Album #9 : Queen - The Works

Queen

The Works (1984)

By the time the early 1980s rolled around, one could be forgiven for arguing that Queen's best days were behind them. For so long a band that defied trends and did their own thing (can you think of other bands who featured folk/skiffle ditties about the time dilation effect experienced by astronauts travelling at near lightspeed, honkytonk songs about the seaside and sprawling progressive rock epics about Biblical floods on the same album?), the 80s saw Queen ditching that fuck-you attitude and jumping on the disco and synth-dance fads. Although The Game was, in my opinion, an outstanding album, the same could not be said for the spectacularly poor Hot Space. Subsequent to the latter's release, the band members took time out to do their own thing. The writing was on the wall for Queen.

Yet their followup - The Works - turned out to be a decent return to form. While elements of synthpop were to remain, The Works signalled a return to a 'classic' Queen sound - driving guitar riffs, the deft and underrated melancholia of Freddie Mercury's piano, and of course all the multitracked backing vocals you can lay your hands on.

Yesterday I described this as a 'virtually unknown' album. That's because while there are songs on this album that have been staples of rock radio since their release, I doubt anybody knows much about where the songs came from. Let's take a look at The Works.

The Album

The opening track is one of those radio staples, Radio Ga Ga. Written by drummer Roger Taylor, the song serves as an observation on the importance of radio in the development and the spread of popular music, as well as a plea for radio to stay relevant in a world fast turning to the music video as the primary method of song promotion. 

(Ironically, Queen's music video for Radio Ga Ga was rather lavish and received significant airplay on MTV.)

It's driven entirely by synthesiser and synth-bass, with Brian May's guitar taking a back seat throughout. Freddie Mercury is the highlight though (you're gonna hear that sentence quite a bit in this review), his trademark vocal genius extending from the lower tones of the verses to the exalted pleas of the chorus.

The next song, Tear It Up, begins the album's theme of Oh Look A Brian May Song That Is Really Just a Massive Riff And Some Other Stuff. As a subtheme, it is also a case of Oh Look A Brian May Song That Is A Shameless Attempt To Reclaim The 70s Classic Queen Sound. From that perspective it works; there's no synth in sight and those trademark big riffs, technically proficient solos and multitracked backing vocals are all present. The lyrics, though, are a bit rubbish. It's not terrible but there are far better songs on the album than this one, such as It's A Hard Life. THIS is truly a return to 70s Queen, Mercury's beautiful piano melodies driving the song while May weaves in and out with guitar licks that never overstay their welcome. It also features more of Freddie bringing opera to the masses with the introduction. The lyrics, written by Mercury, are first class...and so is his vocal performance.

Man on the Prowl comes next. Queen go rockabilly with a three-chord wonder song. I can't say too much about it, I find it a bit laboured and boring, although the piano solo at the end (played by session muso Fred Mandel) is fantastic. Machines (Back to Humans) kicks off what would be Side 2 of the vinyl release. It's another synth-heavy tune, this time well supported by more crunchy riffs and licks from May. Mercury is the highlight (I warned you) and he knocks this song out of the park, dueting with himself while Taylor plays around doing robot voices with a vocoder. Again, though, the lyrics (written by Taylor) are fairly average, containing your standard 80s technology references (software, hardware, random access memory). 

Following that is bassist Deacon John (heh, heh, the Queen purists will get that reference) making his sole contribution to the album, and it's a slice of three minute pop. I Want To Break Free is arguably very un-Queen, and Deacon wanted it that way - gone are the guitar solos (there's a synth solo instead) and big, multilayered vocals. It's mainly synth and bass with a few May licks thrown in, and some typical lyrics about love and relationships and stuff. It's a great pop song but, I would argue, not a great Queen song. Keep Passing The Open Windows was originally written for a film score that Queen later withdrew from. It has always been a quiet favourite of mine, an uptempo rocker urged along by an insistent bass groove and Mercury again on the piano. There's also some really nice work from Brian May that is not used as the focal point of the song, rather as part of the soundscape. Having said all that, the use of synthesisers on the track is annoying and pointless, as they add nothing while shifting focus away from the music.

The final two songs are polar opposites. Hammer to Fall is Brian May's baby, a big crunchy riff and extended guitar solos (the middle bridge, for example, is all May, and it's fantastic. Unfortunately most people won't have heard it, because the single edit of the song did away with this middle bridge). It's another slice of classic Queen; even the drums sound like they did when the band were in their pomp. The final track, Is This The World We Created...? is an acoustic track that features only May and Mercury. It's about the plight of African people, who at the time were suffering through a terrible famine (yes, it was drawing attention to Africa before Live Aid, cop that Geldof). It's hauntingly beautiful and produces a 'goosebump' moment any time Mercury launches into the two choruses. Although it sounds out of place given everything that's precluded it, it doesn't matter because it really is a gorgeous, if despairingly sad, song.

The Verdict

I wouldn't go so far as to call The Works a masterpiece, nor would I even put it in my top 5 Queen albums. However, that is not to say it is not without merit. The hits on the album are amongst the finest works in Queen's oeuvre (except for I Want To Break Free), and there are some other great moments on the album (and pretty much all of the great moments belong to Freddie Mercury, who is surely without peer as a vocalist.)

What it does showcase perfectly is the Queen of the 1980s. Gone are the self-indulgent (and please understand I don't use that term pejoratively, I quite like the self-indulgent moments) adventures into grandiose non-rock musical styles, gone are the experimental and daring examples of studio trickery. Instead we see Queen as stadium rock band, making songs with big riffs, singalong and clapalong passages and guitar solo showcases. The journey they started with 1978's News of the World was completed with this album.

And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that...so long as we also remember that the Queen of the 1980s would never, ever put out a cohesive album where every song is a compelling listen. Consequently, The Works is good, but not great...and that's a shame for a band as talented as Queen.

My rating: *** and a half

Standout Tracks

Radio Ga Ga

Hammer To Fall

It's A Hard Life

Tomorrow we go back to the early 1970s to bring you an album by an English rock band who I've heard of, but never actually heard. Hint: the band had Peter Frampton in it, who later found fame by releasing a live album of his songs BUT NOBODY HAS EVER HEARD A STUDIO VERSION OF THE SONGS EVER. WHERE ARE THEY FRAMPTON?

Anyway I'll see you then!