicide and Dragon Attack were queen's first big visits to the dancefloor
Coming Soon was repeated with Call All Girls
and there were a couple of Brian ballads there too

i think the press - and the seasoned fans just sighed and thought "not more of this? yawn"

Quite right too, should have been higher, its is utter shit except for Under Pressure and Put Out The Fire

Oh and KISS are a great band too, Sonic Boom their last album was terrific, they get better with age.

[QUOTE] [b]Russian Headlong wrote:[/b]
Oh and KISS are a great band too, Sonic Boom their last album was terrific, they get better with age. [/QUOTE]

if by "better with age" you mean they are like wine...best served with loads of CHEESE, then yes, Kiss do "cheesy" to extreme

[QUOTE] [b]brENsKi wrote:[/b]

HS was not groundbreaking
queen had already ventured into this territory with The Game
AOBTD don't try suicide and Dragon Attack were queen's first big visits to the dancefloor
Coming Soon was repeated with Call All Girls
and there were a couple of Brian ballads there too

i think the press - and the seasoned fans just sighed and thought "not more of this? yawn"[/QUOTE]

As opposed to them thinking oh not more of those vocal harmonies When Somebody to Love or Bicycle Race were released.

Yes The Game had a couple of Dance/ funk orientated songs on it, but so did Jazz. Roger's Fun It?

As far as Dragon Attack goes, a prominent Bass line doesn't make a dance song.

I didn't say Hot Space was ground breaking what I wrote was that the press had said that Thriller was ground breaking even though it covered some of the ground Hot Space had done a year before.

Hot Space has many weak songs. That's what it boils down to. If the songs were better quality more people would've bought it. Body Language, Calling All Girls, Cool Cat and Dancer are mediocre and annoying. Put Out the Fire, despite its commendable lyrics, is a sonic mess and among Brian's least inspired heavy metal ooze (add Tear It Up, Still Burnin' and Headlong to that list). The good songs aren't that good. Only Under Pressure, Staying Power, Back Chat and Las Palabras stand out. Body Language was a really poor choice for first single.

But seriously --Thriller. Don't even talk about HS and Thriller in the same breath. Back Chat is not comparable to Beat It. In BC, Brian does not play a heavy metal solo, he plays a tasteful funk-inspired solo. In Beat It, Eddie VH plays a heavy metal solo over the bridge (instead of the chorus) and it sounds great and -- incredibly -- not out of place in a funk/disco song. Plus Eddie's solos are amazing and, as Star Fleet showed, he's a much more innovative soloist that Brian when asked to improvise.

[QUOTE] [b]Holly2003 wrote:[/b]
In BC, Brian does not play a heavy metal solo, he plays a tasteful funk-inspired solo. [/QUOTE]
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Isn't it John who plays the solo on Back Chat?

No it's not

Holly,
You need to go and listen to Back Chat again. That isn't a classic funk solo. Like most BM solo's it good and well thought out. It sounds like it owes a dept to Jeff Beck. Strange you picked that song, I was thinking of Dancer

I didn't compare Hot Space to Thriller other than to say both albums contain some very similar songs stylistically and Hot Space came first but got hammered by the press for being a dance album while Thriller was hailed as being innovative when clearly it isn't.

As far as Edward Van Halen's playing goes. On beat it he has said many times he walked into the studio asked what was required of him and was told that Micheal Jackson liked that really fast thing he does. So that's what he played. He'd done it all before and has done better solo's since,
but that's the one on a million selling single and album, and out side of Van Halen's fan base that's what he's famous for.

Quiet where Star Fleet fits in to this, I don't really see. Yes Van Halen is better at Jamming off the cuff ideas, BM has always worked most of his solos out very carefully before committing to it, that however doesn't mean one is better than the other. If your talking about dance/ funk with real guitar riffs then both Queen and Jackson, by the way Steve Luckather Played all the guitars on Beat it except the solo, stole the idea from mid 70's Rick James.

As for Hot Space only having 4 good songs on it, what about The Works or A Kind Of Magic. . . .