Zack Hartman

How much a listener will like this album will largely depend on expectations: if you only like the hard rock Queen of "We Will Rock You", "Stone Cold Crazy" and "Tie Your Mother Down", this one's probably not for you. But.... if you like poppier Queen like "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and especially more funk/dance oriented stuff like "Another One Bites The Dust" (or at least consider yourself open to that kind of music), this IS a good album. After the success of "Another One Bites The Dust" (written by John Deacon) and Freddie Mercury spending a lot of time in late night dance clubs in both New York and Munich, Mercury wanted Queen to have more danceable music that could fit into those kinds of places. So he pushed hard for the band to have more danceable songs like "Another One Bites The Dust" on their next album. And while none of the "Hot Space" songs are as accessible as that one or had anywhere near the chart success, they are (mostly) good songs: "Staying Power" opens and sets the tone, with Roger Taylor's thundering drums replaced with a Linn drum beat, Brian May's guitars subbed out for some "hot and spacey" horns and John Deacon on a synth bass. So it's not your 70's 'rock and roll' Queen for sure, but taken for what it is, it's a great track. And same for the next 2 tracks, "Dancer" and "Back Chat" (although Brian May returns and has some stellar guitar work on those two). "Body Language" is probably the most "Freddie" song on this album and most successful attempt at getting the band played in the dance clubs like he wanted, but it's very cheeky and sexual and turned off a lot of Queen fans who wanted a return to more rock-oriented material. For what it is, though, it's a fun song (the video was banned by MTV). Side 1 (or the first half of the CD), closes with Roger Taylor's "Action This Day", which is the only song so far that's not dance-oriented. Not quite straight "rock" either, so not sure what you'd call it, but for my money it's the weakest track on the album. Not terrible, but rather forgettable.... Side 2 is more of a mixed bag with band moving away from dance music and more towards straight rock and pop. The opening song is the album's only rocking song, Brian May's "Put Out The Fire" (which did receive some radio airplay, but was never released as a single). From there, we get a couple of nice ballads (Freddie's song for John Lennon, "Life is Real" and Brian May's "Las Palabras de Amor"). The poppy "Calling All Girls" is rather simple and straightforward, but catchy and also featured on MTV upon its initial release. The slow-grooving "Cool Cat" is also not what most would expect from Queen, but is underrated imo. Freddie delivers one of his best vocals (falsetto) and the fat John Deacon bass line and clean funky guitar demonstrate that Queen truly could play any style of music they wanted and do it effectively. The album closes with the great Queen/Bowie collaboration "Under Pressure", which feels kind of 'tacked on' since it had been released six months before as a single and was also on Queen's first "Greatest Hits" album, but it's a welcome addition. All in all, this is not one of Queen's BEST albums that I'd rate up there with "Sheer Heart Attack," "Night At The Opera", "News of the World" or "Jazz", but it's not nearly their worst either and doesn't deserve the bad rap it seems to get. If you can appreciate more than just rock music, definitely check it out!!