THE WORKS

"The Works" is the eleventh studio album of Queen and that was released in 1984. It became, without any doubt, a partial return to their beginning rock roots, after their previous studio album "Hot Space", although with a much lighter musical approach. It isn't entirely a classic Queen's album, but it's more on the safe ground. It became the heaviest electronic album amongst all their albums too. In comparison with their previous studio album, rock was mostly absent on "Hot Space", which was substituted by dance and funk music, with the massive use of the synthesizers and brass. The band praised the album, saying that they were hoped that it helped re-established the band, especially in Europe.

"The Works" has nine tracks. The first track "Radio Ga Ga" written by Roger Taylor was the first single from the album, with "I Go Crazy" by Brian May, on the B side of the single. The single was a worldwide success from the band, and became as one of the biggest hits of Queen. Lyrically, it's a protest song against the growing influence of music videos on the record sales, against the musical quality itself. Musically, it's an excellent song and probably it became the best song ever written by Roger Taylor to the band. The video for the song, which was directed by David Mallet, was made especially with the additions of scenes of the restored version of Giorgio Moroder's "Metropolis", of Fritz Lang's science fiction movie "Metropolis", made in 1927. The second track "Tear It Up" written by Brian May was the song chosen to be released as the B side of their single "Hammer To Fall". It's completely different from the previous song on the album. It's a hard song in the same vein of some of the old songs of the band. It's clearly a typical Brian May's song. The final result is a nice and good rock song pleasant to hear. The third track "It's A Hard Life" written by Freddie Mercury was a song chosen to be released as the third single of the album, with "Is This The World We Created??" as the B side. It's a song recorded much close to the sound of the earlier Queen's albums in which they didn't use synthesizers. This is an excellent song with a simple musical structure and a beautiful melody. This is, in my opinion, one of the highlights on the album. The fourth track "Man On The Prowl" written by Freddie Mercury is a song that sounds too much close to the rock of the 50's. This is another song written by Freddie Mercury as a tribute to Elvis Presley. It sounds completely different from the rest of the album. As you know, I don't like particularly of the rock of the 50's, and for me, this is one of the weakest songs on the album. The fifth track "Machines (Or 'Back To Humans')" written by Brian May and Roger Taylor was the song released as the B side of their single "I Want To Break Free". It's a very strange song that starts completely electronic and that sounds as a music battle of a future war between humans and machines. It's an interesting rock song with a good musical performance, especially the guitar work of Brian May, which is very pleasant and nice to hear. The sixth track "I Want To Break Free" written by John Deacon was the song chosen as the second single of the album. Curiously, the song had three different versions, album, single and extended version, differing in length and in some factors. It became the second hit single of the album. This is a great song with a catchy melody and an excellent vocal performance. However, this is only a pop song without any kind of progressivity. The seventh track "Keep Passing The Open Windows" written by Freddie Mercury was a song originally written to be part of the film "Hotel New Hampshire" but didn't make part of the final soundtrack of it. It's a good song with a simple musical structure, a beautiful melody and a nice piano performance. The eighth track "Hammer To Fall" written by Brian May was the fourth and final single to be released from the album. The song harks back to Queen's old sound, built around a hard and muscular guitar riff. It became as one of their live favourite songs. Probably, this song became with "It's A Hard Life", the two songs that most of the earlier Queen's fans should better tolerate from this album, because both are almost two classic Queen's songs. The ninth track "Is This The World We Created??" written by Freddie Mercury and Brian May was the B side of their third single, "It's A Hard Life". It's a beautiful acoustic ballad composed only for the acoustic guitar of Brian May and to the voice of Freddie Mercury. This is a nice way to finish the album.

Conclusion: "The Works" is, without any doubt, a good Queen's album with some great and beautiful musical moments. I've no doubt in saying that "The Works" is undoubtedly the best studio album of Queen since their seventh studio album "Jazz". Compared with their previous studio album "Hot Space", we can even say that "The Works" is a real masterpiece. In my humble opinion, this is a very cohesive and balanced album with only one weak song "Man On The Prowl". By the other hand it has some great musical moments, especially "It's A Hard Life" and "Hammer To Fall", which make us remember the good and old Queen's music. The final result is that "The Works" doesn't belong to their best works but it doesn't belong to their worst either. However, like as happened with "Duke" of Genesis, we aren't in presence of a true progressive album. So, I'm going to rate "The Works" with the same 3 stars that I've rated "Duke".

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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