THE WORKS

The things that always attracted me to Queens music was the variety and the originality of it all. No one could do all of the different genres like Queen could do, with Brian May's amazing guitar and Freddie Mercury's bombastic vocals. This was glam rock at it's best and everything that Queen tried to do was pure gold. Things started to slip a little on "The Game" but it was still salvageable. Then there was the big downturn in their sound in the synth heavy "Hot Space". "The Works" was supposed to be a return to form, and at this point, I would have been happy if they even approached the feeling of "The Game". But this album just doesn't quite reach even that status. The sound here is just too poppy for my taste.

There were two hits from this album; "Radio Ga Ga" which is famous only because it's easy to sing along with and the catchy guitar hook, and "I Want to Break Free" which I think is the closest they come to their true sound of their pre-"Game" sound. I do love the instrumental break, it's original and fresh, but that is the only place on this album that is a slight step above the mediocrity of this album. "Keep Passing the Open Windows" is also decent and could have squeaked by on one of their better albums. But overall, the album just doesn't have the spirit, the originality of those previous albums.

It doesn't make sense to do a track by track analysis of this album. There are a few rock anthems, a show tune or two, a few songs that sound like they are trying to copy previous songs, but there is a complete lack of originality. The variety that I used to love from this band is completely washed-out by trying to give each song a pop edge and staying away from the true feeling of each style of music. There are plenty of other genres of music they could have tried and there are plenty of ways they could have even built on the older styles they had in the past, but everything is weighed down by trying to make things accessible and radio friendly and trying in vain to recreate past successes.

No doubt that the members of this band are extremely talented. But, unfortunately, they were continuing to miss the mark by trying to be too accessible. It's just too much of a disappointment hearing mediocrity from a band that was capable of so much more.