#39
February 27 1984
Queen
The Works
3.5 out of 5
Highlights:
Hammer to Fall
I Go Crazy (B Side)
Is it possible for me, an inveterate Queen fan, to objectively review The Works? I dunno.
A few years ago I listened and reviewed one Queen song a day, every day, until I got through the whole catalog. It presents a different perspective.
I remember the moment I heard about Queen’s switch to Capital. I was home from college, visiting a girl. I was driving around afterward (the visit hadn’t gone as planned), just meandering around New Jersey in my family’s Chrysler Cordoba. The radio was playing. The DJ said that Queen had announced their newest album and it was going to be on another label. That felt weird to me. Queen + Elektra. THAT was the sound of my youth. Of course, I was excited that there would be another Queen record but it didn’t feel right…
And then…The Works. I wanted to love it. Like, I really wanted to love it. And I pretended to. But…Radio Ga Ga? Hey, what’s that? A big bass and…and…synthesizers. It proved to me that Queen was of a different time. Singing paeans to RADIO?? Video was where it’s happening, man. And then, that video. That weirdly retro/fascist video. based on the movie metropolis, which no one saw but Queen had a song in (So did Adam Ant…oh, it sucks when your heroes fall so hard). Why are we putting our hands up in exaltation to you, Freddie? Why does your next song sound SOOOOO much like a “Play the Game” outtake? AND! You wrote a great f’aupera just 9 years before, Fred, and AND! You would record with the great Montserrat Caballe just a few years after this? Why rip on Pagliacci? Also…Why did you cut off Fred Mandel’s piano on “Man on the Prowl”? Why is someone ELSE playing piano on that song, anyway???? And why are you trying to redux that 50s homage, anyway???? There is a song (“Keep Passing the Open Windows”) that was recorded and left off the abysmal film version of John Irving’s The Hotel New Hampshire. It’s a thematic cousin to “Don’t Try Suicide”, a much better song (that isn’t very good) inasmuch as it’s also about not committing suicide. But it’s the guys’ talent and understanding of hook laden rock that make the song almost…well…good.
That’s the thing. There’s no real clunker of a crappy song on it. Especially if you’re a Queen fan. But, are they actually good contributions to the song book?
Queen could make just about anything an international hit at this point. They’d even been forgiven for Hot Space when this one came out. But, it’s the sound of a band that has run out of ideas and just knows how to craft songs that fans will like…or buy. I know Roger had the big selling tune but the only one trying here is Brian. “Hammer to Fall” and “Tear It Up” (Which I swear will inform “One Vision” a couple years later) are him proving that Queen could rock. He could do these in his sleep. I think he did. The best cut is the B-Side they left off the album, another Brian rocker. It’s the sound of the guys having a good time.
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