JAZZ

The title was in retrospect ominous, but even Queen's most dedicated fans cannot have been prepared for this turkey. After the disappointing "News of the world", which retained many of the tenets which defined a decent Queen album but ultimately failed to deliver, the hope was that Queen would quickly get back on track. Unfortunately, although Roy Thomas Baker tried his best to produce something worthwhile, he was presented with some of the worst material the band had ever come up with.

Attempts at being light-hearted and humorous misfire especially on the opening "Mustapha", but even on the comparatively passable "Fat bottomed girls". This track was released as a double A side single with "Bicycle race", and will therefore be familiar to those with a passing interest in the band, but in truth it is an average pop song, dressed up in a 10CC sort of way.

Freddie Mercury delivers his obligatory ballad with "Jealousy", but even here you cannot help but feel you've heard it all before. I am afraid though that tracks such as John Deacon's "If you can't beat them" and Mercury's "Let me entertain you" show all too clearly that when the band went to the cupboard for ideas, they found it to be completely empty.

The song titles themselves give strong pointers to the lack of inspiration throughout the album, "Dead on time", "Dreamers ball", "Fun it", and "Leaving home ain't easy" all signifying that lyrically the band had nothing left to offer. Unfortunately, the music those lyrics are set to is equally poor, devoid of the intricate structures which adorned the band's classic albums. "Dreamer's ball" for example is a shuffling rag, with a simple, uninspired melody. I do have a soft spot for John Deacon's delicate "In only seven days", a brief light in an otherwise dark sky.

The penultimate track, "Don't stop me now" was a huge hit single and even today is one of the band's most popular songs. If you listen dispassionately though, you can hear Freddie yearning to spread his wings into evermore exhibitionistic areas. If you think about it, the song could have been sung by Julie Andrews in "The sound of music".

As you will have gathered, this album was a disappointment to me back in 1978, and continues to be so now. For me, it indicated at the time that the glory years for the band were coming to an end. Fortunately, Live Aid would come along some years later, and the band's career was put firmly back on track.

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