QUEEN: The Game (ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

We can have fun labelling the albums... If "Jazz" in 1978 didn't deserve its title, except for the splendid "Dreamer's ball", we can say that "The game" is relatively marked by the rock'n'roll of the 50s and 60s. Freddie Mercury was an admirer of Elvis Presley and it seems that Deacon and Taylor (but not May, strangely enough) also wanted to compose some songs in this vein - arranged in the Queen style, however.

And yet, we find the romantic charm of Queen, especially with "Play the game", a slow and more or less grandiose opening track. Just after this beautiful opening, two amazing tracks follow: "Dragon attack", a track both hard and funk, curiously signed by Brian May, with a big guitar solo but where John Deacon's bass is in the foreground, then the famous "Another one bites the dust", openly funk, signed by Deacon, who will then get his first worldwide hit. Even more than on "News of the World" and especially "Jazz", the band then moves away from the characteristics that made them famous: a certain taste for classical influences, grandiose choirs and electric guitar orchestrations.

The two following tracks figure in a rather rock'n'roll style: the catchy and sympathetic "Need Your Love Tonight", where acoustic and electric guitars are mixed together, and the now famous "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" with its irresistible swing, which bears the mark of the early Elvis. This time, the backing vocals are of a completely different kind, but here again Queen shows his mastery in this field.

Another novelty, The Game is the first album in which the band uses a synthesizer (an Oberheim OBX, we're told!)... We find it on four tracks, giving a little modern and especially orchestral touch. Queen then goes back to the discreet mention on their first five albums, where it is precisely specified that there is no synthesizer (just to draw people's attention to the fact that all these orchestral or brass sounds and others that are strewn all over the albums in question only come from Brian May's guitar!)

Once again, rock with the excellent "Rock it": a rhythmless, slow-paced intro that quickly turns into a fast, muscular jam with heavy guitars and a touch of synth. A typical Roger Taylor track (cf. his first solo album "Fun in space" in 1981) and sung mostly by him (Mercury only intervenes on the intro and the chorus). Taylor has done very well with "Coming soon", a kind of melodic heavy rock'n'roll, with pounding drums and multiple heavy guitars. Finally, it's Brian May who signs two of the best songs of "The game", some tracks with slow and melancholic verses and more symphonic choruses: "Sail away sweet sister", a beautiful ballad that he sings himself and then especially "Save me", which almost reminds of "Queen II", with a baroque side, the piano's comeback and a little dose of this famous "guitar orchestra"... A moving composition that the band will struggle to make on live at the time but which remains however one of its most magnificent songs.

"The game" is therefore a particularly contrasted album, probably too much so because it is also relatively short. It's an original record, very well done and endearing in the long run, more concise than "Jazz" but with fewer melodically weak or average songs. If you really want to like the 80's Queen, we know that we will have to show a great eclecticism and a rare open-mindedness... It was already the case before, some would say! - Official website

QUEEN

THE GAME

EMI

ROCK