Queen
The Works

THE REVIEW

Four men coming to terms with the past and the future. These are the Queen of 1984, four guys who come from a moment of total detour. Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor trying the solo path without success and the other two playing on their own. 1983 was a challenging year of seclusion from the Queen machine, a year that could also have spelled the definitive breakup of the group.

When I think of this album, I imagine these 4 Queen members facing those from 2 years earlier, like in a Western film but with a state-of-the-art revolver in hand. What to do? Shoot and be reborn or be overwhelmed by those four very dance-oriented, less Queen-like Queen members? The latter will shoot, they will move forward with their new revolvers, symbols of updated modernity: "The Works," works in the past and in the new generation.

1) "Radio Ga Ga". Deeply loved by Queen fans, much appreciated by 80s electronic music enthusiasts, known worldwide but not well-regarded by the usual rock-centrists. At the time, it was also loved by those fans who were disappointed two years earlier by the too pop and dance turn. Imagine the original idea resembled Schubert's Ave Maria. Roger Taylor wrote a song thinking of his infant son Rufus Tiger, who, hearing a perhaps too noisy piece on the radio, exclaimed: Radio Ca ca... And from there came that nostalgia for the radio of the past praised in the lyrics, that sense of a music that was changing irreparably with synth triumphs and which is the central theme of the entire album. Queen piloted a spaceship on scenes from the futuristic film, fittingly, "Metropolis." The world raised its hands to the sky, sang "Radio Ga Ga" and was illuminated immensely!

2) "Tear it Up". No, this time Brian May wants to be present on the record and presents one of the hardest rock songs in the repertoire. The entry is a sparkle of rough guitars with a rhythm like a circus whip that will tame the insane listeners. The lyrics are a collection of "phrasal verbs" centered on up! Need I say more! Not an exceptional piece but the strings of the Red Special know no rust...

3) "It's a Hard Life". Mercury's passion for opera doesn't obviously raise suspicions. Good! The beginning of Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci" revisited pessimistically confirms it. Delightfully melodic, this song was rightly included in Greatest Hits II because it is sublime. A ballad that has the most beautiful video in Queen's discography, set in the palace of luxury where Freddie is dressed incredibly glamorously and where the climax is reached when he sensually touches a girl's foot on the stairs. Everything the video suggests is contradicted by the lyrics. For the record: Not all that glitters is gold and Freddie Mercury in the last scene truly suffers for his torn meniscus. Queen didn't appreciate the video much, very strange and enigmatic. Freddie did.

4) "Man On The Prowl". Mercury. Here are the Queen we are used to, those who didn't fail with "The Game" but did, in some ways, with "Hot Space." Here's the typical nod to tradition we've grown accustomed to. A fast swing, not highly inventive, very reminiscent of 60s Elvis but the cool thing is that the track ends because the tape ran out!!! A traditional piece, an eclectic finale. Adorable but surely there is better!

5) "Machines (or ‘Back to Humans’)". May. Again, the combination of modern base/nostalgic piece as in "Radio Ga Ga". What does this mean? Queen were children of the 60s, dominant in the 70s and for them, it was a difficult compromise to prostitute themselves to extreme synthesizers and machinery, they who for 10 years had done everything manually. But to move away from electronics at that time as today meant moving away from computers and technology born precisely to meet human needs. Continuing to play 70s rock was just an obstinate refusal to evolve. This is a track that features a lot of electric guitar, there's a lot of Brian and despite being almost unknown, it is a majestic piece where Freddie reaches amazing vocal heights. Yes, the subliminal message was: "I don't like technology but I'm not so stupid and a Kaiser head to continue being a traditionalist... rock... as well. . ."

6) "I Want To Break Free". One of Queen's anthem songs. Even today, people wonder why this somewhat silly piece instrumentally speaking, with a central guitar effect and a truly pathetic included riff, reached so many people. The secret? Mainly in the funny video that sees the 4 dressed like women Telenovela style (1984, only then did many realize Freddie was gay but they clearly didn’t understand the irony of the song, written among other things by Deacon). And then the lyrics. Lyrics that offer freedom... to everyone to interpret them in their own way. Too commercial to also be a piece worthy of great music. It doesn't shine with its own light but was used by many libertarian movements at the time. The power of the music business.

7) "Keep Passing The Open Windows". Mercury also wrote this piece for a movie but nothing came of it. It was inspired by John Irving's "Hotel New Hampshire". Freddie considered this piece worthy of inclusion in "The Works." The rhythm is typically 80s but Brian ensures that a certain rock sound is guaranteed together with piano and some very veiled synthesizers. It's conceptually divided into a short part and a fast one; it seems like two pieces glued together. A piece that invites you to never give up for a moment and to "continue passing by open windows." 180 km/h of good humor!

8) "Hammer to Fall". Here's May again with one of Queen's most rock and most beautiful songs, a typically grandeur Queen song with that Freddie with a scratchy voice like never before (he smoked a lot at the time). Taylor and May’s backing vocals with amazing effectiveness. The central part features a nice May solo and Roger break, with the 1991 version shorter but no less interesting with a higher Freddie vocal dynamic. Sometimes dry, sometimes full, melodic and hard, musically off-kilter, and profound in the lyrics (hammer to come down... wars...), exceptional, right? Would these be the commercial Queen? No, they are the usual clever masters of the past. A+!

9) "Is This The World We Created...". Listen to it, listen to it and you'll tell me! A song so simple and so deep, so evocative to make the whole world reflect, yes, that world that saw in 1985 the band of the decade, Queen, the band that left Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, David Bowie and Geldof included breathless who judged them "the Live Aid band." This track closed the "Live Aid"! Queen didn’t like to do much moralizing and it's not strange that the piece under discussion originates from May’s pen, the only one capable of tackling truly deep themes in Queen compared to Mercury’s genius/unpredictability or Deacon and Taylor's everyday reflection. A song that will be relevant as long as the human race exists on the world.

"The Works" is a great album, the grandchild of a wise grandfather ("The Game") and the child of an overly subversive father ("Hot Space") and the wisdom lay precisely in recovering that lost harmony in the group and proposing an album neither too commercial nor too bombastically rock, just like "The Game." The grandfather’s lesson served well. It is with "The Works" that Queen reached those nations where rock didn’t belong (see Italy and their appearance even in San Remo) and also that portion of non-rock listeners who, thanks to them, would get closer to their rock and not just rediscovering past albums. An album not as complex and articulated as in the beginning but more intelligent and significant than it seems...