Listening Post - The Knack - Normal as the Next Guy

Every Knack song starts off with a bang. "Let Me Out". "Pop is Dead".
So, why does the final Fieger/Averre album start off sounding like a rejected track from a Squeeze album?
Sure the song picks up after a bit, but it's lazy, beachcomber atitude and dumb lyrics make me wonder why they even bothered.
Fieger is older. And his particular brand of rock is driven by adolescent frustration. He's never once suggested he could be an elder statesman, all his songs are basically love songs. In fact, it doesn't seem like much of a stretch to think that he would have been a much in demand songwriter during the 50s. The Brill Building would have loved him.

But, in 2001, that kind of music is basically niche at best. The Knack of that era would be The Strokes (and even they would burn out after 2 albums).

They guys try to address their older status with songs like "Disillusioned Town", but, it doesn't really get you there, save as a piece of nostalgic remembrance. The same with "Girl I Never Lied to You", which, to me is the weirdest song on the album. It sounds nothing like a Knack song and that's because it's written by Monty Byron and John Corey the latter of whom was Fieger's first songwriting partner. They started the band, Sky, together. But, remembrance is sort of the theme of the record now, isn't it? They are very old and very done and the music of their youth, when they were relevant, has passed them by comepletely.

I don't know why the band didn't open with the title track, which is a fairly percussive piece (all the best Knack songs are, you know.) and snarky while at the same time defensive as hell. All the stuff I expect from Fieger. And I'm not sure why the world needed a redux of "One Day at a Time", but I actually prefer this version. And I can totally hear Robbie Rist or Lowen/Navarro covering it.

By the time you get deep into the album, and you realize that, well, this isn't the Knack of old, it's a collection of songs by a group of guys who make music and they aren't half bad, the album sort of grows. I am hardpressed to find a truly awful track in here, "Dance of Romance" being the exception.. Sure, much of it could've been written in the guys' sleep. But, you know what? I wish i could do that. At the time this record came out, Fieger was pushing 50 and he'd been recording music for 30 years. (His first band, Sky, will eventually be a part of this listening post, they have two albums that I was able to get). If he doesn't sound like he did 23 years earlier, isn't that to be expected?

In its own way, Normal as the Next Guy is the perfect Coda to The Knack. It's not really a classic Knack album, and they know it. It's a swan song of sorts, although I'm not sure Fieger knew he'd be dead in 6 years. It's an album by guys who don't need to make it. They made it. They get fat royalty checks from their big, era defining hit, "My Sharona". They just like to make music.

And that's the most important thing.

Grade: B+ (While the rating is higher then for Zoom, I do not consider this a Knack album proper. It's a Coda. Outside of their oeuvre in a way.)
ASide: Normal as the Next Guy, It's Not Me, Reason to Live
BlindSide: Spiritual Pursuit, One Day at a Time, Seven Days of Heaven, A World of My Own
DownSide: Dance of Romance

Listening Post - The Knack - Zoom

The Knack - Zoom - 1998

Let's get this out there. I love love love the opening track, "Pop is Dead", an infectious, snarky, reflective commentary on the state of pop culture wrapped up in a perfect 3:48 confection.
Terry Bozzio's drums emulate Bruce Gary's flourishy fills that I adored on that first record so much.

So, how's the rest?

LiveBlog time.

1. Pop Is Dead - Perfect.
2. Can I Borrow a Kiss? - A catchy knock off of "Needles & Pins", sublime Power Pop
3. Smilin' - Bozzio seems to have affected everyone here. And elevated everything at once. This song could've been a single.
4. Ambition - Co-Written by Stan Lynch (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers), a weaker affair. As most of the stuff Fieger doesn't write with Averre tends to be. But it doesn't suck. Probably better acoustic.
5. Mister Magazine - Reminds me of Cheap Trick, a lot. That's not bad. They could've been cousins.
6. Everything I Do  - Another Co-write. This time with Suzi Quatro writer Melissa Connell. It's a ballad. A very Beatles-y one. And not that great.
7. Love is All There Is - Every 21st Century Power Pop band sounds like this song. Sparklejets UK, Andersons, Jellyfish, everyone on the IPO roster.
8. Terry & Julie Step Out - From the opening riff this sounds more like an old-school Knack song than any other. A treat. (With the haunting chants of "No. 9", the band just isn't hiding their Beatles love anymore)
9. Harder on You - No Knack album is complete without a Buddy Holly/Roy Orbison style track. That's this one. It's not bad, but it's nothing special. Written by Averre with, hey! Prescott Niles, the bassist! Good for you, Prescott!
10. You Gotta Be There - A Fieger Ballad. Actually, I don't think I've heard as earnest a one in the band's catalog yet. Have I? Not like this. I kind of like it.
11. Good Enough - A promising percussive-soul-rocker that wants to be better than it is. And it's too long, to boot. :(
12. In Blue Tonight - A melancholy nostalgia trip that builds into a Nick Lowe-esque rocker. Someone's getting older....One of the most mature pieces Fieger's ever written.
13. Tomorrow - Niles gets back in on the action with F&A for a straight ahead rocker. A rave-up, actually.
14. (All in the) All in All - Okay, I get it! You wanna be the Beatles! Jeez, porpoise song much? But it's fine. It's to be expected. That's who Fieger really wanted to be anyway. He gets a pass.

Zoom isn't bad. Not by a long shot. It's easily the 3rd best Knack album. And if it had been trimmed, it would give Round Trip a run for it's money. The band never stood a chance. Their time had come and gone. But, what're ya gonna do? Quit?

Didn't think so.

Grade: B
ASide: Pop Is Dead, Can I Borrow a Kiss
BlindSide: In Blue Tonight, Smilin', Tomorrow
DownSide: Good Enough, Everything I Do

Listening Post - The Knack - Serious Fun

The Knack - Serious Fun - 1991

The first thing you notice about the reunion album by The Knack, recorded 10 years after they broke up, is just how...generic it sounds.
With Don Was's hands on the dials the album has a certain crunch to it but that doesn't help, it doesn't make it better, in fact, it just makes the whole proceedings sound anonymous.

The cheekiness of the last 3 albums is non-existent. Somewhere in there are the spines of classic Fieger/Averre songs, but they are so muddied by production, production which sounds like...omg....like The Tubes' Love Bomb. I mean, just listen to "I'll be Your Mau Mau".

That's what it reminds me of. The band is there, I think. The songs were written by the same guys. But, the sound has been so updated for the 90s that everything we fell in love with is missing.

If a track shows promise, like "Serious Fun", the lyrics kick in and they are as trite as the weakest Power Pop you've ever heard. Like latter days Rubinoos trite. Like "Pulling Rabbits Out of a Hat" era Sparks trite.

Whereas some of the songs on earlier albums barely crossed the 2 minute mark, just about every song here hovers around 4 minutes and, you know what? That's too much. It's like "how many songs are too many Ramones songs for one listen?" (Answer...about 18) I mean, come on, "River of Sighs" is over 5 minutes long! For a Knack song!!! And that one sounds like the band is trying to be...um...Poison of all things. The same for "Shine", which tries so hard to be Anthemic! that the band gets lost.

I've spent too much time writing about this record. It's not great. It's forgettable and at times boring. It could have been better. Maybe next time.

Grade: C-
ASide: Rocket O' Love, Serious Fun, Doing the Dog
BlindSide: One Day at a Time, I'll be Your Mau Mau
DownSide: River of Sighs, Let's Get Lost

Listening Post - The Knack - Round Trip

After falling on their face with their follow up to their smash debut, Fieger, Averre and the band picked themselves off the self-congratulatory floor, tossed Mike Chapman out for Jack Douglas and pumped out Round Trip, their 3rd album and the last before they would break up for a while.

Too bad, really. Everything that was wrong with ...But The Little Girls Understand is right with Round Trip. Rather than harkening back and aping every influencer the band ever heard (Beatles, Stones, Rockabilly, Orbison, Specter, etc) the group fully embraces their Power Pop status and stand on the shoulders of the greats. The Raspberries, Big Star, Bay City Rollers and others have NOTHING on The Knack. Ironically, and sadly, Power Pop never really had a heyday. It was never truly embraced by anyone save the musicians who loved it. Weirdly, it has never really gone away, there are a gazillion Power Pop bands carrying on to this day. And they all owe a debt of gratitude to The Knack for breaking through so hard with the sound and paving...some way for them.

Much has been written about this record, about how it was unfairly maligned and very underrated and all of that is true. I'm not going to rehash it. The band is at it's muscly best on tracks like "Radiating Love" and "Soul Kissin'", thanks in no small part to the genius of Douglas who brings a lot of Cheap Trick and bit of Aerosmith to the proceedings. He really gives the band it's heft and credibility. I swear "Africa" owes as much to Steve Miller Band as it does to anything else. But, rather than rip the sound off, it just sounds borrowed and fresh. And "She Likes the Beat" has as much in common with late 70s Joe Jackson as it does Nick Gilder, and I could hear it playing well on early 80s radio. That it didn't is a shame. And the hits just keep coming.
"Just Wait and See" is super Power Pop.
"We Are Waiting" is Magical Mystery Tour redux, more Monkees than Beatles but I mean that in a very good way.
End Side One

So, what happens on the flip side?

The quintessential Fieger/Knack track, "Boys Go Crazy", that's what. A revved up cousin to "Good Girls Don't" (in theme and spirit, at least). Followed by the story song, "Lil Cal's Big Mistake", as self assured urban rocker if I've ever heard one which blends into the haunting "Sweet Dreams", an experimental prog rocker that is surely unexpected.

But, "Another Lousy Day in Paradise" is the perfect Knack song if I ever heard one. One that blends Big Star, The Beatles, The Kinks, The Cars and wraps them all up in one taut rocker. And one of the best tracks on the album, hell, in the band's entire catalog is the only Berton Averre solo-penned "Pay the Devil (Ooo, Baby, Ooo)", a giant, anthemic psychedelic piece of Lennon-esque pop.

If that's not enough, the album ends on the biggest, highest note of a track. A snarky, angry, punky, messy piece of social commentary called, "Art War". Considering that The Knack were basically a piece of Pop Art themselves, it's a perfect biting of the hand that feeds.

Round Trip is a treat. An unearthed, should have been, classic. Huh. I guess I did have something to say, after all.

Grade: A
ASide: Radiating Love, Boys Go Crazy, Another Lousy Day in Paradise, Pay the Devil (Ooo, Baby, Ooo)
BlindSide: Soul Kissin', Africa, She Likes the Beat, Just Wait and See, Lil Cal's Big Mistake, Art War

Listening Post - The Knack - ...But the Little Girls Understand.

The Knack - ...But the Little Girls Understand. - 1980

Hey! That's THE Sharona on the cover of the follow up to their massive debut album! I wonder if this album will have anything near as good as that track!!

The first half of that sentence I'm pretty sure no one said when they reached for this platter in 1980. But I am positive that second part is what people were thinking when this album came out.

And Fieger and Averre try hard to give the people what they want. That opening track, "Baby Talks Dirty" sounds like it was the son-of-Sharona and the next track, "I Want Ya" attempts to out do the previous record by ramping up the crash and sturm and drang. Those drums are giGANtic. For me, even though it's Get The Knack Pt. II, I'm okay with it.
The first real stumble on the record occurs on the third track, the Buddy Holly influenced (read: ripoff/pander), "Tell Me You're Mine" where Fieger inexplicably twists his voice into a quasi-Orbison baritone and fails miserably. We sort of right ourselves on the bright "Mr. Handelman", which is...well...it's not awful. It's just a song that wasn't good enough for the first album and is the kind of thing you expect deeper on a sophomore record. It's also the first song Fieger and Averre wrote together. So, there's that.

What's most intriguing to me is the direction the band takes on the second single, "Can't Put a Price on Love". The track sounds way more like a descendent of latter day Stones versus The Beatles, whom Fieger was trying to be on that first record. "Price" is the sort of song Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes should have recorded. Thankfully, Side One recovers with a flourish. The supershort, "Hold on Tight and Don't Let Go" is an inspired piece of pop rock. In and out in a flash, leave a good looking corpse.

Including the Ray Davies penned, "The Hard Way" is odd, it could almost make a case that Fieger is a better songwriter, since it's not up to the band's snuff. But it's gone so fast and replaced by the frenetic pairing of, "It's You" and "End of the Game" that you don't care. The second side is so lickety split that I have to wonder just how much Colombian Marching Powder might have been flying around the studio.
At least the band is having fun as evidenced by the Phil Spector homage "The Feeling I Get". Trouble is, it's SO on the nose accurate that it's hard to believe that it's not a cover. But they don't sound original at all here. "Havin' a Rave Up" sounds toooooo much like any rockabilly band of the 50s. And "How Can Love Hurt So Much" has John Barry and Shirley Bassey all over it. (I hope I got the right reference there. Maybe I meant Nancy Sinatra....)

Little Girls...is such a schizoid record that offers fans nothing more than what we already got the last time, rendering it sort of redundant. At the same time, there's nothing on the record so fantastic and hookalicious that it should encourage any new fans to flock to the band.

Grade: B+
ASide: Baby Talks Dirty, Havin' a Rave Up
BlindSide: I Want Ya, Hold on Tight and Don't Let Go, It's You
DownSide: Tell Me You're Mine

Listening Post - The Knack - Get the Knack

I love just about every Knack track I've ever heard. But, truly, that isn't that many. Never did a band soar so high so fast and crash that much faster than this Power Pop quartet. Let's go back and listen shall we?



The Knack - Get The Knack - 1979

Yeah, yeah. I know. "I've heard 'My Sharona'. I know THAT band.

Are you sure?

The opening track, "Let Me Out", really sets the tone for the whole experience that is The Knack's debut record. The pure energy of that 2:22 song is enough to draw you in and lets the listener know that this group is tighter than....well...think about something that's really tight and this group is about that snug.
Falling right into "Your Number or Your Name", a track that straddles the balance between The Beatles and Glam rock, the pure power doesn't let up. It's melodic as hell and a real showcase for Bruce Gary's drum fills.
In truth, "My Sharona" is maybe the 3rd or 4th best track on this record. Sure, it was the monster hit, but, next to "Good Girls Don't", "Let Me Out", "Oh Tara" or what, with the Joe Jackson-sounding "She's so Selfish, the latter days Beatles sounding (Or is that Cheap Trick I'm hearing in there?) "Maybe Tonight" and "Your Number...", we just call "Side One".

Side Two opens with the era-defining Sharona. And if that was all it had to offer, dayenu. But, it follows with a Buddy Holly cover, "Heartbeat", a perfect harkening to the roots of rock and roll, establishing The Knack as heir apparents. If that wasn't enough, the weird-o, New Wave deep track, "Siamese Twins (The Monkey and Me), solidifies the album as not just a series of hook laden singles. It's an album of hook laden SONGS.

The requisite ballad, "Lucinda" is buried so deep into this album that its easy to forgive because the album picks right up with "That's What the Little Girls Do", which, with the lyrics in "Sharon" and the sexual content of "Good Girls Don't" and the general content of "Frustrated, speak directly to the 14 year old listening to this album...yeah...it's the soundtrack to male-adolescent frustration/puberty.

I have a special affection for this record for many reasons. One of them is that it was produced by one of the architects of Glam Rock. Mike Chapman was one half of the svengali writing duo of Chinn/Chapman who gave us all of the early Sweet hits. His finger is all over the great tracks of the 70s and this is only the second greatest offerings of his from that decade, the other being Blondie's Parallel Lines.

I love this record. I love the immediacy. I love the frustration. The sex. The calamity. The pent-upness.
It's sublime.


Grade: A+
ASide: My Sharona, Good Girls Don't
BlindSide: Let Me Out, Oh Tara, She's So Selfish, That's What the Little Girls Do, Frustrated.

Queen for a Day - The Show Must Go On

Well, here we are. The last song (proper) of the Queen catalog. Yes, they released another album, a patchwork of older stuff, re-edits and demo redux, but this was the last album that the four agreed to. Freddie died the day after it was released, I believe. So, I'm not sure that I will touch the next record.

This album's closer is the perfect way to say goodbye. "The Show Must Go On" sounds like a perfectly crafter Mercury song, theatrical and grand. In fact, it was written by Brian, after hearing something Deacon and Taylor were working on. Here's the wikipedia entry:

"The initial chord sequence Taylor and Deacon were working on. The rhythm of the refrain is similar to "I Want it All". May decided to use the sequence and both he and Mercury decided the theme of the lyrics and wrote the first verse together. From then on May finished the lyrics, completed the vocal melody and wrote the bridge, inspired by Pachelbel's Canon. Some keys and ideas were suggested by the producer, too. 
The song chronicles the effort of Mercury continuing to perform despite approaching the end of his life."


So, in effect, it was written by the entire band. And that is entirely apropos.

It starts off haunting and sad, musically and the lyrics match perfectly. It's impossible to listen to this song and not to choke up realizing Freddie is singing about his end and how, despite that impending doom, music, theatre, the band, the craft, it all goes on. And it should.

(On a side note, I am struck by how the first song of the band's is "Keep Yourself Alive" and the last one is so much a closing of the book on a life. Perhaps that one.)

"The Show Must Go On" might be the grandest finales in rock history. Queen got to write it's final chapter and did it was brilliance and grace. Even the song tries as hard as it can to not end, because none of them, nor us, want it to.


His soul is painted like the wings of butterflies, he can fly.....

Indeed.

Grade: A+

Queen for a Day - Bijou

I had a friend who had this album on Vinyl. In the early 90s I didn't know anyone who still listened to, let alone bought, vinyl. And he said that this song was highly truncated on black plastic.

He missed out. It's a pretty nice piece.

The whole point of the song was an exercise to invert the roles of guitar and vocals. The guitar took the verses and the words took the place of an instrumental break.

Truth be told, the lyrics and melody is actually pretty nice. I wouldn't have minded a ballad built around that. And, since Brian is such a brilliant guitarist it's a nice example of his prowess. And surprising that he never did any purely instrumental work prior, save for Flash Gordon.

The song doesn't really need the lyrics. But Freddie's so wonderful that hearing him is always a treat.

That this is the penultimate song on his last proper album is bittersweet. In retrospect, it comes across like a eulogy for a loved one. Freddie's contribution being almost ghostly remembrance. Brian saying goodbye.

Grade: B+

Queen for a Day - The Hitman

After the debacle os singing an ode to his CAT, Freddie started and Brian finished a rousing rocker ala "I Want it All". It's all riffage and muscle and meat. When he died, I figured the song was some descriptor of the disease, but now, 22 years later, I think maybe it's just a song. The lyrics are pretty awful, "Trouble in the east, Trouble in the west, Struggle with the beast, what a thief what a pest. Come back mother, nuke that sucker.".

But, heck it was never going to be played live, right? So, who cared? At this point, the guys are just trying to put stuff out to mark time to the end. And it goes on.....and on....and on....with an unmemorable guitar solo. It's metal sludge at it's 90s-est.

"The Hitman" is easily forgotten.

Grade: C-

Queen for a Day - Delilah

The dying lead singer wrote a song for his cat. The drummer didn't want to include it on the album because it's well, a song about a cat. The singer pleaded. It's on the album.

It's a song about a cat.

It's so much a song about a cat that the lead guitar solo sounds like a crying...cat.

It must have been recorded close to the end of the album because Freddie can barely hit any notes without sounding strained. Especially when he's chiding his...cat....for peeing on Chippendale furniture.

It's not the nadir of Queen but it's pretty damned close.

Grade: D+

Queen for a Day - These Are the Days of Our Lives

Now, he's something astounding. A Roger Taylor song that I really really like. A song that reminisces about the, well, days of their lives, and does so by harkening back to one of Freddie's loveliest tracks, "Love of My Life", with the "I still love you" refrain.
The last video Freddie ever made, and he was far too sick to hide it at that point.

I heard this song pumped through the sound system of a Food4Less in the early, early 90s. I was sort of appalled that my favorite band had become no more than muzak fodder. At the same time I was sort of thrilled because it meant that Queen was once again accepted in the US. Wayne's World sort of did that for Queen fans a few years earlier. But, the fact that this song could make it in America was a vicarious win for me.

Grade: A

Queen for a Day - All God's People

If I am not mistaken, this is the first Queen song since the first record to have a song with a co-writer credit outside of the band. That first musician was Tim Staffel, the original bassist for Smile, the band that became Queen.

This time it's Freddie's "Barcelona" collaborator, Mike Moran. Since the song came out of those sessions, it's not really much of a surprise.

Nor is the subject matter.

There was a song on the first album called "Jesus". Then Night at the Opera had "The Prophet's Song". The band, or some of the members, seem to have always been a wee religious. And, Freddie was dying, after all.

Again, starting with a prepositions is not my favorite. "So, all you people.....".

But I do like "Prime Minisiters" to fit the time sig. On the other hand...."Let us be thankful! He's so incredible!" is bad.

This is an exercise that, indeed, belongs on the more operatic in scope Barcelona. Wafting from faux Opera to even fauxer blue eyed gospel, the weight of the subject matter is no match for the wimpyness of the attack. This is filler of the highest order.

But, you know, Freddie's dying and all.....

Grade: C-

Queen For a Day - Ride the Wild Wind

Roger likes cars. He likes danger. He likes a steady, driving, pulsating beat.
I think we all got that, um...15 years before.

Still and all, it's a lot better than the arpeggiating crap he used to give us. In this case, it's like "Breakthru" Pt. II.

It's a dumb song, but a fun one nonetheless.

Grade: C

Queen for a Day - Don't Try So Hard

Opening with a preset sound on a synthesizer...is that genius or laziness? The Korg that Freddie was using had an opening preset that he used in that way.

Fine. Whatever. If your muse is now someone else's programming startup sound of a machine...whatever. How's the song?

Pretty pedestrian ballad version of the same sentiments from "Keep Passing the Open Windows" by way of Pink Floyd's The Wall. I'm just getting that from the Sgt. Major passage. It's probably not that at all, but if Freddie is going to be that lazy in crafting this tune, I'm not sure I should spend much energy reviewing it.

It's a pretty piece at times, it sure changes it's direction a lot. For a piece of piffle it does reach for the cheap seats. But that's also part and parcel with the BIG DRUM sounds of the era.

Less a song than an exercise.

Grade: C

Queen for a Day - I Can't Live With You

Another Brian May rocker, but this time it sounds like a mid-tempo R&B jam that is fused with a metal approach but deep inside it's really just a middle of the road track.
The lyrics are pretty mediocre, the playing just as much so. I used to think it was a Taylor track because he's so featured on the bridge's vocals. That's how much I never liked this song.

Not a favorite. Kind of latter day crappy. Sounds like something that would have been written for "The Works

Grade: C

Queen for a Day - Headlong

It is a pet peeve of mine when a song starts with the word, "And". As though there was something that was said before but there wasn't so it just sounds...off.

This is a latter day May rocker. In fact, he was supposed to record it for his Back to the Light album but liked the way Freddie sang it.

When the lyric comes, "He used to be a man with a stick in his hand" I can't help think that that man is Freddie, with his bottomless microphone stand.

Taken as a metaphor for his condition it works even better. He IS "rushing headlong out of control" and there really is "nothing you can do about it".

Musically speaking, there's not a lot more going on than an above average crunchy metal blues rocker. It's nice to hear the Red Special in full force, a four on the floor beat behind it. No tricks, maybe a little bit of studio panning here and there, but it's a nice showcase for May's particular talents, which seemed to get lost a bit in recent years. The man can play that damned thing.

Grade: A

Queen for a Day - I'm Going Slightly Mad

Taking a cue from Oscar Wilde and referencing, with great humor and snark, his own debilitating illness, Freddie came up with a haunting and smart single.
The pumping beat, the haunted house echo, "Mad" is a singularly fantastic track. It's all Freddie, all over the place. Samples of asides pepper the track, the colorful descriptors of insanity, the disturbing harmonies...it's all very perfect. Down to the "oo oo ah ah, oo oo ah ah" monkey moment.

One of Freddie's best tracks, once again mining his terminal prognosis. Ever the jester, this one is one of his best.

And there you have it.

Grade: A

Queen for a Day - Innuendo

So, Freddie didn't die. Not yet, anyway. And the swan song that was the aptly named album The Miracle was only the prelude to their final act.

"Innuendo" is the strangest and boldest opening to a Queen album since, perhaps, Sheer Heart Attack.

A 6 minute magnum opus with outsized themes of humanity, a gigantic stadium sound and a delicate but no less powerful breakdown into Flamenco Guitar courtesy Steve Howe, this was the sort of track that would feature deeper into a Queen album.

But, this album wasn't meant to be just a marketer. Not one to just sell off the hits. Instead, this was the last opportunity to give the world QUEEN.

As such, "Innuendo" is a triumph. It's hodgepodgey like so many of the great Queen tracks, and it has the requisite operatic vocals amidst the metal without becoming a Spinal Tap parody.

And it's about something. Obviously Freddie is affected by his disease and his mortality. And he's never sounded more assured or lacerating. He's imbued with his muse.

As a Queen song, it's terrific. As an album opener, it at once harkens back to their glory days and is a harbinger of what's to come on the record.

Grade: A+

Queen for a Day - Was It All Worth It?

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Historically speaking, this should have been the coda. This was Freddie's final statement. The man was dying, basically. 

A somber opening, a vocal wail, a calliopal carousel melody that gives way to a giant metal guitar version of the riff, overlaid and overlaid and then...

A meaty introspection by the singer. 

What is there left for me to do in this life. 
Did I achieve what I had set in my sights. 
Am I a happy man, or is this sinking sand, 
Was it all worth it, was it all worth it. 
Yeah, now hear my story, let me tell you about it, 
We bought a drum kit. blew my own trumpet. 
Played the circuit, thought we were perfect, 
Was it all worth it. giving all my heart and soul and 
Staying up all night, was it all worth it, 
Living breathing rock n'roll, a godforsaken life, 
Was it all worth it, was it all worth it all these years. 
Put down our money without counting the cost, 
It didn't matter if we won - if we lost, 
Yes we were vicious. yes we could kill, 
Yes we were hungry. yes we were brill, 
We served a purpose, like a bloody circus, 
We were so dandy we love you madly, 
Was it all worth it. was it all worth it, 
Living breathing rock n'roll, this godforsaken life, 
Was it all worth it. was it all worth it, 
When the hurly burly's done - 
We went to Bali, saw God and Dali. 
So mystic, surrealistic, 
Was it all worth it, giving all my heart and soul, 
Staying up all night, was it all worth it, 
Living breathing rock n'roll this never ending fight, 
Was it all worth it, was it all worth it, 
Yes, it was a worthwhile experience, 
It was worth it. 

 

I'm not sure the band or Freddie, for that matter, had ever written anything so personal and confessional. This is an overview of the past 17 years and it cuts like a knife. This should have been the band's final statement. And, if it was, it would have been the perfect coda.

This is the most inspired the band had sounded in ages. And the most bombastic production as well. But, not obnoxiously so. Instead, it sounds like they were really putting it all out there. Really giving it their all.

Was it worth it?

Hell yes.

Grade: A+

Queen for a Day - My Baby Does Me

Deep in the bowels of this record is a redux of "Cool Cat". A lazy, obnoxious, bass driven leftover sounding piece of uselessness called "My Baby Does Me".

"My Baby does. My Baby does me. Baby does. My baby does me good."

A lot of that.

I would say, hey, THIS from the band that gave us "Bohemian Rhapsody"? "We Will Rock You"? "Dead on Time"????
But then I recall that Deacon wrote "In Only Seven Days" among other pieces of crap. Of which this is one.
To be fair, he wrote it WITH Freddie. And they bring out the worst in each other.

Don't listen.

It's bad.

Grade: F

Queen for a Day - Scandal

Brian May had been under the scrutiny of the tabloid press in the mid 80s for his relationship with actress Anita Dobson. Freddie was dying of AIDS but no one knew for sure.
Drawing upon these real life events Brian wrote "Scandal".

Kudos for writing what you know, I guess. Like much of the rest of the album the song sounds like it could have been recorded by any band of the era. The production is so clean and the drums are so over produced with "BIG" concert hall reverb, and the synth accents are superfluous and meaningless, the whole affair just comes across as...'meh'.

Grade: D

What does Zack know?

Turns out....a lot.

Zack takes in some reading.

Yes, Zack would rather read in his crib than call for help.

Encroyable.

Queen for a Day - Rain Must Fall

Deacon/Mercury are back! And just as maudlin as ever. The musical cousin to "Who Needs You" and "I Want to Break Free" there is no song in the band's catalog that sounds more "80s" than this one.
In fact, it could be a third rate Culture Club song. And I don't mean that in a good way. This is MOR to the nth degree.

Lazy, uninteresting, this is where the band shows it's true age. Everyone is very good on the song. But, the all, each of them, end up just sounding like session men backing a familiar voice. A Queen cover band, if you will.

But this was happening to all of our heroes in the 80s. McCartney, Jackson. Hell, I can't even name all of them as our cutting edge scions of rock turned themselves into top 40 bands who provided the soundtrack to your cubicle.

Listen if you dare. Calling it "bad" would be an insult to some of the band's worst tracks.

It's worse than "bad". It's uninspired, by the numbers, songcrafting.

Grade: D+

Queen for a Day - Breakthru

So, it's pretty obvious that this is two different songs pasted together. But, I really don't mind, because I dig this song a lot. It's my favorite on the album and has been since the day I ripped into that oversized CD package and listened in the car in the parking lot of that bowling alley where I stage managed a show for an elderly theater company.

There's no reason for it to be two different songs, except that Freddie didn't finish "A New Life is Born". The opening of which is all harmony save for some simple piano. After that it crashes into a driving, supertrain of a rocker. Could it be written by anyone other than Roger? The difference between this and all of Roger's other tripe is that the band seems energized. Excited. Hopeful.

Wait. Hopeful? On a Roger Taylor song? Freddie must have reworked something. Part of it. Most of it. Or something.

In any case. It's a showcase for the band and a nice breath of life on a band that is facing death. John's bassline is on fire. The "Star Fleet Project" modulations are in full effect. Brian is having a blast. The band is finding new ways to incorporate their trademark harmonies.

Stellar.

Grade: A

Queen for a Day - The Invisible Man

One of the strangest tracks on the record for me. It's so obviously recorded in a studio. It's cold and it's electronic and produced and well, it's written by Roger.
But then it's got the call outs.
"Freddie Mercury!" Roger shouts before the vocals.
"John Deacon!" to highlight the bassline.
"Brian May Brian May!" "Rrrrrrrrrrroger Taylor!"

Now, I used to do this in my band. I would call out members' names during a song and we would highlight them. This way, however, it come across...as an affectation.

But, Allen, how is the song?

Um....fine? It's kind of dumb. But, it's got a hook. The lyrics are idiotic. But not offensive.

Really, this song is a Hot Space track, updated, less funky, on a wee bit more cocaine and buried so deep in the album that it doesn't bother me.

In reality, it's fine. Probably one of the better tracks on this hodgepodge of an album.

Grade: B+

Queen for a Day - I Want it All

Who doesn't?

One of the biggest metal tracks in the canon, "I Want it All" is a post-apocalyptic dust bowl, get in the ring, shred-tastic track.

In many ways it's the anthem they hadn't really written in years. Certainly not, "Friends will be Friends". Sadly, while this song should have been a crowd pleaser, it was never played live by Freddie. He would be too sick to bring it to life.

A shame. It really fits the bombast that the was the band's wheelhouse. The bridge, sublime with it's give and take between Freddie and Brian's vocals, crashes into one of Brian's best solos which itself turns dark metal and then, at once, speed metal.

It's a hodgepodge, sure, but a rollicking ride.

Grade: A

Queen for a Day - The Miracle

I'm on the fence about this one. Queen has always had a penchant for schmaltz but with Freddie in the throes of full blown AIDS they really seemed to step up the maudlin.

I think the nadir of this song (Besides lyrics like "the one thing we're all waiting for is peace on Earth and end to war") is Freddie's spoken word call and response that comes in the second half.

For latter day Queen this is also the apex, however, because by the late 80s nearly every bloated ROCK BAND had been infected with Live Aid, Farm Aid, Kampuchea-itis. It was everywhere. Rock was so socially conscious that it was inescapable. This was your father's rock. It had to die.

A shame, really. But, not unexpected. You can only re-invent the wheel once. Mayyyybe twice. But, eventually you get comfortable. Like in a marriage or a friendship.

I think the thing I like the LEAST about this song is how it starts to rock nera the end and, just when you have hope, the uptempo rocker portion of the song is overtaken by more schmaltz, a hand holdy chant of "A time will come, one day, you'll see, when we can all be friends..."

Yuck. And, surprise, surprise, it was written by Deacon and Mercury.

I guess I wasn't really on the fence after all.

Grade: D+

Queen for a Day - Khashoggi's Ship

Queen is rarely topical, but in the late 80s, Adnan Khashoggi and his ship were all over the news.

It's a big blues number that serves as an "I'm Still Here" anthem for Freddie. It's all sleaze and adventure. Perhaps it's a fever dream but, at some point, for me at least, it comes across as a stand off between Freddie and his disease. When he sings "No one stops my party", I'm pretty certain he's singing from the bowels of denial.

The song is a cavalcade of ideas and themes. It's a kitchen sink in less than 3 minutes.

So, like a good party it knows when it's over.

Grade: B+

Queen for a Day - Party

"Party" sounds like it fell off the Mr. Bad Guy sessions. Maybe it did. I don't know. Sure sounds like it.

Then again, it probably is what the lyrics say, what much of the lyrics on The Miracle are about: Freddie's dying.

Diagnosed with AIDS, it was thought that The Miracle would be the band's last album. Their last Party.

It's an invitation to play, to party, to rip and roar and have a good time.

The band sure sounds more vibrant than in recent, darker years. Brian's guitar work is spot on and reminds me of what the band could have been doing the whole decade.

The overproduction, at first listen, makes me realize just how sorely it's been missed. Except for "One Vision" (Which, like this one, came out of a jam session), there hasn't been much QUEEN in Queen.

"Party" rectifies that. And like great parties, it doesn't end. It just stops.

Grade: B+

Queen for a Day - Princes of the Universe

The ONLY other song on this record that sounds remotely like a QUEEN song (Aside from "One Vision") is the sole Mercury offering.

Weird that, isn't it? Freddie used to account for most of the songs or the lion's share and here he is, down to one solo track.

And it's a big one. A "Tear it Up", gothic metal, soaring vocals, multi layered harmony, barn burner.

Shifting tempos during what could only be considered the chorus, it abruptly stops and goes back to the original tempo before it reminds us, briefly of "The Prophet's Song" and then dredges it's own energy back up to Mark III Queen sound giving Brian REAL time to shred. And shred he does. The only thing that can stop him is the big layered vocals that restart the entire song.

It's breathless, confused, odd, huge and may as well be the "Seven Seas of Rhye" of Latter Day Queen.

It's not great, but in comparison to the rest of the record it's brilliant. It's more of a pastiche of ideas than a real song, per se, but it'll do. In a way, it's as though Freddie listened to the crapola like "Gimme the Prize" and "Don't Lose Your Head" and said, "Hey. Lemme show you how it's done, girls."

So, that makes it a real treat.

Grade: B+

Queen for a Day - Don't Lose Your Head

Roger Taylor, fresh from two, count em, TWO big hits for the band ("Radio Gaga" & "A Kind of Magic") has another offering, one that references, tongue in cheek (sort of) the fact from the movie that the only way to kill an immortal is to behead them.
It's "Don't Lose Your Head". Get it? Actually, it's a line in the movie. But that doesn't make it any less stupid.

Sigh. Okay, let's listen.

Electro-drums. Synths. More synths. So, Roger's obsession with cold, distancing techno-gadgets is intact.

The bridge....the bridge...is just awful. I don't have the energy to make it through this review.

It's a bag ful of "why?"
Why is Joan Armtrading on this? Did she lose a bet?
Why the frenetic drums? Programming isn't playing.
Why did anyone say yes to this mess?
What is Brian playing during his solo? Is he just noodling in the studio? Did anyone listen to what he laid down????

This is awful.


Grade: F

Queen for a Day - Gimme the Prize (Kurgen's Theme)

Deacon, Mercury and Highlander director Russell Mulcahy all hate this song.

Replete with snippets of dialogue and echoing the chords of "Princes of the Universe", Gimme the Prize is the sludge metal cousin of "Tear it Up". Which, in and of itself, renders it redundant.

Revolving around the title, it's not much of a song as it is background music to images, much like "Who Wants....", also written by May.

About midway, after Kurgen's "Better to burn out" speech, the guitars ring out with a melodic, almost royal solo, which gives way to a more chaotic and improvisational sounding one, before circling back to the vocals, which aren't so much a song as it is Freddie wailing emphatically to give him the prize....

Ho hum.

Grade: D+

Queen for a Day - Who Wants to Live Forever?

"Impetuous boy! Ah, well... who wants to live forever? DIVE!" Prince Vultan. Flash Gordon. 1980

I've always wondered why no one seems to make the allusion that this song's title and chorus comes directly from the script of the previous movie Queen scored.
Sure, it can be applied to Highlander but, still. I have to wonder...

"There's no time for us...there's no place for us..."

Isn't that Sondheim?

Obviousness has never been alien to Queen. They've always managed to appropriate and, with tongue firmly in cheek, make something their own.

And Brian does that here.

Soaring strings, elegiac vocals, WWTLF is not quite a ballad as a song set to images of a sweeping epic. I can see immortals trudging across ice floes and climbing mountains in search of destiny.

It succeeds in that respect and also as a bloated love song for the 80s.

It's a gigantic track with a modulation that, inexplicably, works in heightening the desperation and despair. And it feels less like an album track, which it ended up being, and more like part of a score, which was the intent.

Grade: A

Bonus versions!

Queen for a Day - Friends Will Be Friends

It's been a long while since Queen came up with a bona fide Anthem!. In fact, for years their shows ended with "We WIll Rock You" and "We are the Champions" and by 1986, they had been around for about 8 years.
So, I guess it was time for a big stadium piece, although it could be argued that "Radio Gaga" was sort of anthemic. But, not in the fist pumping, esteem building way.

Enter "Friends Will Be Friends", the worst titled song in the entire catalog, as far as I'm concerned. Queen was never afraid of hitting the nail on the nose but this is so pandering to the Bar Mitzvah set that it's embarrassing.

It's schmaltzy in it's mid-tempo Vegas-ism. It wastes NO time getting to that chorus, because that's really all the song is: a chorus.

But it's piffle. Written by....ready?
Deacon and Mercury.

Surprised? These two are not at their best when they write together. Everything comes out treacly and wimpy and useless.

Even Brian's power chording and melodic solo seems bored and uninspired. Shoehorned into the sets as a singalong, "Friends" is one of the most obnoxious tracks Queen ever recorded. But it's right in line with Mark III.

Grade: C

Queen for a Day - Pain is So Close to Pleasure

Ah, so now we're back in "Body Language" territory. Only this time it sounds more like an MOR, easy listening R&B jam. In other words, it's about as generic as generic can be. Any teeth that the band have had once upon a time are long gone.

This is as dull as 90% of the acts at Live Aid. (Don't believe me? Watch Live Aid again) And just because you repeat the words "pain" & "Pleasure" at the end don't make it lyrics, Fred. Even BRian's guitar sounds like any session man sat in and laid down the tracks.

The sing-songy bridge is sort of catchy but for the most part, this is a falsetto ridden piece of tripe.

Grade: C-

Queen for a Day - One Year of Love

Right where it belongs, historically speaking, is the requisite treacly John Deacon I-love-you ditty. John doesn't seem to have anything else going on in his life save his exclamations of affection for his "best friend", cuz it's just "you & I", etc, etc.

This time it's almost as bad as "In Only 7 Days". An 80s saxophone accompanies the ballad in every bad, cliche way.

The ballad is much much more insidious than the aforementioned "7 days" because it's well crafted and hooky. I could see it covered in earnest, strings and all, and scoring for whomever does so.

But, it takes Queen to another place entirely.

Middle age.

Grade: B-

Queen for a Day - A Kind of Magic

One this. One that.

Roger has stated that he was the genesis for "One Vision". And this is his track, the real opening to the album. A plodding, driving, catchy, sound-a-like for "Radio Gaga", this song is a perfect example of what Queen was.

Roger came up with the spine, but Freddie reworked it and pressed it into a hit single. That's two in a row for Roger.

The song itself is basically a bassline driven bit of hypnosis that seems much better than it is. The title and thrust of the song comes from the movie "Highlander", which Queen was providing music for. In actuality, much of the album "A Kind of Magic" is made up of songs for that movie. The opener is not, that was for ANOTHER movie, "Iron Eagle".

This is what Queen wanted to do, apparently.

All that said, "A Kind of Magic" is a catchy ditty and not something I run from when it comes on. It just has no direction. Fades away. As Queen seemed to be trying to do.

Grade: B+

Queen for a Day - One Vision

I really think of this as the 3rd wave of Queen. At this point they're just a group of guys who know how to push through and craft pop hits. Maybe they were always that way.

Like "Under Pressure", "One Vision" came out a group jam. And it sounds like it.

The Queen tropes are all there: Freddie's voice. The multi-layered vocals. Brian's Star Fleet guitar. An ENDLESS instrumental break that sounds like a guitar solo but is so overwhelmed by the electric drums, which do nothing inventive but keep time.

It's a bluesbreaker of the kind Queen could write in their sleep.

I'm really not sure how they could write a song about Martin Luther King and then coda it with replacing "One Vision" with "Fried Chicken" and get away from being called "racist!".

Maybe no one noticed.

Grade: B+

Queen for a Day - Is This the World We Created?

A slight ballad with just Freddie and Brian closes The Works and it's the saddest and most socially conscious song the band has come up with so far.
The world was awakening to the hunger problems in Africa and elsewhere so Freddie wrote some heartfelt lyrics that asked the title's question.

And then they would perform at Live Aid.

"Is this the world we devastated right to the bone?...If there's a god in the sky, what can he think of what we've done to the world that he created?"

Indeed.

Grade: A

Queen for a Day - Hammer to Fall

Thanks, Brian.

Not sure why "Hammer to Fall" comes so late on The Works, with it's big Red Special crunchy chords, the (long missed) multi-layered chorus, it's classic Queen.

Freddie is in full snarl, the voice that made him one of the singularly greatest singers in rock history. The band sounds like they're having a blast and then, after the bridge, a soaring guitar solo. One that sounds like it set the template for everything The Darkness tried to do. Then ANOTHER solo, a different one, a classically melodic one.

"Hammer to Fall" is a socially conscious song, very 80s in it's fear of the apocalypse but, it's a glorious trip. At about minute 3:05 "Louder and louder and louder..." as his voice trails off in surrender to the cynicism is nothing short of genius.

The rest of the song is a jam. About a minute plus. And, in contrast to just about every. other. song of the era it's a welcome cacophony.

Even the moments of false stops at the end....perfect.

In an album full of retread and lack of innovation or invention, the song stands out as one of their best in years.

Grade: A+

Queen for a Day - Keep Passing the Open Windows

Apparently Queen's obsession with Hollywood wasn't quenched with Flash Gordon. They hitched their wagon to another crapfest. This time it was the movie adaptation of "The Hotel New Hampshire". I have no idea how....what....why.....

The title of the song is an oft-repeated mantra in the book. The cynicism is astounding. Lots of opportunities to hurl yourself out of windows, just plod on.

Thing is, it's one of my favorite tracks on the record. It sounds like they were writing with some purpose. It's a driving piece of pop with each member highlighted in their own way. It's an uptempo rocker that would translate well live, I would imagine.

The chorus isn't very anthemic, but they don't all have to be.

Written by Freddie I think it actually works better as a solo piece for him. And maybe belonged on Mr. Bad Guy more than here.

Grade: A-

Queen for a Day - I Want to Break Free

The video, with the band crossdressing as characters from a British show that no one knew in the US is what killed Queen in the States once and for all. They would never recover.

Truth is, they are wayyyyyy past their relevance at this point. This song may as well be the "Who Needs You" rework. It could be the son of that song. In fact, that's what I thought when I heard it for the first time.

It popped up in the early 00's as a Pepsi commercial and, of course, I felt good that my band was no longer the outcasts of transvestism. You remember that spot, right? The gladiator milieu? Britney Spears? Ugh.

The song is fine. It's catchy. It hits all the singalong notes it's supposed to. It was a hit for the band. It just shows that inventiveness had been supplanted by the ability to know how to print money.

Grade: B-

Queen for a Day - Machines (Back to Humans)

Oh, Roger, you techno-embracer, you.

It's been obvious for a few records now and his own solo debut, that Roger is more interested in moving away from humans and toward programmed technology based music.

Continuing the "Hey, we did it once before, let's rewrite it!" template, this is "Calling All Girls". Heard that one? You're fine. You don't need to hear this.

Grade: C

Queen for a Day - Man on the Prowl

So, if there's one pattern on The Works, it's that the band seems to be touching on all things familiar from their past and hodgepodging a record out of those ideas.
Tear it Up is "It's Late".
"It's a Hard Life" is "The Game".
"Man on the Prowl" is "Crazy Little Thing..."

A basic 3 chord Rockabilly, "MoP" is a toothless track that misses the revival by a few years. A revival they capitalized on themselves just 4 years earlier. Do they think lightning will strike twice?

I don't think so. I think this is an example of Queen at their laziest. No one needs thins. And to point to that laziness, Freddie, who we've counted on for so many years as the pianist of the band, hands over the keys to Fred Mandel. A perfectly talented musician but, it's not Queen. It's a session guy. And, worse. The song should follow that piano outro to a conclusion, but it's just...cut off....for no apparent reason.

Queen at their least interested.

Grade: C

Queen for a Day - It's a Hard Life

Touching on their noted Opera tropes, Freddie's paean to love opens with Vesti la Giubba from Paggliacci and then moves into more Queen-y territory.

As a song, it could be "Play the Game Pt 2" and that's not a bad thing. It's fine. Not very exciting but if you like Freddie's voice, a good melody and some well handled musicianship, it'll do.

They're not reinventing the wheel here. Just plodding along.

Grade: B

Queen for a Day - Tear It Up

Wait...what's that sound?
It's a big ass drum sound...and a call for readiness...and some real crunchy guitars...and....a lead solo?

Queen is back.

The retro-fuck-techno sojourn has been put to rest, it seems, in favor of an "It's Late" type stadium rocking sound from Brian May.

Thank goodness.

Ya can't beat a good vocal-Red Special call and response, especially when it's done by two masters like these.

Leaving Elektra the band decided to give their fans "the works" and toss everything into the machine.

This was never a favorite track of mine, but after slogging through the dance mess of the bast few albums, it's more than welcome. And a harbinger of Queen Mark III.

Grade: A

Queen for a Day - Radio Ga Ga

It's a hit single for Roger!

But...not without help.

First. From his son. Who was listening to the radio and said, since he was a baby, "Radio Ca ca."

Certainly one can picture Roger, king of songs that are lethargic, indulgent and never happy or uplifting, thinking, "Yeah! That's a song, mate! Everything on the Radio IS caca!"

Next. John Deacon. Who apparently heard Roger playing around with the track (no doubt arpegiatting) and came up with a solid bassline.

Exit Roger to go on vacation and enter Freddie. Who turned the lyrics around and decided it was a song about how, despite the advent of music videos, radio itself had yet to have its best days. (Remarkable at just how opposite these two people's worldviews were).

And, that's how "Radio Ga Ga" came to be. Roger's first real single. And a massive one for the band.

As a song, it's a great video.

The full immersion into electronics arrives with "Radio Gaga". Voices are run through a vocoder, the drums are synthetic. Until Freddie's voice arrives after the intro, nothing sounds real or authentic. Which is really strange. In just 10 short years we've gone from "Keep Yourself Alive" to Synth-pop.

But that isn't to say that it isn't a great song. It's another quintessential 80s track, with one of the biggest anthem choruses Queen came up with since "We Will Rock You".

The song also suffers from something I've complained about here: It doesn't know that it's over. So self-obsessed and indulgent that the second instrumental break (which is really just programmed machinery) goes on and on for well over 2 minutes after the song should have been over.

Alas. That was the way things were then.

Grade: B+

Queen for a Day - Under Pressure

Here we are. At the end of this record at last.

I've never felt like Under Pressure belonged on this album. It was a single that was released a year before the album's release. It was featured on their "Greatest Hits" record, before Hot Space was released. It feels like an afterthought.

Or worse.

It feels like filler.

Feels like.....hmmm....


Okay. "Under Pressure"'s roots can be found in an unfinished Queen track called "Feels Like" that was written by Roger. Which can be found here: http://youtu.be/ttfslaPrlDI and when you hear that version, with it's arpeggiatting guitar that calls to memory "Tenement Funster" & "Rock It (Prime Jive)", it's no surprise that Roger started it.

What is surprising is that Roger created the basis for one of Queen's biggest hits. The flipside to that is that he didn't finish it and had he, it wouldn't have been the biggest single.

But, given that it was written before the album that might explain why Roger's awful "Calling All Girls" was a single from the record......

You know this track. The unforgettable bass-riff. (Over the years 1980-1982, Queen found itself becoming a bass-riff driven semi-dance band) Freddie's falsetto (which has really never sounded better). Roger's giant drums. The huge, elegiac, desperate, bridge. Bowie's lyrics. Bowie's voice in counterpoint to Freddie's.

The fingersnaps.

It's become one of the indelible songs of the 80s. But does it deserve to be? Does it define the decade? Yes and no. What it defines, for me, is the same thing that Raging Bull defined when it was named "best film of the 80s" despite being released in the first year of the decade, and not really....but that's another story...

What it really points to is the end of the ideas of the 70s. It's grandiose, but it's also tired in its grandiosity. It's epic. But not in a great way. It's verrrrrry socially conscious, which is what so much of the the past 15 years before this record was about.


"Under Pressure" is one of the great tracks of the decade. And it deserves to be on Queen Greatest Hits volume 1-50.

But, here, it's just filler that you already bought and didn't need again.

Grade: A-

Queen for a Day - Cool Cat

Oh, when Freddie and John get together they create.....

crap.

This really isn't a Queen song, per se. All the instruments, including the drum programming, is played by John. John doesn't sing. (Except for backing vocals) I have no idea what his singing voice would even sound like.

So, after that atrocious first side of dance music, you thought it was over, didn'tcha? No, the boys just can't resist.

There's no song here. It's just a groove that wants soooooo badly to be a luther vandross joint...in falsetto.

I have successfully avoided this piece of shit for 20 years. Thanks to this project I got to remember just why I hate it so much.

Grade: D-

Queen for a Day - Las Palabras De Amour (The Words of Love)

I always think of "Teo Torriate" when I think of this song. When Queen wrote the aforementioned they were on a high of success in Japan. As the band got older their success in latin american countries exploded.
It was only a matter of time before they pandered, wrote a loving homage to that country by writing in their native tongue.

So, how is the song? Is it as good as "Teo"?

It's flourishy and big. After the swelling intro, Freddie comes in with a tender verse which bursts into the chorus, a gently anthemic piece underscored by an acoustic guitar.

I'm disappointed by the instrumental break as it's not as exciting as I would have hoped. Laden with synths and almost ambient string sounds, it cascades around itself and lands in the lap of another verse.
These sounds re-emerge at the extended coda and the band seems to be enjoying the grandiosity.

The star here is the chorus and Brian's occasional guitar touches. It's a gentle song. They've done this better, but they are right at home here.

Grade: B

Queen for a Day - Calling All Girls

Why was this a single?
Seriously.
Why was this a single? Why was a post-apocalyptic, THX-1138 themed video shot for this? Why does this band let Roger do....anything besides drum?

Because he's never had one, obviously. That's where the big money is. Roger knows that. He lobbied to have "I'm in Love With My Car" as the B-Side to Bohemian Rhapsody and, as such, received 50% of the income from the sale of that monster.

Then Freddie and Brian became the band's single kings.

Then he watched Deacon get rich off of "Another One..." and probably figured...dammit! I want IN.

But, this is not the song he would achieve that success with. Cuz, I don't think he knows what he ever wants to write about.

It's a love song.

Wait. It's a call to arms song.

Wait...it's an acoustic new wave mess of a ultimate uselessness.

Don't waste your time.

Grade: D

Queen for a Day - Life is Real (Song For Lennon)

When Lennon was killed...

Talk about the day the music died.

Freddie wrote Life is Real as an ode to John and I'm not really gonna pick it apart. I've heard people talk about how it works as a tribute: the opening notes echoing "Just like Starting Over", the title calling to mind "Strawberry Fields Forever"...

I am not enough of a Beatle fan to comment.

I can say that "Lennon is a gen-i-us" was such an on the nose lyric that I still cringe when I hear it. On the other hand, "Blood on my terraces", "Torsos in my closet", all of that sounds like something I could imagine Lennon being attributed.

Of course, Life IS real. And Life is a bitch.

Kudos for taking on the subject. I just wish the song was better.

It is the closest Queen has come to sounding like Queen in a LONG time. For that I am grateful.

Grade: B

Queen for a Day - Put Out the Fire

Did you know that Queen was a very socially conscious band that wrote message songs?

Neither did I.

This anti-gun track is the first that I can think of (if we are not counting "Don't Try Suicide"....and I'm not) but it won't be the last.

Keeping with my belief that Brian was not as interested as Freddie and John at mining the dance rock idiom, "Put out the fire" is the most rocking track on the record. Since it opened Side Two it actually gave the Queen fan that was the 15 year old me hope that the first half of the record was the experiment and Side Two would get back to rocking!

That was sort of true. It just wasn't enough.

However, it is the most blistering Brian has sounded in years. Like he's letting loose some demons, frustrated at being stuffed into a disco band demons.

This song is an oasis on this record.

Grade: B+

Queen for a Day - Action this Day

Ah, thank you, Roger. For abandoning the entire dance motif in favor or....New Wave?

How out of touch has this band become?

A mechanical call to arms, "Action this Day" is another case of Freddie singing lead on a Roger song and almost pulling it off. But Roger is a very very angry guy. He doesn't write songs that are lift you up, happy tracks.

He lives in some cold dystopia of sadness and furor.

He might be calling for Action and extolling the power to love but it's hollow.

That big synth break and solo are somethings he would explore to much more success on his solo record. It falls flat here.

Grade: C-

Queen for a Day - Body Language

This was it. The long awaited next single from the Number One band of 1980. I got the single before I'd heard it. And I looked at that cover....of those bodies....with the painted arrows....and I thought....

Wtf is this?

And when I put it on I was transfixed...

On just how weird and out of character it was.

This is a gay club dance track all the way.

It's all Freddie. He's moaning and hissing and groaning all over it.

The bassline was created by a synthesizer. Are the drums programmed? Is Queen anywhere on this song? Didn't Donna Summer do this shit 5 years before???

But, how's the song?

Catchy, sure. They know how to craft a pop song.

Good? Um...no.

Stupid? Yes.

Grade: D

Queen for a Day - Back Chat

And now let's hear from the king of Rock Disco, the author of their number one hit, the bass driven "Another One Bites the Dust".

"Back Chat" is the unworthy nephew to that song. There is nothing in it that would catch fire BUT it does smack of everything I learned to dislike about Queen:
Since it worked the first time, let's devote an entire album to it and try to score again.

It's as though they abandoned their rock fans, who went with them on the funk/rock journey on the last record in favor of the new fans they got WITH that record.

Always dance with the one that brung ya, guys.

The electronic drum solo on the song is embarrassing. The lead solo serviceable.

The song is trite.

Grade: C

Queen for a Day - Dancer

You just get the feeling on Hot Space that Brian May isn't into it. Freddie (and John) are driving the band into a more dance club sound and that doesn't really jibe with the hard rockin' May and his Red Special. But, Brian got to steer the band on the Flash Gordon Soundtrack so maybe this is recompense of sorts.
His first contribution is a full immersion in a bass lick that's catchy and kind of hot and the rest of the band is right there with it. Freddie's all snake and oil and smarm and Roger's keeping a steady four on the floor only this time, instead of being relegated to some balkanized region of the song, Brian is all over it. It's a dance rock track that showcases hot licks a plenty.
The track works. Not sure why I hate it, really. Because it's perfectly fine.
It's not really about anything. It's an excuse to jam. And as such, it's kind of cool.

I guess I don't really hate it.
It's fine.

Grade: B

Queen - Staying Power

I bugged the record store guy at the Union Market every weekend for 2 months about when the new Queen album was coming.
I couldn't wait.
And it didn't get it first. My friend, Randy, did. And we blew off lunch to sneak into the choir room and play it on the turntable.

And we wondered....um....what?

Now, I'm not gonna lie, I like Staying Power. I think it's the go to song for me from this weirdo-experiment disco Queen record. But, I think that's because I really dig the horns. There's no Queen in here, besides Freddie's gay leather bar vocals and John's chic basslines.

I don't think Brian's even on this song. He knew better, I guess.

I like it, but it really belongs on Mr. Bad Guy. This song was a dress rehearsal for Mr. Bulsara's coming out record.

Grade: B+

Queen - The Hero

Is Ming dead? We'll never know, cuz their ain't gonna no sequel.

But, at that moment when Flash jumps up and is frozen ala 70s tv detective show, Queen throws the kitchen sink, big ass drums, a verse that sounds like it was left off the BoRhap cutting room floor, a weird instrumental moment....and then a huge, well, BoRhap guitar solo. In fact, it really is just a rewrite of Bohemian Rhapsody in 3 minutes.

It's my favorite track but that's partially cuz of the cheese.

It's really crappy.

Enjoy.

Grade: C-

Queen for a Day - Flash's Theme

I am 15 years old. Watching tv on my dad's old black and white in my Greg Brady-converted attic.
I see a commercial for Flash Gordon and I think, that soundtrack sounds hilarious!

And then I see.

"Soundtrack by Queen."

Damn these guys.

Easily mocked, queenly epic, "Flash's Theme", which I always forget was written by May, is a big hunk of cheese that kicks off the 80s and the era of camp in a perfect way. it's ridiculous. The movie is ridiculous.
Both of them know that they are ridiculous.

The pulsating keyboards that are supposed to inspire cinematic tension but give over to a drippy ballad worthy of Margo Kidder's monologue in Superman, the entire song is a blast. But, it also sort of sucks.

Which is why Tenacious D covered it.

And no one else. Okay, that's not true. Louis XIV did. And, they sort of disappeared, no?
Their version after the jump.

Grade: C+

Queen for a Day - Save Me

Save Me is really pretty. The story of a love ended.
As a closer to the album it makes no sense. It's epic in the way that Queen songs are supposed to be. I think it would have been better served if RTB had produced it instead of Mack and his airless vacuum sound.

What really sends this song over the edge though, is Freddie. Freddie sings May way better than May's too-often-reedy-weak voice.

The power of the chorus is anthemic. Really have no idea why this wasn't the first May offering on Side One instead of that weird Dragon Attack. No other song so far in the band's oeuvre suggests their path to come. This one really bridges everything between the past and, especially, The Works.

Nice work, guys.

Grade: A

Queen for a Day - Coming Soon

Oh, Roger.

That driving, four on the floor, beat. It sounds like a train, right? Like a train that is...coming soon?

Oh, dear me.

Inoffensive and dumb. The second offering from Roger Taylor, "Coming Soon" is redeemed by the fact that Freddie takes lead vocals and not Roger and that's important because Freddie is playful where Roger takes himself and his rasp very seriously. Freddie knows that he's singing goofy songs and here he's singing one of Queen's loopiest and goofiest.
(There's a reason why only ONE of Roger's solo records is remotely listenable)

This is the most pedestrian track on the record. It doesn't mean it's not catchy, after all, Queen are consummate craftsman and can wring just about anything into something not totally embarrassing. (Speaking too soon, perhaps?)

Grade: C-

Queen for a Day - Sail Away Sweet Sister

So, we haven't heard from Brian in a while...not since track two....

He's definitely not down with this whole retro-50's thing. Sure, the production is in line with the stripped down idiom they are using for the album but that's the only thing this has in common with the rest of the record.

"Sail Away" is like "It's Late"'s short, sweet, step cousin. It's lovely. And the guitar work is terrific. It's about...his sister...? Who's leaving? To find someone who will love her as much as.....? That's sort of creepy. Maybe "Sister" is a euphemism.

It's a pretty song and the one that sounds closest to the old Queen we know. It could have been on News or Sheer and fit right in.

Grade: B+

Queen for a Day - Don't Try Suicide

See, this is why people hate Queen.

Perhaps inspired by the riffing that resulted in Another One...this Funk Bass/easy rocker has the single dumbest lyrics buttressed up against a real sentiment.

And yet, Queen managed to pull it off. The finger snaps, the smoky jazz hall melody, the giant instrumental, the sardonic quality of Freddie's sarcasm....

It all adds up to a perfectly fine middle of the album track.

Forgettable but catchy.

Grade: B

Queen for a Day - Rock It (Prime Jive)

So, Freddie wrote a retro track.
Deacon wrote one.
What's left?

Well, Brian, definitely, but for sure, Roger "I've never had a hit but I don't wanna be left out" Taylor pulled out his guitar and started arpeggiating.
Apeing his song, "Tenement Funster" he pulls out his cheesiest rhymes ("Shoot and Get Your Suit and come along with me"), does his best Elvis mimic and cranks out the beefiest guitar solo on the record. Short, sweet and I'm not sure its Brian and not Roger. And I don't care.

Prime Jive was a great way to open Side Two, it keeps the energy going, reintroduces those synthesizers we might have forgotten about and is a prime indicator of what he would give us on his solo record the next year.

Grade: A-

Queen for a Day - Crazy Little Thing Called Love

True story:
I was in the back of a car toward the end of high school with some friends and this song came on. They asked me what I thought of it and I said that, "well, I guess I like fifties music"....Then they told me it was Queen.

This wasn't the first time this had happened to me. Just a few months before I was surprised to discover that Another One Bites the Dust was not chic but....

And a few years earlier I was SHOCKED to learn that "Long Away" was not Fleetwood Mac but was also.....

Queen.

They sort of forced their way into my life.

Freddie allegedly wrote this song in his bathtub. On guitar. In 10 minutes.

But, that's all this track needs, really. He claimed he wrote it as a tribute to Elvis and that shows. It's a perfect little pop confection.

Incidentally, where I think Deacon is a mediocre writer, his laid back walk downs in this song really take it where it needs to go.

Grade: A+

Queen for a Day - Need Your Loving Tonight

If you've been reading this series (and, really, who hasn't?) you might have noticed by now that I am not really much of a fan of John Deacon's work. He write's trite, uninteresting "love" songs. Crap like "Misfire" (although it was covered by Neko Case a few years ago) and "Jealousy" and "You're My Best Friend", the list goes on.

But, something happened on The Game. John wrote a couple of the best tracks on the record and they are back to back on this album.

The previous one and this one.

And this one is as much fun as the last. Opening with an explosive crash cymbal, jamming all the way through to a tight, rave-up guitar solo, it's some cross between an early Beatles track and a garage band song. It's compact, too. 2.5 minutes long. Doesn't overstay its welcome. Leaves you wanting more.

Don't get me wrong, the song itself is trite as hell. Another of Deacon's love odes. But, the band is invigorated here and know what the hell they're doing.

So it rocks.

Grade: A

The Tommy Westphall Unification Theory

I adore this concept that, because of the conceit finale of St. Elsewhere, the accidental fallout is that just about every tv show now exists in the parallel universe inside an autistic child's mind.

I am linking it here with entire credit going to the author. I DID NOT WRITE THIS. Dwayne McDuffle did. And it's brilliant.

The original post is here.http://www.slushfactory.com/content/EpupypyZAZTDOLwdfz.php

Adam Ant's Listening Post ranking:

Kings of the Wild Frontier A+ (100)
Prince Charming A- (90)
Friend or Foe B+ (89)
Vive Le Rock B+ (89)
Wonderful - B (85)
Dirk Wears White Sox - C+ (78)
Persuasion - C (75)
Strip - D (65)
Manners & Physique D- (60)

Mr. Goddard scores a B- (81%) and that really isn't surprising. He' came out of the box with some very interesting stuff and really should have hung it up early on.

Listening Post - Gary Numan Rankings

What Numan albums should you buy? What's the aggregate ranking? How bored am I?

Pleasure Principle - A+ (100)
Replicas - A (97)
Telekon - A- (90)
Exile - B+ (89)
New Anger - B+ (89)
Tubeway Army - B+ (89)
Dead Son Rising - B (86)
Sacrifice - B (86)
Pure - B- (81)
Dance - B- (81)
Strange Charm - C- (71)
Berserker - C- (71)
The Fury - D+ (68)
Machine + Soul - D (65)
Outland - D (65)
Warriors - D (65)
I, Assassin - D (65)

Gary's Septenary Rating: B- (80)
Actually considering just how god awful so much of his output was in the 80s-90s, this rating is much higher than I anticipated.

Queen for a Day - Another One Bites the Dust

Where were you in 1980? If you were anywhere in the country and you had a radio you heard Another One Bites the Dust. It was massive. So much so that it kind of has become a cliche.

John Deacon twisted a Chic bassline (can you hear "Good Times"?) and made the biggest crossover hit in rock history. Rock stations payed it because it was Queen. Black stations played it cuz it was a dance/urban track. It was top 10 and it was inoffensive and it really wasn't about anything except, well, murder. But not real murder. Film Noir murder. This was a classic case of words being written to fit the musical line.

But it wasn't supposed to be a single. It was Michael Jackson who suggested it after hearing it in concert. Cuz, Mikey was a hige Queen fan.

The song will bring you back to that era AND it will make you tap your feet 30 years later.

Grade: A

Reflecting Pool: fun. - Some Nights - 2012

fun. - Some Nights - 2012

I wasn't very kind to "Some Nights" when it first came out. I think I was looking for Aim & Ignite II. Cardinal sin of music appreciation. I gave them a very mediocre review on PopDose and I was validated by the 3 stars in Rolling Stone.

But, the thing is, we wanted to love Some Nights. We had heard the big single months before the album's release and we adored it. Couldn't stop playing it.

And when the album came out, at first we just loved it. It was different. More percussive. More challenging.

And, for some reason I thought that was bad by the middle of the record.

But, this record has been on our heavy rotation all year and I think that's saying something. And it's time to go back and give it another listen.

Some Nights starts out strong. The requisite intro-song that we've come to expect from Nate is here and it's even better than I could have hoped for. Takes chances, plays with audio space, it's almost cinematic. And then the call to arms. The opening number, if you will. The title track. Which is all 80s Stomp and Antmusic beats and when Nate breaks into the spoken bridge we're in familiar territory as he's reflecting on whether this has been all worth it. (Really, Nate, at some points ya gotta accept the life of a rock star) then it breaks down AGAIN to reveal that his sister has had a terrible breakup but his nephew is cool and....wait....what the fuck? Auto-tune? Why is there auto-tune???

On further investigation I read that the band had fallen in love with Kanye West's brillian My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and employed Jeff Bhasker from that album to produce their record and, in doing so, succeeded in doing what I've been praising them for on almost every record: Pulling the familiar tropes in their music into the future. Contemporizing it.

The simplicity of THE SINGLE felt at first like it was the mashing up of two incomplete tracks but, upon the 40th or so listen, it really isn't. It's the first real Indie Anthem. And it's kind of perfect. Because when I, in my 40s, went to see them, boy, did I feel young shouting that song at the top of my lungs.

With Dost on the keyboards Nate perfects his balladeering (and "come on, it's going to be okay" feel goodism ala Michael Stipe) in a comradery sea shanty in "Carry On", and while it may be not up to, say "Take Your Time" or "The Gambler" and it's a little too obsessed with it's self sampling, it's beefy enough to pull it off.

Then all goes....weird. The hip-hop obsession gets married to a New Wave riff and the result is some truly off putting piece of music. Sadly, "It Gets Better" isn't about being gay. And, that's almost hard to believe since the band jumps through many hoops to prove that skin tight, women jeans wearing, neo-feminine, sockless, Nate isn't GAY. Get it? He's not. He drinks. A LOT. Every freaking magazine article either addresses the fact that he has a girlfriend or that he gets blind drunk every chance he can.
And, the song isn't about that, anyway. "I know it hurts at first but it gets better". It's about losing your virginity. And it's sort of horrible.

Fortunately, that's a momentary piece of madness and, with the simple and terrific, mid-tempo singalong, "Why Am I the One", we are back on track. Sure, it's Elton John 101, but it works. Heck, if you're gonna wear your Queen and ELO love on your sleeve, you really can't complete the trifecta with out Mr. John, right?

The schoolyard melodies in "All Alone" almost drive it off the cliff. Almost. The song bashes up a goodtime campfire song with all sorts of studio tricks, disguising it's experimentation behind a catchy chorus. But, it isn't great.

And it isn't until "All Alright" that I feel like the band really gets back on its footing. The hugeness of the chorus is what Nate does best: take what sounds like joy and lay it on top of what could be about death or just loss and regret. It's the self-flagellation song. You just wanna sing it with him and then...hug him. Nate Ruess really seems to need a hug.

The real marriage of hip-hop and pop is "One Foot". Riffing on the same Timbaland-type sounds that pervaded Hip-Hop the last few years (reference "Four Minutes" by Madonna for an understanding), it's impossible not to want to raise your hands in time. And when it breaks into a simple melody, we're back on terra firma. It's the reappearance of Nate's dad and his near death experience! That one event seems to have altered that boy's life, completely. And provided fodder for three songs so far.

The album ends with a big coda: "Stars" is one half of a great song. I say "half" because it's a great song...for the first two minutes. And then it sort of implodes upon itself. The title of the album reappears and Nate sings that he sometimes rules the world with "barlights" and "Pretty girls" but he misses his mom so much (never in my life have I heard a singer sing about his mommy as much as Nate Ruess).
However, determined to create the Indie Pop version of Kanye West's "Runaway", the song collapses into a sea of auto tune and, for the first time in The Format or fun.'s history, relegates them to "a time". It might as well be the 80s and they may as well be using drum machines. And lots of echo. Thing is, the damned melody is great and the song itself could have been such a good closer. In the end, it proves the album's undoing. It's slavish and desperate. It's a trick and purposeless. And it hurts my head.

Oh, well. I like most of it.

Grade: B+

ASide: Some Nights, We Are Young, One Foot
BlindSide: Some Nights (Intro), Why Am I The One?, All Alright
DownSide: It Gets Better