Queen
The Game

THE REVIEW

Stop here! A perfect album that will not disappoint expectations in an era where the audience meant something, unlike nowadays where it's not certain that those at the top deserve it, quite the opposite! "The Game" (1980) topped the charts in the UK and the USA and was a watershed between the rock or call them "alternative" Queen of the '70s and the more "Top of the Pops" or call them "commercial" ones. Not coincidentally, it was born between "Jazz" (1978), which was very rock, and "Hot Space" (1982), very disco. Past and future in a present that encompasses both = successful compromise. An album that summarizes the Queen in all their discography.

1) "Play The Game". It fits perfectly in the Greatest Hits of the following year, it's the piece that presents the new Queen with short hair and leather clothes, very American. A shock for the historical fans. The style, however, remains the same. A delightful ballad in which a flamboyant Mercury captivates everyone, men, women, big, small, emphasizing that "loving is playing". Despite the addition of some synthesizers giving us immediate clues that we’re in the '80s by now, it’s a timeless classic track (Brian doesn’t play the "Red Special"). And what perfection! There couldn't be a single flaw!

2) "Dragon Attack". What an anomaly! What a curious track! Yes, May perhaps is fascinated by some Chinatown and the meaning remains ambiguous "Take me to the red, green, black rooms" and myriads of symbols. Very rap-like, we will never have such a track again in Queen but it's their dance spirit becoming pronounced. A bit "time-filler" but totally appreciable.

3) "Another One Bites The Dust". THE NEW QUEEN! A piece of majestic dimensions, the best-selling track in the group's history. It breaks the market, reaching exorbitant heights in the United States where the very British Queen had not had much fame. John Deacon! He, the one who at the outset seemed like an incompetent author, is the total mastermind of the Queen dance turn, more than Freddie. The track is all his. It was also picked up as an anthem in the Vietnam War by American Marines. Immense Deacon, deacon of the Queen dance!

4) "Need Your Loving Tonight". Not very well known but once you hear it, you'd say: Oh hell, how was I not aware of it? Indeed so. A return to rock 'n' roll, again written by Deacon, a very naive and carefree rock 'n' roll like the original '60s that distinguishes the Queen, a group born with those genres 10 years earlier and that was nourished by them compared to the '80s rock revival groups that didn't even know what those three words meant… In the Queen (and in historical groups), it appeared spontaneous and legitimate, in new groups very bombastic and redundant.

5) "Crazy Little Thing Called Love". Freddie doesn’t stop surprising by writing this song in the bathroom while trying to mimic Elvis Presley's voice, one of his idols, without succeeding. Heavily influenced by his idol, but it was such an unusual and timely success (The Queen, in their early days, did covers of the Pelvis) that it is still loved by half the world. Straight to the point...

6) "Rock It (prime jive)". After the intro by a vocally superb Freddie, we have the feeling that he says to Taylor: You wrote the track? Are you obsessed with rock ‘n' roll? Well dear, carry on with it!... Surely there is nothing exceptional, new, or experimental like most of the album but we breathe a party atmosphere and this song feeds it even more. Sufficient but efficient!

7) "Don’t Try Suicide". A jazz piece with an explosive chorus and the classic Queen finger snap, it’s a lively advice from Mercury to not have mental hang-ups thinking the worst when everything goes wrong. Deacon arpeggios like a god on his electric bass and one gets the sense that all the Queen are having fun in this not very melodic but very positive song. More than on the musical side, attention should be paid to how Mercury loved life and didn’t invoke death, differently from many of his "death metal" colleagues and not only who unfortunately still "live".

8) "Sail Away Sweet Sister". At the beginning, I would exclaim: No, again with these moans? Instead, no because Brian still finds the right vocal texture to sing without sounding limp and inexpressive. He dedicates this piece to a girl, a sister he never had, and we must admit that in terms of theme it was not obvious at all. Full of emotion but musically it almost brushes on the standard of any ballad. May’s keen sensitivity and the usual "royal" arrangements save it.

9) "Coming Soon". Mercury/Taylor, yet another rock 'n' roll that like "Rock it" adds nothing creatively unusual but contributes to the gaiety of "The Game". Impossible not to get up from the chair and shake your legs, impossible. "Try to believe"…

10) "Save Me". After a romantic start and a string of joyful and crazy tracks, May closes the album with melancholy and a pinch of hope. Readers, "Save me" is one of the 10 most beautiful songs ever written by Queen. Those who don’t cry easily will cry inside. Those majestic Queen harmonies, that vocal touch of Freddie, and all of May’s orchestration will increase the sense of loss of someone being abandoned and clinging to the only hope of being taken back by his ex. May, little present throughout the album, concentrates almost everything in this song and the results are evident. Masterpiece!

"The Game" is a well-balanced album, not at rock or dance extremes but finds the right compromise between rock 'n' roll which it relies on the most and disco music tracks which this time aren’t isolated cases but well integrated. And the ballads, shall we say it? They too are slotted in the right places. The Queen with "The Game" didn’t make any mistakes and the success of the Greatest Hits and "Flash Gordon", to which all the Queen contributed, in many parts of the film, is especially thanks to it.