THE WORKS

Whether it's because he realised that continuing down the Hot Space route wouldn't have been too clever an idea is beyond me, but drummer Roger Taylor was heard to remark "let's give them the works!" during the formulative stages of this album. That statement, in brief, sums up everything about this album - indeed, it touches lightly upon all of the core facets of Queen's sound up until that point.

Unfortunately for some, the aforementioned 'Hot Space' sound creeps up right from the get go with 'Radio Ga Ga', although it becomes readily apparent that the influence has been diluted and perfomed much more subtly this time around. Admittedly it sounds both commercial (then again much of the album does), and the dated synths are probably sounding a lot more cheesy today than they did in 1984, but it's still a gracious and highly enjoyable track which transitions effortlessly from smoothness to bombast. 'Tear it Up' is a ferocious rocker, which is an enjoyable 'party' tune but begins to wear a little thin for me after a few listens. It seems to be a conscious revisitation of anthems such as 'We Will Rock You', although most of the later revisitations of older Queen sounds work much better.

'It's a Hard Life' is a wonderful Freddie Mercury number, and as ever, it comes complete with operatic flourishes and Bohemian grandeur. A couple of listens are needed to take in the subtleties in the arrangements of this track. The short piano break climaxing with Brian's excellent harmonised guitars is the highlight here, along with the final, almost screamed, line ("I did it for love!"), although the song is flawless. 'Man on the Prowl' is an unremarkable one in a sort of old-time swing style - not much to say about this one. 'Machines (or Back to Humans)' is a bit of a curio, with a lot of electronics and vocoders and whatnot going on, but is ultimately rather forgettable.

'I Want to Break Free', by the oft-overlooked John Deacon (personally my least favourite of all his pieces), needs no introduction, which is a shame in a way because the follower 'Keep Passing the Open Windows' is a real gem. For me, this is the best song on the album - granted, it's a little cheesy and happy - sort of a precursor to 'Breakthru' from five years later, in some ways; however, every twist and turn and every little refrain is greatly pleasing. Again, the highlight are the harmonised guitars that come in before "you just gotta be strong..." around half way in.

The final two songs on this album are lyrically both rather conscious of the state of the world - Hammer to Fall is a bit of a balls-out rocker, this time much more intelligently crafted than the likes of 'Tear it Up'. There are a few interesting key changes around the long Brian May solo (which ranks up there with his very best), but mostly this is just a highly headbangable one - fantastic nonetheless. 'Is This the World We Created?' rounds off the album with a short, pretty but melancholic acoustic guitar number regarding poverty.

All in all, a not TOO consistent, but mostly great album, excellently produced, and a massive improvement on Hot Space. Arguably the best of their 80s output, although the jury's out on that one. Overall highlights are Freddie's vocals (which are stellar as always), It's a Hard Life and Keep Passing the Open Windows. Not too much progginess on this one except the sheer diversity in the sounds and textures of the tracks, which in this reviewer's opinion speaks volumes more than 8 identical sounding Dream Theater tracks. 4 stars.