THE GAME

"The Game" is the eighth studio album of Queen that was released in 1980. The album features a more pop/rock sound than its predecessor, "Jazz" and its musical style would be continued and augmented on Queen's next releases. The album received very favourable reviews, when it was launched. "The Game" is one of Queen's most popular albums and it was the first Queen's album to include synthesizers on it. The classic Queen's sound of the 70's is evident with good free flowing music. It contains two massive selling singles, "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Another One Bites The Dust". It has many styles including pop rock, funk rock, hard rock and rockabilly. This is a fun album to listen to with free flowing music and well produced tunes. It's their last work with 70's sound and a taste to what was to come.

"The Game" has ten tracks. The first track "Play The Game" written by Freddie Mercury was the song chosen to be released as the third single of the album. It's a very powerful and beautiful ballad, very emotional, which shows the talent composition of the band and Freddie Mercury's excellent vocal work, as usual. This is a typical Queen's song and one my three favourite songs on the album. The second track "Dragon Attack" written by Brian May is a song with a good bass line and a very interesting drumming work, with a solo in the middle of it. It's a hard rock song with some funk influences. Despite being a good song it never was a song that really seduced me very much. The third track "Another One Bites The Dust" written by John Deacon was the song chosen to be released as the fourth single of the album. It was a worldwide hit and became Queen's best selling single. This is another interesting song with a mix of styles of rock, funky and disco. It has a great bass line. This isn't one of my most favourite songs on the album, but I like it very much. The fourth track "Need Your Loving Tonight" written by John Deacon was one of the five songs of the album chosen to be released as a single. This time, it was released as the fifth single of the album. It's a straightforward nice and melodic rock ballad composed in The Beatles' style, but with a more pop sound. There's nothing special on it. It reminds me some vulgar songs from many other bands. The fifth track "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" written by Freddie Mercury was the first song to be chosen for being the first single of the album. The song was written as a tribute to Elvis Presley. It's a very interesting song that sounds completely different from the rest of the album, because it sounds like a 50's rock song. I don't like particularly the rock of the 50's, but I really like this song. I think it's a nice tribute song. The sixth track "Rock It (Prime Jive)" written by Roger Taylor is a rock song that despite being sung by him has an introduction vocalization by Freddie Mercury. It's a very fast rock song with a good guitar solo and nice chorus. This is a typical Roger Taylor's song, is decent enough, but I can't see nothing special on it, really. The seventh track "Don't Try Suicide" written by Freddie Mercury is a song with a good message but it doesn't catch my attention, as much I want. It was a really deception, for me, especially for being a Freddie Mercury's song, which always was my favourite composer of the group. This is, in my humble opinion, the weakest song on the album. The eighth track "Sail Way Sweet Sister" written by Brian May is an acoustic ballad, which is probably the real gem of this album. This is, in my humble opinion, one of the best and most beautiful compositions ever written by Brian May. Unfortunately, it's one of the most unknown, too. It's a lovely song with some progressive lines and made in the good old Queen's style. The ninth track "Coming Soon" written by Roger Taylor is another typical Roger Taylor's song. It's a very simple rock song with a nice tune written in a pop rock style. However and despite being not a bad song, this is one more vulgar song on the album, which doesn't deserve much attention from my own. The tenth and last track "Save Me" written by Brian May was the second song of the album chosen to be released as a single. It's one of the best Queen's ballads. It's a great song, with very touching and beautiful lyrics, nice harmonies and a great guitar work. It represents also one of the best contributions by Brian May in the song writing. It closes perfectly well the album just in the same line it was opened.

Conclusion: This is another album released in the beginning at the fateful 80's. As all we know, the 80's were a terrible decade for the progressive rock music. In the same year, Genesis released "Duke", Gentle Giant released "Civilian", Yes released "Drama" and Jethro Tull released "A". And as we must confess, none of these albums are the best representatives of their best musical period, despite I like very much of "Drama". Relatively to "The Game", it wasn't an exception too. In my humble opinion, "The Game" has three great songs, "Play The Game", "Sail Away Sweet Sister" and "Save Me", and it has also two good songs, "Another One Bites The Dust" and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love". The other songs are too much vulgar to a Queen's album, with the exception of "Don't Try Suicide", which is for me one of the worst songs made by the band. It reminded me immediately "Who Dunnit?" of Genesis, because in this moment, I'm also preparing a review of "Abacab". Sincerely, I'm afraid that "Don't Try Suicide" is very close to "Who Dunnit?".

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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