THE GAME

My parents played the 8-track cartridge of this album in the car all the time when I was just a small child. I can still remember hearing: "don't try suicide, you're just going to hate it..." (music fades out) CLICK! CLICK! (music fades back in) "...don't try suicide, nobody gives a damn." My parents were those mainstream types who never really bothered with Queen until The Game came out. This is their best selling album in North America, most likely due to the strong 1950s rock'n'roll and funk/disco influences. Even a song like "Bohemian Rhapsody" never caught on in the US until it was featured in a 1990s movie.

A lot of older fans didn't like the direction the group went in with this album. Unitl now, all their albums included the statement: "no synthesizers were used in this recording." Well, now they were used. Since this is literally my first exposure to Queen, I enjoy it more than most die-hard Queen fans do. This album was so ingrained into my psyche when I was young I literally love every song. Even 'filler' songs like "Need Your Loving Tonight" and "Coming Soon." This album has what I believe to be three of the bands best ballads ("Sail Away Sweet Sister", "Save Me" and the title track). "Sail Away" features some of Brain May's best singing on a Queen song, while "Rock It (Prime Jive)" is one of the better songs Roger Taylor has written for the band.

"Another One Bites The Dust" is famous for ripping off the bassline from Chic's "Good Times." "Dragon Attack" is the only other funk/disco influenced song. "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" of course sounds like Elvis Presley. For nostalgic reasons I love this album, but for this site it only gets 2 stars from me.