The Works or A Kind of Magic? Which one is better album?

Dysan, you make a good point about the fractured nature of AKOM. It was never a nice listen as an album, to me. TW flowed better, but felt somewhat phoned in.
Never saw the alternate cover with them wearing pajamas. Did people in England really bathe every Sunday night back in the 80's?

I like almost all of both albums.

[QUOTE] [b]cobohall wrote:[/b]

Never saw the alternate cover with them wearing pajamas. Did people in England really bathe every Sunday night back in the 80's?

[/QUOTE]

Just my take on the cover art :)

And yes, we did in the 80s haha

Tear It Up is just embarrassing, however The Works is miles better than AKOM.

I like them both better than Queen’s first two albums.

Personally I prefer The Works

I’m Gaga - great
Tear it up - Cool hard rock/Metal Song
Hard Life - Classic
Man on The Prowl - meh
Machines - cool Deep cut
Keep passing - Great song
Break Free - Classic
Hammer: Classic Rocker
World we created: great ballad


One Vision: Good but not great
Magic: Too repetitive
One year of Love: not my favorite
Pain - no
Friends - One of my favorites on the album
Live Forever: Classic and great
Gimme THe Prize: ok
Don't lose your head - no
Princes: good classic

The Works as a unit works best for me.
It has a distinctive sound and theme.
AKOM is a mixed bag and suffers from being a parttime soundtrack album.

TW has it's own share of problems in the sense that while it is a return to form for the band, it also is a blatantly commercial record.
They gave us the works' indeed:

Radio Ga Ga - An original clash of old and modern sound
Tear It Up - WWRY ripoff
Hard Life - Bo Rhap ripoff
MotP - Crazy Little Thing ripoff
Machines - Always think of this song when i think of the album, love the (dated) tech references used as metaphors for the human condition.
KPTOW - Love the slow part, hate the chorus.
Break Free - Original classic
HTF - Have to agree with Metropolis: Classic rocker and nice subject matter
ITTWWC? - Meh

As for AKOM:

I actually like most songs on it. I tend to skip OYOL because of Freddie's little run in "I'm a prisoner of loooooooooove insiiiide youuuuuu" *cringe*
I just don't get the feeling it's a fully fledged Queen album.
Gimme The Prize is definately a highlight.

Listened to PotU recently with all ears and must say that while it's nice that Freddie wrote a heavy song, it just doesn't gel well enough to become the classic it should've been.

edit: 'Machines - Machines by Sailor rip off'

(I always say this :D)

Radio Ga Ga, Tear It Up, Its a Hard Life, Machines, Keep Passing, Break Free, Hammer are Top
One Vision, Magic, Friends, Who Wants To Live Forever, Princes are Top

PS Mooghead is an asshole!

@runner 70

Why do you think AKOM is "one of their worst hits ever"?

[QUOTE] [b]PrimeJiveUSA wrote:[/b]

@runner 70

Why do you think AKOM is "one of their worst hits ever"?[/QUOTE]

It is just safe bland and uninspired. The highlander version is better as it has a lil punch i also hate the drumsound on it

As the dude here said
the Kind of Magic is more of a one piece, solid state album, even though it have an overall melancholic mood.

As for good songs,quantitatively speaking, KoM is the abum i would prefer. The Works only got Radio Gaga, I Want to Break Free & Keep Passing as the really gems, yet i can also add Hard Life as a song of worth.

the rest is merely listenable, more or less.

[QUOTE] [b]Seed_Of_Rhy wrote:[/b]

As the dude here said
the Kind of Magic is more of a one piece, solid state album, even though it have an overall melancholic mood.

As for good songs,quantitatively speaking, KoM is the abum i would prefer. The Works only got Radio Gaga, I Want to Break Free & Keep Passing as the really gems, yet i can also add Hard Life as a song of worth.

the rest is merely listenable, more or less.[/QUOTE]
Hammer to fall merely listenable???

[QUOTE] [b]runner_70 wrote:[/b]

Hammer to fall merely listenable???
[/QUOTE]

Ok, it's more merely listenable :)

In fact , Queen do HTF type of songs almost effortlessly...so it's kinda conveyor-belt song, i assume.

As were Man on the Prowl, Tear It Up. Fillers, but takin' into consideration the band's arrangement style/sound are effective fillers.

But still are fillers anyway

Also for me the lyrics in Hammer... is almost awful))

I think I'll defend HTF here. I like it a lot. Almost more glam than actual 'rock'.