Why is the AKOM album disliked?

"...they released such tripe as "Bicycle Race" and "Fat Bottom Girls".

OMFG. There is more personality and genius in Bicycle Race than 99% of most bands catalogues. And Fat Bottomed Girls has exquisite harmonies, great musicianship and hits the mark that Brian wanted, a "southern stomper" that got people moving. Both would have been killer tracks on AKOM, and made almost all (WWTLF stands the test of time, the rest, nah) sound like total crap.

[QUOTE] [b]Sheer Brass Neck wrote:[/b]
(WWTLF stands the test of time, the rest, nah) sound like total crap. [/QUOTE]

Nah, One Vision, A Kind Of Magic (Highlander), Friends Will Be Friends, Gimme the Prize and Princes of the Universe still stand along with WWTLF.

It's a sound track album, so they're excused. Some of the songs feels a bit like products which had to be made before a deadline. Freddies voice is - as always - great, but the songs are quite boring. My favourites are Pain is so Close to Pleasure and Don't Lose Your Head.

It´s all about the point of few. A Queen fan from the start will not like AKOM, because it`s too poppy, eighties, synthy, whatever you call it....
But I became a Queen fan right in that years,so it was a part of my life, a part of growing up. Of course, it`s not their musically highlight. But in these days we loved WWTLF, One Vison, Friends Will Be Friends....
The Miracle was the first album released when I had become a real fan. I waited for the day of release weeks before....but many people think the same of The Miracle...it´s only a "song collection", too.
But after A Day at the races all Queen albums are "song collections"!!!????

Very interesting feedback folks. Thank you.

- Ryan

Synth-bass and computerised drums make it sound quite amateurish compared to most of what they did before and after.

There's very little of Roger's backing vocals compared to many previous and upcoming albums.

Songwriting's good, but on many albums before and after it was way better.

Same for production, etc.

Guitars are fantastic, and that's indeed a high point. Drums have some great moments but on a big part of the album they're either too dry or too poorly mixed or simply not there (replaced by MIDI- or computer-generated percussion). Bass is overall good but we're talking about a man who not only could play better, but also routinely did.

Don't even get me started on the piano ...

As for Freddie's vocals, they were good, with some excellent moments. The usual for him, however, was to have albums with excellent vocals with some magnificent moments.

AKOM is like a six-foot-tall man surrounded by 7- and 8-foot-tall men: he's not by any means a dwarf, but he's not by any means a giant.

AKOM was the first Queen single I bought although I didn't hear the album until a bit later. I agree it's short and disjointed - like The Works. Out of those mid / late 80s albums I prefer The Miracle.

One Vision - one of the poorest attempts to rock. At least they had fun at the studio according to the documentary footage. The live versions are so much better...

A Kind Of Magic - I hate the 80's disco sound. Again, the live versions are a MILLION TIMES better.

One Year Of Love - a boring song with a bloody saxophone solo

Pain Is So Close To Pleasure - an S&M song in a funk/disco rhythm with a dated 80's sound? Were they serious?

Friends Will Be Friends - one of the most boring Queen ballads ever. Come on, Fred, what happened? You knew how to write this type of songs, e.g. Champions is a brilliant song

Who Wants To Live Forever - FINALLY! A true masterpiece ! Definitely my favourite song of the album, and probably one of my TOP 5 80's songs.

Gimme The Prize - Another pretty good song with amazing performances by mainly Freddie and Brian

Don't Lose Your Head - I'm not sure if I EVER managed to listen to it till the end.

Princess of the Universe - Another good song. Not great, just good.



Poor mixing, too much synths and computer programmed drums, weak songs, very dated sound. Freddie and Brian delivery pretty good performances most of the time, but Roger and John sound like they were not there most of the time (which they probably weren't). And the main problem (at least for me) - it doesn't sound like an album, but like a random collection of random songs, most of them being songs which would 10 years earlier be skipped in the "demo stage" of development

Too much filler, unforgivable for Queen. The second time I ever suspected Queen of using crap filler tracks only because I heard Jazz many years before...

[QUOTE] [b]Mr. Bed Guy wrote:[/b]
But after A Day at the races all Queen albums are "song collections"!!!????[/QUOTE]

Not at all! Jazz is the first one which runs a bit awkwardly in my opinion, but then The Game REALLY works as an album - even the more forgettable tracks like Coming Soon fit in with the rest of them. You can criticise a lot about Hot Space, but you can't say it's inconsistent within itself. I'd say 84-86 was when their albums were really sounding a bit all over the place, perhaps cos they were more focused on getting good singles out at that point.

Hot Space was the last Queen album to take risks, The Works and Magic were too safe & ref Magic its mish-mash with the Highlander soundtrack which everyone knew back in 1986

I grew up in the 80s and became a fan in the 80s. I do like their 80s sound. I believe that AKOM highlughts the entire 80s era quite well. it is so 80s. There are up and downs across all work from that era, but I cannot really say bad things about their work. I find Miracle to be the weakest album. I like to hear all of those albums on vinyl from that time. it adds romance.