FEATURE:
Second Spin
Queen – The Works
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QUEEN are one of these bands…
who are well-known and popular, yet the reviews for their studio albums have been mixed. Apart from classics in their cannon – such as 1975’s A Night at the Opera -, there has been this division. Many U.S. critics have never for behind the band (Rolling Stone are top of the list!). One of their albums that I think is undervalued and should have scored better reviews is 1984’s The Works. I am going to bring together a couple of contrasting reviews for the album. One of Queen’s most varied and diverse albums, their eleventh was the band's first studio album to be released by Capitol Records in the United States. Following the synth-led Hot Space (1982), The Works has a harder Rock sound, yet it still include Mercury’s love of electronic and synth sounds. It was an album that showed and explored the band’s wide range of sounds and sonic loves. If John Deacon was leaning towards New York futuristic sound; Mercury wanted to keep some of Hot Space’s sounds, whilst Brian May and Roger Taylor were eager to return to the Rock sound of their earlier albums, The Works was a pleasing compromise. Recorded at the Record Plant Studios in Los Angeles and Musicland Studios in Munich from August 1983 to January 1984, the title is very fitting! It is appropriate that I mention Hot Space, as that album is forty on 21st May.
At nine tracks – none of which exceed six minutes -, The Works manages to be quite focused, yet the spread and variety of genres and sounds makes it feel expansive. I am not sure why there were negative and mixed reviews for the album! Roger Taylor’s Radio Ga Ga, Freddie Mercury’s It’s a Hard Life, and John Deacon’s I Want to Break Free are all classics! Throw in Brian May’s Hammer to Fall, and it shows that there are four extraordinary and different songwriters in the band. The Works was a case of it being all Freddie Mercury and Brian May! Reaching number two in the U.K. in 1984 and twenty-three in the U.S., The Works was a commercial success. 1986’s A Kind of Magic, again, is an album that is packed with great music but got mixed reaction. I am going to come to a couple of reviews now. I mentioned Rolling Stone earlier. Although not one of their more negative reviews for a Queen album, their take on The Works holds a lot of positives:
“Radio Gaga,” the single that opens up the new Queen album, is another instant jewel in Queen’s Top Forty crown. It’s one more anthemic lament to that overfamiliar icon, sung and played with Queenly overkill in “Deutschland Uber Alles” style by a group that did its share to corrupt the airwaves in the Seventies. This slab of false pomp aside, the rest of The Works — surprise, surprise — ain’t half bad.
Disregarding a best-of, a soundtrack, one single made with David Bowie and the obligatory solo projects, this is the glitter-rock band’s first real album in some time. And rather than move in ever-widening spirals of bombast, they’ve trimmed a lot of the excess — mainly, the fat vibrato of Brian May’s multitracked guitars and Freddie Mercury’s overdubbed tabernacle choir of vocal effects. What’s left is a lean hard-rock sound, making The Works perhaps the first record to refute the maxim that the words Queen and listenable are, of necessity, mutually exclusive.
Granted, the messages have all been heard before and practically cancel each other out: love is all you need; let’s get physical; machines have feelings, too; be an individual, stand your ground. Instead, the revelations are in the music. For the carnivorous, rewards are to be found in the thundering Led Zeppelinisms of “Tear It Up” and “Hammer to Fall”; for the doubters, the surprises are in the comely melody and (relative) restraint of “Keep Passing the Open Windows” and the straight-up Fifties rocking of “Man on the Prowl.” And try this one our on the atheists: “Is This the World We Created…?” is an acoustic meditation on hunger and hate and generational responsibility, sung with conviction by Mercury.
This unanticipated humanitarianism is the perfect grace note to the preceding thrash-fest. The Works is a royal feast of hard rock without that awful metallic aftertaste; as such, it might turn out to be the Led Zeppelin II of the Eighties. Not so depressing a prospect at that”.
In their review, Redbrick explained why 1984’s The Works is one of Queen’s most realised and best work. In my opinion, it ranks alongside their classic albums from the 1970s:
“I find it very difficult to pick just one essential album from Queen, but their eleventh album, The Works, is easily one of their most underrated albums. With the amount of huge hits and pure classics produced over their career, it’s hardly surprising that this album is anything less than brilliant. Yet, in my opinion, this is my favourite album created by Queen. Admittedly, Anyone who knows me, is aware that I have a deep love of Queen, so my view that they are one of the best rock bands to have existed comes as no surprise. However, The Works showcases their ability to bring out classic Rock sounds whilst also combining it with some other styles like funk, delivering some of the band’s biggest hits.
The aim of this album was to reignite Queen and lead them back to their rock roots after their previous album Hot Space flopped. The opening track ‘Radio Ga Ga’ showcased Queen’s return to their original sound. The lyricism of this song written by Roger Taylor is something to be in awe of. Making references to various events that happened on the radio like Winston Churchill’s 1940 “This was their finest hour” address and the hugely influential War of the Worlds broadcast, it is a crafted tribute to the radio formate as well as an iconic track. ‘Radio Ga Ga’ still remains one of Queen’s most listened to singles and was famously used in Queen’s Live Aid performance. Queen’s sound in this song is made monumental thanks Roger Taylor’s drumming to the Freddie Mercury’s vocals. What is clear from the start of this album is that Queen are a band that can never be replaced or replicated.
Queen are the classic household name of rock music with many children having grown up on a steady diet of their music. Especially since the release of the hugely successful rock-opera, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in 2018, our nostalgic love the band has seemingly been reignited. The Works has many tracks which have touched lives from ‘I Want To Break Free’, written by John Deacon, which has a power to it and can have many meanings to different people, and ‘Hammer to Fall’ which is infectiously catchy with Brian May’s guitar riffs and chorus. These two singles are a force to be reckoned with as they stand out as some of the most played songs by Queen and show why they are one of their era.
There is a mixing of rock and other influences like funk and more experimental sounds that Queen would pursue in the later album Innuendo in 1991, foreshadowed on The Works. ‘Is This the World We Created…?’ is an ode to the fear of the world that we all live in now, written after witnessing poverty abroad, this song still has a meaningful resonance with listeners today. This song thrives on the simplicity of Brian May’s acoustic guitar skills and touching lyrics arranged by Freddie Mercury. Their ability to deliver emotional moments as classic rock can be heard through this song and can similarly be seen in the album A Night at the Opera with ‘Love of My Life’.
Songs such as ‘Tear It Up’ and ‘I Go Crazy’ lean more towards the heavier rock that Queen were known for. These songs are a nod to their past and also have fantastic guitar solos and drumbeats from Roger Taylor. ‘Tear It Up’ has an ode back to ‘We Will Rock You’ from the album News of the World with the stomping drum beats and guitar riffs.
Queen’s The Works is one of the best albums from start to finish for me. From their endeavours to revive their old sound, to their simplicity, The Works captures some of the best of Queen’s artistry. It’s sound is one of the reasons why I love Queen. It is an essential album for its rich and full sound, the artistry that Queen are renowned for is present throughout this album in its spectrum of sounds. The Works is and always will be one of my favourite albums that I revisit all the time, however I’m feeling”.
An album that should be talked about more and seen as a terrific release, The Works is a creative peak for Queen. I know the band have always been divisive, yet one cannot deny there are some true gems in the running. Radio Ga Ga and I Want to Break Free are considered to be two of Queen’s crowning achievements. If you have not heard The Works or have given it short shrift, go and listen to it again and give it more time. It is an album that, because of its breadth and spread, will please the senses and can appeal to a wider audience. Rather than The Works being average or containing some weak tracks, it is truly…
ONE of Queen’s very best.