Queen's 12th studio album was released in May 1982. I was just about 12 years old when I bought this LP for the first time. At this point I had purchased the 45 single of Body Language and this was the single that gives a taste for the new forth coming album from Queen and on the flip side was another new Queen song called Life Is Real (Song For Lennon). The single came out a month before the album, and I remember thinking that I did not like Body Language, but I liked Life Is Real, and so I had mixed feelings for the new release from Queen.
I mean it was hard enough for me as a music fan back then. I remember feeling real embarrassed to say that I was a huge fan of KISS back then, now Queen, my other love was making it even harder to display my record collection. KISS was not badass anymore, and now Queen have sold out because of their disco hit from The Game album from 1980. So Queen was cashing in, KISS was trying to find their 'eye of the tiger' again, 1982 was a hard year for sure.
Now it's 23 years later, and although I had some songs I couldn't make up my mind about then, I certainly can these days. This is surely one of my least favorite Queen albums. The worst song is ironically the first single, Body Language. There is nothing appealing about the song except the vocal performance from Freddie, and even this does not redeem the song from being awful. For half of the songs, Freddie and bassist John Deacon try to outdo one another with cool and infectious bass riffs. When I think about it, it's not a bad idea, I mean Michael Jackson did it a year later with his Thriller album and outsold every previous album ever. Unfortunately, it doesn't work for Queen, success wise. In recent interviews Brian said he had arguments with Freddie to make the song more unisex instead of homosexual. I suppose there was a compromise, but Freddie got even with the promotional video they made. Queen claims that they delved into the funk/black genre on this record. Wouldn't that mean that you would be able to dance toBody Language? The bass is really low, and Freddie is heard grunting and his heavy breathing is a bit embarrassing. The single climbed to the number 12 position on the pop charts, but then quickly dropped off. There is a bonus track at the end of the CD that is remixed by Prince sound engineer, Susan Rogers, who just seems to prolong the torment for an extra minute or so.
John Deacon's Back Chat falls into the same genre, but without the sex. This song actually works and isn't a bad song. The song does have a danceable beat, and although a lot of Queen fans will tell you that they hate this song as well, I kind of like it, relative to the rest of the album anyway. There is also a promotional video for this song as well, as the DVD Queen's Greatest Video Hits Vol 2 shows. This may have been common knowledge in the UK and other countries around the world, but we in the US have never seen this video until the DVD.
Brian's "disco" contribution is actually rocking instead of groovin'. Brian wrote Dancer, and his deep bass is replaced with regular bass and a mimicking guitar riff. Freddie sings a lot of this song in his high falsetto and during the chorus; the song shifts gears quickly into a heavy rock feel. The song works it out OK; it used to be one of my favorites, now I can't really listen to it.
Unfortunately, even when Brian May did get his way and Queen performed heavy rock, the music didn't fare any better. The one heavy song on the album Put Out The Fire is garbage. This is a song that speaks out against the second amendment of the US Constitution. This song was written with the then recent murder of rock legend John Lennon in mind. The whole civilized world was saddened and angry at such a senseless act of violence. Even the lyrics seem a little juvenile; "You know a gun never killed nobody You can ask anyone People get shot by people People with guns".
There was another song with John Lennon in mind that is included that is actually good, possibly one of the best on the record. Freddie's Life Is Real (Song For Lennon) is a song not about Lennon or his murder, but am attempt to write a type of song that is Lennon-esque. With Freddie's style of singing it is impossible to really pull that off, but the piano driven song could mirror maybe what John would do on the piano if you really stretch your imagination. In any case, the song is a good one, Freddie's songwriting shines here compared with the rest of the album.
Roger Taylor's two compositions are both good as well. Action This Day was to be Roger's bass guitar song on this record, but he went the Brian May way like Dancer, and used regular bass coupled with a mimicking guitar. With the piano accents and the effective sax solo thrown in for good measure. Roger and Brian were vehemently against this new musical direction that Freddie and John envisioned. Roger made sure that his bass-driven song would rock, and it did. The second song from Roger is Calling All Girls. This song is my favorite from Hot Space. This kind of poppy song sounds like it is from Queen's The Game album from 1980. This song is layered with counter melodies from bass, guitar 1 and guitar 2, and Freddie's voice. This song was made into a video that strongly resembles the George Lucas film THX 1138. Luckily, we in the US have finally got to see it courtesy of Greatest Video Hits Vol 2. Whenever I hear this song, I always laugh to myself because I think of a record review from Creem magazine from 1982 about this album. The last line in the review went something like this: "Only Queen could start a song with the lyrics 'Calling All Boys'". I thought that magazine was so funny, I guess that's why I kept a few dozen of their issues.
Freddie opens the CD with a great song in the "funk/black category" as Freddie says. Staying Power, for me is the only track along with Back Chat that really works. Staying Power has a very infectious bass and bass synthesizer. A powerful horn section compliments the funky rhythm of the song and really makes it rock.
In 1976, Brian May wrote a great song called Teo Torriate, it was the last song from the Day At The Races album. It was one of the best from the album, the fact that some of the lyrics were in Japanese added to its charm. He wrote the song after a hugely successful tour of Japan. In 1981, Queen had done a tour of South America that makes the 1976 tour of Japan look like a bag of peanuts. So, on Hot Space, Brian writes another bilingual track. It starts off like it's going to be amazing. The verse it beautiful, when the chorus comes in and Queen are singing "Las Parablas De Amor", the song just loses the magic it had during the verse. What does make up for it is the video from Top Of The Pops included on the Greatest Video Hits Vol 2 of this song. Freddie dressed in a tux looking dapper until you get to his feet and you see what looks like a pair of Converse. Oh that Freddie is such a punk, so rebellious.
This CD does have a first in Queen history. This is the first song that's credited to both Freddie and John Deacon. The song is Cool Cat, and although the title makes you prejudge it to be crap, it's actually pretty good. This song is one of the earlier tracks completed for the new album as it originally featured David Bowie on the track as well. After David Bowie rethought his contributing ideas for the song, he decided that Queen should remove his vocals from the tune if Queen were to decide to use it. In my opinion, the song sounds better without him on it anyway. It's another heavy bass driven track, but Queen are here lying back and snapping their fingers instead of shaking their collective booty. Brian's clean electric guitar chords and Freddie in all of his glorious very high falsetto, the song actually works in a jazzy sort of way.
The last song on the album, I used to view as a bonus track (as others may have also) because it was already featured on the Elektra release of Queen's Greatest Hits the year before. The song, Under Pressure features David Bowie, in case you didn't know. The song makes for a great collaboration, one of the very best I have ever heard. The five artists truly sound like one band, just with two lead singers. The song is a staple in classic rock radio formats, and why not since it joins two rock music giants. It has a sterile swing to the beat a la bassist John Deacon, and to me the lyrics sound like drummer Roger Taylor had a big say in how they turned out.
In my opinion, this album is for the mentally demented Queen fans like myself. The only song that you'll find in other places is Under Pressure, and that is on the Greatest Hits albums and the live albums. My suggestion for those little Queenies just getting into the band, make Hot Space your last stop on the Queen train. Once you've made your rounds and taken everything they did in, if you really need to hear the other 10 songs that you won't really find on any other Queen compilation, then stop here and see how they almost screwed up their career forever.
Queen Hot Space Released: 05/22/1982 Record Label: Elektra (1982), Hollywood Records (1991) Rating: 2 stars Album Tracks: 1. Staying Power 2. Dancer 3. Back Chat 4. Body Language 5. Action This Day 6. Put Out The Fire 7. Life Is Real 8. Calling All Girls 9. Las Palabras De Amor 10. Cool Cat 11. Under Pressure - Queen/David Bowie 12. Body Language (1991 Bonus Remix By Susan Rogers)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For more Queen CD Epinions from Scapp70 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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