HOT SPACE

Hot off the multi-million dollar disco success of "Another One Bites the Dust", Queen took an unthinkable plunge into Disco/Soul over-ride. It was an incredibly bold risk-taking move for a rock band of their stature, and one that went terribly awry.

In retrospect, this isn't an entirely disco album. Roger Taylor manages to sneak enough "space" to explore his burgeoning new wave atmospheric interests on "Calling All Girls" and "Action this Day". Brian May's "Put out the Fire" has a strong rocking vibe. "Life is Real" may be a tepid rock ballad, but it is far from disco. And ironically, the new wave/pop amalgam "Under Pressure" (featuring David Bowie on vocals) is the album's high mark both in terms of commercial success and artistic merit.

In the end Hot Space turned out to be a Hot Potato that just "didn't work". Their next album would "work" much better as they returned to more traditional Rock territory. It would take them a while, however, to regain the confidence of their 'anti-disco' rock fans.

This is not a bad pop/disco album. As an item of Prog interest, it is a zero.