Queen
Jazz

THE REVIEW

Riding the wave of the global success of "News Of The World," Queen returned to the studio, and in just over a month and a half they gave birth to their seventh album, 'Jazz', emphasizing the trademarks of its successful predecessor, namely: very aggressive lyrics, arrangements that are more stripped-down compared to their beginnings, and performances closer to metal than to the glam-hard/rock they had accustomed us to.

The album, which a crude Rolling Stones article from '78 labeled as fascist, opens with the quirky yet original "Mustapha", anticipating by a few years the so-called world music so dear to the future maestro of the genre Peter Gabriel; the track turns out to be a powerful hard rock in an oriental key with an amazing Freddie both in vocal performance and in the tongue-twisting lyrics in the Arabic language. The rush of adrenaline from the opener does not lessen but increases with the aggressive "Fat Bottomed Girl", a hard rock piece with a country twist, with rather crude lyrics but sure to have an impact in live performances, as evidenced by the recent DVD "Live At The Bowl". We then arrive at the third track of the album "Jealousy", a classic ballad, a bit sappy to be honest, in the Mercury fashion, which nonetheless has the gift of softening up the so far heated atmosphere of the platter and preparing the ground for another of the group's very famous tracks, "Bicycle Race", a typical example of crazy rock that made history with the infamous-famous race of the nude girls on bicycles.

And now hold on, here comes what I consider the beating heart of the album, the triptych "If You Can't Beat Them", "Let Me Entertain You", "Dead On Time" written respectively by Deacon, Mercury, and May. The first is a fun hard rock that suggests joining the enemy when you can't beat them, the second is the manifesto of the Mercury philosophy in a metal key, where Freddie promises to sell us his body, his soul, and to serve us rock à la carte; while May showcases his guitar technique with one of the first examples of tapping, a technique later launched by Van Halen in his debut album which, incidentally, would be released a few months after 'Jazz'....

After so much force and aggression, Freddie brings us back to lighter tones with the tender "In Only Seven Days", telling us of an adolescent love that ended after just 7 days. The ninth track of the album is "Dreamer's Ball", the only piece, and a successful one at that, in a jazz style, where the band succeeds in recreating the cotton club-like atmospheres with a sensual and enchanting Freddie. "Fun It" on the other hand turns out to be a piece of electronic pop that foreshadows some 80s sounds, the utility of which, however, is not seen in the context of the work. Leaving Ainty features May taking on vocals in a nice, light pop song that makes a sure impact and precedes the true masterpiece of the album: don’t stop me now, a very famous track with a stellar Freddie on vocals and May supporting him brilliantly with his trusty Red Special. The album closes with Roger on one of his classic experimental tracks, more of that jazz.

'Jazz' is definitely my favorite album because it reflects Queen at what I believe was the band's peak, especially performance-wise, being at their apex and therefore free to play for fun without worrying about topping the charts, something which, by the way, they would achieve with this album; confirming this is the Jazz tour from which what would become one of the greatest live albums ever, 'Live Killers', was later produced, where Queen would reach a live potency perhaps never touched again later.

I therefore recommend everyone to listen to the album, especially those who think that rock is above all music of the body.