Queen – The Works

‘The Works’ was a hugely successful album for Queen, but did very little in the United States and the band after the 1982 ‘Hot Space’ tour (which I was lucky to see in Philadelphia) would never tour that territory again.

Written by: Eric

ARTIST: Queen
ALBUM: The Works
LABEL: EMI
SERIAL: WORK1
YEAR: 1984
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: England

LINEUP: Freddie Mercury – vocals * Brian May – guitars * John Deacon – bass * Roger Taylor – drums

TRACK LISTING: 01 Radio Gaga * 02 Tear It Up * 03 It’s A Hard Life * 04 Man On the Prowl * 05 Machines (or Back To Humans) * 06 I Want To Break Free * 07 Keep Passing The Open Windows * 08 Hammer To Fall * 09 Is This The World We Created..?

WEBLINKS: Site Link

Background

Hard to believe this is the first Queen review here on Glory Daze, but we might as well start somewhere and ‘The Works’ is one of a string of 80’s albums that deserves your attention.

After the disco/soul/funk experiments of the bands previous album ‘Hot Space’, it appeared Queen had perhaps gone too far in a wrong direction and lost much of their fan base, especially in North America where Mercury’s moustache had already created a stir concerning rumors of his possible homosexuality.

As if there were no signs previous to the facial growth? Anyway, he was what he was and Freddie Mercury and Queen returned to their rock roots with ‘The Works’ and the results to say the least were quite impressive.

The Songs

Opening with the Roger Taylor penned ‘Radio Ga Ga’; its evident Queen had a firm grasp on the then new synthesized pop sound that defined the 1980’s. A definite change in musical attitude from a band who proudly proclaimed ‘no synthesizers’ on their early albums, yet it really didn’t change the Queen sound all that much.

Brian May’s guitar which was buried on the ‘Hot Space’ sessions is prominent on ‘The Works’ and especially so on the excellent ‘Tear It Up’ and the excellent ‘Hammer To Fall’ proving once again he is one of the greatest guitar players of our time.

John Deacon’s ‘I Want to Break Free’ is incredibly catchy (the controversial video is clever too) and deserved to be the hit single it was. ‘Is This The World We Created..?’ the album’s final track is an acoustic number and somewhat serious lyrically and is as poignant in today’s global turmoil as it was in the ‘cold war’ era of 1984.

In Summary

‘The Works’ was a hugely successful album for Queen, but did very little in the United States and the band after the 1982 ‘Hot Space’ tour (which I was lucky to see in Philadelphia) would never tour that territory again. A legendary performance at ‘Live-Aid’ would cap off a very successful year for Queen and prove to the world they still had much to offer.

Video

Radio Gaga