JAZZ

I like this album more now than I used to (and I have been a big Queen fan for more than ten years now). Jazz shows a more playful aspect of Queen, with a bit more humour in the lyrics; Fat Bottomed Girls, Bicycle Race and the eastern influenced opener Mustapha are all fun and a bit silly. Jazz is certainly not up to par with Queen's best albums, but it is still great music and it is in several respects an improvement over News Of The World.

There are, however, some signs of the band growing tired and running out of ideas. This is especially apparent on songs like Fun It and More Of That Jazz (on which the lyrics are very much to the point; "just more of that jazz"), the latter featuring reprises of the album's other tracks. Also, If You Can't Beat Them, Let Me Entertain You, and Dead on Time pale in comparison with what Queen were capable of in their early days.

My favourite songs on this album are Leaving Home Ain't Easy and Don't Stop Me Now. The first being a Brian May number, one of his best ballads in my opinion.

The biggest problem with Jazz is that it feels more like a collection of individual tunes than an organic whole. Still, there are some lovely bits here that make it a good addition to a Prog collection. Just don't buy this expecting it to be a Jazz-Rock album! It, of course, isn't if anyone thought that.

Good, but non-essential Queen album. Not the place to start investigating Queen.

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