QUEEN

Officially released 40 years late, "Live at the Rainbow'74" is a priceless gift for Queen fans and especially for those who appreciate their early work, which had little to do with the more recognised and popular discography that the band generated later on. A double album that unites the concerts of March and November 1974, at a time when the Englishmen were struggling to find their identity and their place in the world of rock, and whose value is even greater due to the quality of the recording, which prioritises the clarity of the instrumental performance over the interaction with the audience that these live dynamics entail.

Both concerts open with the funereal ambience created by Brian May's guitars in the brief instrumental "Procession", and give way to a sampling of songs that represent the corrosive and dense character of the band at the time, such as the powerful "Ogre Battle", the raspy riffs of "Father to Son" and "Son and Daughter" in the style of seventies Black Sabbath, a multi-layered guitar solo taken from "Brighton Rock" courtesy of May's famous Red Special, the galloping "Great King Rat" and "Keep Yourself Alive", and the huge Zeppelin chords of "Liar", further evidence of the guitarist's excellent form.

On the other hand, Queen's versatility is also present with less hostile tunes like the delicate "White Queen", the progressive vein with "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke" and an extract from the excellent "The March Of The Black Queen" (a premonitory exercise prior to the immortal "Bohemian Rapsody" released a year later), the tribute to Presley's fifties rock with "Jailhouse Rock" and the bluesy "See What A Fool I've Been", songs that feature the powerful and unsurpassable voice of a very loquacious Freddie Mercury interacting with the audience, and with the sound base of the always correct John Deacon on bass and Roger Taylor on percussion.

Except for sporadic appearances, most of the pieces from "Live at the Rainbow '74" have disappeared over the years from live setlists, buried by the worldwide mega-hits that Queen produced. But without a doubt this is an excellent way to delve into the band's beginnings and appreciate their most representative songs performed on stage.

4/4.5 stars

Review Nº 782

"The Miracle" is the thirteenth studio album of Queen and that was released in 1989. It was recorded when the band was recovering from Brian May's marital problems and Freddie Mercury's AIDS diagnosis. The album was originally to be called "The Invisible Man", but three weeks before its release, they decided to change the name to "The Miracle". The striking cover art utilized the Quantel Painbox, a computer graphics workstation for composition of broadcast television video and graphics, which state of the art image manipulation technology, to combine photographs of the familiar faces of the four band members into one morphed image. The back cover of the album went a step further with a seamless of the bands' eyes. This album was considered their most energetic and interesting release of the 80's since "The Game".

"The Miracle" has ten tracks. The first track "Party" written by Freddie Mercury, Brian May and John Deacon is a song built around disharmonic vocals and drum beat from the drumming machine. I really think that we are in presence of a very weak song, without any kind of creativity and imagination. In my humble opinion, this is one of the worst openings for a Queen's album, only superseded by "Staying Power", the song that opens their album "Hot Space". The second track "Khashoggi's Ship" written by Queen is another rock song like the previous one. Unfortunately, it has more in common with that song that it should have. So, despite be a little bit better than "Party" is, it's a very repetitive song also without any kind of creativity and imagination. The third track is the title track "The Miracle", which was written by Freddie Mercury and John Deacon. It was the fifth and the last song to be chosen as a single from this Queen's album. It was released six months after the album. This is a very good and interesting song that represents, for me, one of the highlights on the album. It's a very creative song with some very complex musical arrangements. If such thing existed, we could call to it a true great progressive pop song. The fourth track "I Want It All" written by Brian May was the song chosen to be the lead single of the album. This is a great rock song, with full of mood changes and some nice guitar solos. It's a kind of a classic Queen's hard rock song that satisfies almost all rock fans and represents the second highlight on the album, really. The fifth track "The Invisible Man" written by Roger Taylor was the song released as the third single of the album. This is clearly a pop song with a synthesizer bass driven. It's a very fast song and very repetitive too, so typical for that pop era. Sincerely, I don't like particularly of this song and, as happened with "Party" and "Khashoggi's Ship", it represents, for me, another weak point on the album. The sixth track "Breakthru" written by Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor was the song chosen to be released as the second single of the album. This is a good rock song with a nice gospel vocal overture, which rocks very fast, indeed. Despite I prefer other songs on the album, this one represents one of the best musical moments on the all album. The seventh track "Rain Must Fall" written by Freddie Mercury and John Deacon represents, without any doubt, one of the weakest musical moments on the album, despite it has some great guitar work. Sincerely, I don't like of this song. It has the power to annoy me a little bit and it makes me a bit nervous, really. The eighth track "Scandal" written by Brian May was the song released as the fourth single from the album. The song is about the attention that Brian May and Freddie Mercury received of the press, involving Brian May's divorce and Freddie Mercury's health problems. It's a great and brilliant dark song with some great musical moments. This is, for me, another highlight on the album. The ninth track "My Baby Does Me" written by Freddie Mercury and John Deacon is almost the same of "Rain Must Fall" and represents, therefore, another weak musical moment on the album. Both songs represent, without any doubt, the worst tracks on the album. But, "Don't Try Suicide" from "The Game" is much worse. The tenth and last track "What Is All Worth It" written by Freddie Mercury is, fortunately an excellent track. But, unfortunately, this is the best and only truly progressive song on the album. It's a song with great musical moments that reminds the good old Queen, which closes the album perfectly and beautifully.

Conclusion: I can't agree with many of my colleagues here that consider "The Miracle" the best Queen's album of the 80's. By one hand, I'm absolutely convinced that Queen hasn't released any great studio album in the 80's. By the other hand I'm also absolutely convinced that "The Works" is their best musical studio work from that musical era. In my humble opinion, "The Miracle" is a non balanced album that oscillates between some very good songs and some very weak songs. "The Miracle", "I Want It All", "Breakthru", "Scandal" and especially "Was It All Worth It" are the only real good songs on the album. The other songs are average or even bad songs, really. Besides, on the subject of merely of progressive rock music, I can't see anything really progressive on it. In my humble opinion, after the 70's, the only great studio album from Queen is "Innuendo". However, "Made In Heaven" deserves also to be mentioned as an album with some great musical moments. So, this is another poor Queen's album that doesn't deserve more than 3 stars, really.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

I can't say I was looking forward to spending time with this cd but this has turned out to be a nice surprise. I actually only got this a couple of years ago when my daughter was getting rid of her cd collection and gave me first crack at it. Might have got ten or so including this one. "II" is very consistent which I like. I feel like I grew up with this band but they were never a friend, more like an acquaintance that would frequent the same parties as I.

The two things that made this band great, the guitar of May and vocals of Mercury just didn't jive with me. And back then for me the lead guitarist and the vocalist were the two most important band members and I just never liked May's tone, he uses a coin for a pick. So gifted too. Freddie hits all kinds of octaves like Demetrios Stratos but in both cases I struggle to enjoy such vocal exploits. But hearing and loving many songs on the radio made me respect them I just never bought their music in real time. There were a few songs that I really disliked as well, again all from the radio for me.

And in the liner notes "...and nobody played synthesizer...again" makes me smile because I was all for no synths back then and to a point still feel this way. It was also interesting to see them show the cover arts for the single "Seven Seas Of Rhye" in the liner notes of this 1991 re-issue I have with four versions shown all different from Germany, The Netherlands, Japan and Yugoslavia. After that brief one minute intro track this recording starts very strong with four straight killer tunes. I like "March Of The Black Queen" on the second half as well, a strong top five right there.

As good as advertised, their best, and a solid 4 stars

Review Nº 767

"Made In Heaven" is the fifteenth studio album of Queen and was released in 1995, four years after the dead of Freddie Mercury. This is the last album from the band to feature vocals from him when he was alive. However, after Freddie Mercury's dead in 1991, the remaining members of Queen have worked with previously recorded vocals and piano parts that Freddie recorded before he passed away, along with newly recorded lyrics by the remaining band's members, to create another new studio album. It included two songs, with a new musical arrangement of Freddie Mercury's solo album, "Mr. Bad Guy" and "I Was Born To Love You", and "Made In Heaven". The song "My Life Has Been Saved" has a version launched in 1989, the compact with the song "Scandal" released on their thirteenth studio album "The Miracle".

Prior to its release, some critics thought Queen were cashing in. Instead, Queen wrote the perfect final chapter to an amazing career. Some fans were disappointed in the 80's and some new fans were introduced in the 80's. Still, "Made in Heaven" is an album that won't disappoint, whether you're a fan of the 70's hard rock or the 80's pop rock, indeed.

"Made In Heaven" has officially, eleven tracks. The first track "It's A Beautiful Day" written by Queen and Freddie Mercury is a nice song, where the vocals and piano sounds beautifully. This is a good song to introduce the album. The second track "Made In Heaven" written by Freddie Mercury was originally from his solo album "Mr. Bad Guy". This is a version which was given a special treatment to sounds more like a Queen's song. I think this is a better version than the original. The third track "Let Me Live" written by Queen is a rock ballad that features vocals from Freddie Mercury, Brian May and Roger Taylor. It was completed after Freddie Mercury's dead. It's a good song that sounds to the early Queen's sound. The fourth track "Mother Love" written by Freddie Mercury and Brian May was the final song co-written by both, and was also Freddie Mercury's last vocal performance. It's a good and beautiful song with sad and depressing lyrics that notice that he knew perfectly well that he was going to die soon. The fifth track "My Life Has Been Saved" written by Queen and John Deacon is, in my humble opinion, one of the weakest songs on the album. However, it remains a good and enjoyable song to hear. The sixth track "I Was Born To Love You" written by Freddie Mercury, was another song originally recorded for his solo album "Mr. Bad Guy". After he passed away, the band remixed it and added instrumentation, turning it into a fast rock song. This is a good and nice song to hear. The seventh track "Heaven For Everyone" written by Roger Taylor is a beautiful and sentimental track. Despite be a song taken from Roger Taylor's album "The Cross", this version sounds as a Queen's song. The eighth track "Too Much Love Will Kill You" written by Brian May, Frank Musker and Elizabeth Lamers is one of the highlights on the album. It was initially made for "The Miracle", but it was never released. Later, Brian May recorded it for his debut solo album "Back To The Light". This is a nice song that I like very much. The ninth track "You Don't Fool Me" written by Queen was one of the last songs to be recorded for the album. It isn't a very good song. It sounds too much to funky and disco and has nothing to do with the Queen's sound. It's a bit dated in our days. The tenth track "A Winter's Tale" written by Queen and Freddie Mercury is a beautiful song. It was the last song composed solely by Freddie Mercury and was recorded two weeks before his dead. The eleventh track "It's A Beautiful Day (Reprise)", as its name says is the reprise of the first song. It's a better version than the first one. It has new and different musical arrangements and a heavier rock piece of music at the end of it.

The CD also features two tracks that aren't presented on the data shed of the album. The twelfth track "Yeah" is an excerpt from "It's a Beautiful Day (Reprise)", where Freddie Mercury shouts "Yeah" that has no more than 4 seconds. The thirteenth track is a light track, where hardly we can hear anything because is recorded too much low. Its name was never mentioned, but some says is called "Mystique". It symbolizes the passing of Freddie Mercury to the Paradise.

Conclusion: I can see some parallelism between "Made In Heaven" and "An American Prayer" of The Doors, despite being two completely different musical proposals. As many of you know, both albums were released with some material recorded by both artists before their dead, and were released by the remaining members of both bands, after they died. Relatively to "Made In Heaven", and musically speaking, we are in presence of a great album, with songs like "Made In Heaven", "I Was Born To Love You", "Heaven For Everyone" and "Too Much Love Will Kill You", which did our delights, while we drove our cars and listened the car radio, instead of having to listen some kind of pop music without any kind of quality and imagination. So, "Made In Heaven" probably should be rated with 4 stars. However, I have a problem in doing that. In the first place, its music hasn't any kind of progressivity and we are on a progressive site. In the second place, I rated "Queen", "Sheer Heart Attack", "A Day At The Races" and "Innuendo" with 4 stars. Thus, it would be unfair to give the same rating to it too. So, the right thing to do is to rate "Made In Heaven" with 3 solid stars, really.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Almost at the end of the 80's, Queen released "The Miracle", their thirteenth album, in a scenario in which there were still rumours about a probable break-up of the band and incipient speculations about Freddie Mercury's health. An optimistic and emotionally intense album, adapted to the sonorities of those times, it shows the Englishmen cohesive and committed, and for the first time signing the authorship of all the songs together, in a demonstration of solidarity and unity in the face of the imminent tragic destiny that AIDS had in store for Mercury, the most immortal of mortals.

The festive spirit is present from the start with the extroverted "Party" and "Khashoggi's Ship", where the lively melodies are dominated by Brian May's powerful guitar riffs and Mercury's energy on vocals, a spirit that is maintained in the galloping and groundbreaking "Breakthru" with its operatic reminiscence and John Deacon's bass leading the melody.

The more serious and reflective vein comes with the hard-rocking "I Want It All", one of the band's last anthems with May again in the lead role, the conciliatory "The Miracle", the album's eponymous title track and its conscious anti-war pronouncement, and the denouncing "Scandal" and its critique of the sensationalism of the gossip press with May on keyboards, a heartfelt and brief guitar solo and Deacon's persistent bass lines.

And if "Rain Must Fall" as well as "My Baby Does Me" are failed expressions that don't seem to make much sense in the overall context of the album (the bonus tracks on the CD release, "Hang on in There" and May's solo on the instrumental "Chinese Torture" would have fit much better), the imposing, at times orchestrated and at times raspingly brilliant forcefulness of the superb "Was It All Worth It" with a confessional and heartbreaking Mercury, brings the album to a stupendous close.

"The Miracle", which didn't have a promotional tour due to the singer's illness, even though initially it was argued that he was tired and fed up with the album-tour cycle, was probably the best work of the English band in the 80's.

3/3.5 stars

Queen's legendary performance at "Live Aid" encouraged the band to return to the recording studios, and after two years of uncertainty about the band's continuity, they finally released "A Kind of Magic", their twelfth album, in 1986.

Best known for being the album that prompted what would end up being the band's last tour with Freddie Mercury and immortalised on 1992's "Live at Wembley", "A Kind of Magic" is made up of a handful of songs, many of which formed part of the soundtrack for the film "Highlander" and complemented by a few party rock songs, making up a hybrid mosaic that never quite came together as a unit.

The auspicious "One Vision", an energetic piece from start to finish, the festive and chanting rock of "Friends Will be Friends", the orchestrated and slightly cloying emotionality of "Who Wants to Live Forever" and the rocky forcefulness of "Princes of the Universe", the best track on the album by far, make up the album's most successful passages; and on the other hand, as a counterpart, the accessible "A Kind of Magic" of unthinkable vitality live, and tracks that do not fit in with the band's history and do not add much value, beyond the experimentations that Mercury was always so prone to, such as the soporific soul "One Year of Love" with sax included, "Pain is so Close to Pleasure" in Motown style, or the confused "Don't Lose Your Head".

Despite this unsynchronised duality, "A Kind of Magic" is a loveable album by Queen, who at that point in their career had already passed all the tests they had been subjected to for years, and hence its rating is always associated more with the emotional elements it generated than with an objective evaluation (if one can speak of objectivity in a matter of taste...).

2.5/3 stars

Freddie Mercury's undisguised intentions to experiment with the pop and disco sounds so in vogue in the early 80's found their initial point of intersection in "The Game", Queen's eighth album. A work that features the novel use of synthesizers, thus putting an end to the hitherto proud motto of not including synthesizers, frequently stated on the back covers or inner packaging of the band's previous albums. A detail that did not go unnoticed, and a clear sign that new winds were blowing on the horizon.

The agile and synthesized "Play the Game" serves as a starting point for a general tone that runs between playful and accessible rhythmic developments, such as the mega funky hit "Another One Bites The Dust" with John Deacon's catchy bass, or the entertaining rockabilly "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and Mercury's rudimentary guitar strumming, or the hurried "Need Your Loving Tonight" and "Coming Soon", contrasted with the splashes of hard rock vein of "Dragon Attack" and Brian May's intense riff and sinuous guitar solo. On the other hand, the band's ever-present mellow feel appears in the last section of the album, with the beautiful "Sail Away Sweet Sister" and May's plaintive singing, but especially with the fragility of "Save Me" and the luminous piano/guitar blend of Mercury and May, stamping one of the band's great ballads.

The release of "The Game" generated controversy and some grimaces of non-conformity among the more purist fans of Queen's early days, but at the same time allowed the Brits to continue exponentially expanding their refreshed musical approach to an increasingly receptive international market.

3 stars

The constant need of the brilliant Freddie Mercury and his bandmates not to repeat themselves and to continue exploring new territories, led them to leave aside the development of intricate pieces characterised by an endless number of superimposed layers of voices and guitars, whose maximum expression was the everlasting "A Night at the Opera" and, to a lesser extent, "A Day at the Races". With "News of the World", their sixth album, Queen focused on more direct songs, embracing different musical styles and less complex sonic textures, in a clear demonstration of their versatility and lack of risk-taking.

From the minimalist and powerful "We Will Rock You" and the timeless anthem "We Are the Champions", created to be part of the interaction with the audience at concerts, the album contains a handful of dissimilar pieces with no apparent connection, such as the sensitive ballad "All Dead, All Dead" sung by guitarist Brian May, the singular "Sheer Heart Attack" and its proto punk airs loaded with saturated guitars, the sexualised "Get Down, Make Love", the warm bluesy reminiscence of "Sleeping on the Sidewalk", the fun "Who Needs You" with its frugal Caribbean tune with bassist John Deacon taking charge of the acoustic guitars, or the hard-rocking "It's Late", one of the heaviest and most intense pieces in the band's catalogue, where May takes the lead role with powerful guitar riffs backed by Roger Taylor's raw percussion. And the collage represented by "News of the World" is completed by the sleepy "My Melancholic Blues", a meditative, jazz-influenced rendition, sung by Mercury alone accompanied by his piano, in late-night bar mode.

While the stratospheric success of the double A-side single ("We Will Rock" / "We Are the Champions") took most of the spotlight, the rest of the album's tracks maintained a considerable compositional level and instrumental quality. With "News of the World", a new era was about to dawn for the Brits: stadium rock.

3/3.5 stars

Review Nº 707

"Forever" is a compilation of Queen released in 2014 with tracks from almost all their studio albums with the exception of their eponymous debut and "Flash Gordon". It has one track from "Queen II", three from "Sheer Heart Attack", three from "A Night At The Opera", four from "A Day At The Races", one from "News Of The World", one from "Jazz", four from "The Game", one from "Hot Space", two from "The Works", three from "A Kind Of Magic", one from "The Miracle", three from "Innuendo" and five from "Made In Heaven". It has also two non- album's tracks and two Mercury's tracks.

"Forever" has thirty-six tracks. "Nevermore" is from "Queen II". It's a short nice piano ballad with tempo changes that appear a couple of times. "Dear Friends", "Lily Of The Valley" and "In The Lap Of The Gods..." are from "Sheer Heart Attack". "Dear Friends" is a short ballad with piano and voice. It's beautiful and sad. "Lily Of The Valley" is a short song with a beautiful melody. "In The Lap Of The Gods..." is a strange piece with great changes on vocals. It has a great piano work. "You're My Best Friend", "Love Of My Life" and "'39" are from "A Night At The Opera". "You're My Best Friend" is a beautiful and catchy song with nice harmonies. "Love Of My Life" is a beautiful and catchy ballad, probably one of the best I've heard. "'39" is a nice acoustic ballad with great guitar work and beautiful harmonies. "Drowse", "You Take My Breath Away", "Long Away" and "Somebody To Love" are from "A Day At The Races". "Drowse" is a nice song, but it's nothing more than that. "You Take My Breath Away" is a lovely ballad, a mellow piano number with a great vocal performance by Mercury. "Long Away" is a beautiful and pleasant song with great vocals from Mercury and Taylor. "Somebody To Love" has complex harmonies, great guitar solos and a nice gospel choir. "Spread Your Wings" is from "News Of The World". It's a nice rock ballad with good guitar harmonies. "Jealousy" is from "Jazz". It's a typical ballad with a great vocal work and a nice acoustic guitar playing. "Play The Game", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", "Save Me" and "Sail Away Sweet Sister" are from "The Game". "Play The Game" is a powerful, nice and an emotional ballad. "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" is a nice song that sounds to the 50's. It was a nice tribute to Elvis. "Save Me" is a great song with touching and beautiful lyrics, nice harmonies and a great guitar work. "Sail Away Sweet Sister" is an acoustic ballad, one of the best and most beautiful compositions by May. "Las Palabras De Amor" is from "Hot Space". It's a rock ballad nicely sung with good acoustic guitar work and a nice synthesizer performance. "It's A Hard Life" and "Is This The World We Created...?" are from "The Works". "It's A Hard Life" is an excellent song with a simple structure and a beautiful melody. "Is This The World We Created...?" is a nice acoustic ballad made for the acoustic guitar of May and the voice of Mercury. "Who Wants To Live Forever", "Friends Will Be Friends" and "One Year Of Love" are from "A Kind Of Magic". "Who Wants To Live Forever" is one of their most emotional ballads. "Friends Will Be Friends" is a beautiful song with good lyrics, one of the most well known Queen's songs. "One Year Of Love" is a nice calm slow ballad with a beautiful saxophone solo work and great string orchestral arrangements. "The Miracle" is from "The Miracle". It's a creative song with complex musical arrangements. "Don't Try So Hard", "Bijou" and "These Are The Days Of Our Lives" are from "Innuendo". "Don't Try So Hard" is a great ballad, one of their most beautiful. "Bijou" is an enjoyable song, mostly a guitar solo piece. "These Are The Days Of Our Lives" is an emotional song. It's the last farewell of Mercury. "I Was Born To Love You", "A Winter's Tale", "Mother Love", "Made In Heaven" and "Too Much Love Will Kill You" are from "Made In Heaven". "I Was Born To Love You" is a nice song to hear. "A Winter's Tale" is a nice song, the last song composed solely by Mercury recorded two weeks before his dead. "Mother Love" is a good and beautiful song with sad and depressing lyrics. "Made In Heaven" is an enjoyable thoughtful good rocking track. "Too Much Love Will Kill You" is a nice song that I like very much. "Let Me In Your Heart Again" and "Forever" are non-album's tracks. "Let Me In Your Heart Again" is a nice single with new arrangements recorded during of "The Works". "Forever" is a piano version of "Who Wants To Live Forever". "Love Kills" and "There Must Be More To Life Than This" are from Mercury. "Love Kills" is a nice song originally used in Giorgio Moroder's film "Metropolis". "There Must Be More To Life Than This" is a Mercury's song from his "Mr. Bad Guy" solo work initially made to "Hot Space".

Conclusion: "Forever" is a good compilation album of Queen that covers practically almost their entire career. Only two of their studio albums aren't represented here, "Queen" and "Flash Gordon". If in the case of "Flash Gordon" that is perfectly understandable because it's a soundtrack album, I cannot say the same about their debut. "Queen" is a great album, one of their best and most progressive works. It has many great tracks that could be part of it, such as, "Great King Rat" and "My Fairy King". Anyway, that couldn't be enough to put "Forever" as a bad compilation. Besides, all tracks recorded on "Forever" were all re-mastered versions. So, this is a nice starting point to begin with this band.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Review Nº 696

"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*)