HOT SPACE

Queen was riding high with their fame after the release of "The Game", which marked the first time the band ever used synthesizers in their music, but at least their music was still rock oriented. Fans were a bit disappointed with the release of "Flash Gordon" but felt the band could be excused for that one since it was written and inspired by the movie of the same name. However, when they released their next proper album "Hot Space" in 1982, it turned out to be the last straw for many fans and quite unforgivable that the music was suddenly disco and dance oriented, especially the entire first side of the record.

There is a bit of discussion on who to blame for this huge misstep from this band that no one thought would be able to topple at the time. On one hand, there are those that say that John Deacon was to blame because of his love for r & b music. He wrote the previous hit "Another One Bites the Dust" and there was pressure to release music similar to that which could be played in the dance clubs. The other story is that Freddie Mercury's personal manager Paul Prenter was distancing the band from Mercury not allowing them to talk together. Prenter was working to convince Mercury that the "glam" he was so attracted to would be more attainable and acceptable with disco music. Both Brian May and Roger Taylor were very much against making a disco album or taking the band in that direction. However, in the end, profits and commercialism won out, and that's how the monstrosity and embarrassment of this album happened.

All through the first side of this album, you can expect nothing but dance/disco flavors that are so apparent, it must have been shocking to fans when they put this album on the first time. The horn arrangements of the opening track "Staying Power" are typical disco arrangements and no one even tried to hide that fact. "Dancer" follows along the same lines, but since it was written by May, at least he has some crunching guitar riffs that he manages to bring in, but the disappointment can't be ignored. More disco mentality continues in the over produced synthesized orchestra sound of "Back Chat" and the missing guitar can't be ignored in the hit "Body Language" which tries to recall some of the experimental sounds of earlier years, but ends up falling on it's face. "Action This Day" continues with programmed drums and a new wave mentality and even though it's a Taylor-penned track, the "punk" style of his previous songs is almost completely missing.

The 2nd side at least veers away from the overabundance of disco music, but it seems that the damage has been done, and there just isn't any soul or heart in the music. The only exception is with the nice ballad-style track "Life is Real (Song for Lennon)" which brings back some of the spirit that has been missing in Mercury's delivery. Everything else here seems to be trying to copy the classic sound of the band, but without bringing back any of the excitement or spirit from before. "Cool Cat" seems like it could be something interesting, but never gets to develop much. Apparently, David Bowie was supposed to be a guest vocalist for this track, but he didn't like his performance on the song and asked that it be pulled before the record was released. The other saving grace for the album besides "Life is Real" is the closing track that everyone knows, "Under Pressure". The interesting thing here is that track was recorded long before this album, so it wasn't influenced by the move to disco, and that could explain why it has a more infectious riff and why it has been the only song considered a classic on the entire album, not to mention the fact that Bowie's vocals were still on this track.

In 2011, there was a CD reissue that tries to resurrect this album. It attempts to take away the disco-oriented sound of the album by including 3 live versions of the songs "Staying Power", "Calling All Girls" and "Action This Day" by using real drums and getting rid of the disco horns, but it's still hard to ignore the fact that these songs just didn't seem that inspired, and the new wave style is still there (they were recorded the same year as the album). They also include the non-album b-side for "Under Pressure" a song called "Soul Brother" which at least also hints at the soulful sound of Mercury's voice from their classic music, which also shows the direction of the band if the disco influence hadn't won out. There is also a single version of "Back Chat" that doesn't really help out much.

It wouldn't take long for the band to figure out the damage had been done. Unfortunately, for Queen, they would never be able to be taken seriously on any of their future albums even if they did manage to produce better songs than what was on "Hot Space". It was still difficult for the band to match the heights of their previous stardom as the music was now to be more commercialized than before and feature a lot less variety, which I always thought was their biggest strength. The days before "Hot Space" were the times I thought that Queen could play anything and make it sound amazing and unique. The only thing this album proved was that I was wrong.