Question about Jazz Album

An analogy that could be made is that Jazz has a 'days of the week' song in In Only Seven Days. Compare it to the 'days of the week' song on A Night At The Opera - Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon, no comparison really. In fact In Only Seven Days is probably in my 3 least favourite Queen songs. Leaving Home Ain't Easy is almost as bad.

Leaving Home Ain't Easy is as pleasant as a dental appointment.

I like Jazz, It was a transition album for them. Had more filler than the usual 70's Queen album. Production wasn't so great either. Dispite it all, I still like the album. So many good songs like Mustapha, Dead on time, Dreamers Ball and the hits. Jealousy is another good one. Maybe the band didn't like it at the time because it wasn't as solid as the first 6 albums.. It's better than any 80's album they did, aside from The Game, and that's even debatable.

Jazz is their weakest '70s album overall, largely because of the production, but there are also a couple really weak songs that wouldn't have made it on a previous album. It's still mostly killer though.

But yeah, Leaving Home Ain't Easy is weird. I usually love Brian's depressed sentimental ballads, but that one just lays it on really heavy and there't not enough musical interest there to justify it.

I think it suffered from having to have more John and Roger tracks, though that's not entirely new.

I just suspect a "fairness" thing was kicking in, lowering the bar.

I think they basically hadn't a clue what to do by then. Which is usually the most interesting period for any band.

I don't get the production problems with it.

I love the production of the album, much more than the production of NOTW which just sounds muddy in comparison. I think at the time studios were getting more controlled and precise in there recording techniques and maybe RTB was chasing a curve in the industry that was slowly heading towards the CD era, after all if you are a creative person you dont do teh same thing over and over so, he would have tried to move them forward from the ANATO days to get a more modern sound.

I've always loved the album its one of my favs, but was always disappointed by the Game and the Mack era of production

Togg, disappointed by The Game, in what way may I ask? I know it all comes down to personal taste, but I think The Game is propably the best 80s album the band made. For my taste I had to wait until Innuendo for an outstanding album. Between The Game and Innuendo the albums where a bit below par. The Works has a few highlights, the same goes for Magic and The Miracle, but Innuendo is in my humble opinion a top of the bill album.


Tom

Yea, I agree Tom! Jazz, The Game were the best until Innuendo. Innuendo was classic, that album would have been huge if Queen were able to tour in support of the album. Also, the choice of singles In America hurt. The record company didn't want the title track as the first single because they thought it was to long. Queen should have fought that, I remember a buzz around the band when the radio played that song. The choice of headlong was odd, a decent B level Rock song. The Show Must Go On was the other obvious choice for first single. It was good they finished on a high note after so many uneven albums in the 80's.

[QUOTE] [b]Martin Packer wrote:[/b]

I think it suffered from having to have more John and Roger tracks, though that's not entirely new.

I just suspect a "fairness" thing was kicking in, lowering the bar.[/QUOTE]
That fairness thing always hurt their albums. Queen 2 for example. Loser in the end had no place on that album, but they needed to get a roger song in there. See what a fool I been, the way they played it live was a much better song. In the studio they could have Queenized it a bit more. The studio version sounds like Zep.

The snare drum sound on Jazz is one of the worst I've heard.

[QUOTE] [b]Martin Packer wrote:[/b]

I think it suffered from having to have more John and Roger tracks, though that's not entirely new.

I just suspect a "fairness" thing was kicking in, lowering the bar.[/QUOTE]
Nah, it's not just that Roger and John had more songs. The Game has the highest concentration of Roger and John songs (2 apiece, whereas Freddie and Brian only had 3 apiece) and IMO Another One Bites the Dust, Need Your Loving Tonight, Rock It and Coming Soon are all excellent. Also Roger and John's songs are the two best tracks on A Day at the Races. Their songs were just weaker than normal on Jazz (with the exception of More of That Jazz which I love). Leaving Home Ain't Easy is the worst song on the album anyway.

[QUOTE] [b]mike hunt wrote:[/b]
That fairness thing always hurt their albums. Queen 2 for example. Loser in the end had no place on that album, but they needed to get a roger song in there. See what a fool I been, the way they played it live was a much better song. In the studio they could have Queenized it a bit more. The studio version sounds like Zep.
[/QUOTE]
Loser is in the top 2 worst songs on the album and it's still great. Such a fun, funky track. Queen don't have another song that's at all like it. And Fool isn't on Queen II; it was just a B-Side for Seven Seas.

I think he was suggesting to swap out LITE and SWAFIB.

I can't believe Fun It has dodged a bullet in this thread.

I think by the time of The Game Roger's and John's writing had come along somewhat.

[QUOTE] [b]dysan wrote:[/b]

I think he was suggesting to swap out LITE and SWAFIB.

I can't believe Fun It has dodged a bullet in this thread.[/QUOTE]

You're right, I misread. That's my bad.

[QUOTE] [b]Martin Packer wrote:[/b]

I think by the time of The Game Roger's and John's writing had come along somewhat.[/QUOTE]

Nah, their songwriting was good overall beforehand.