Audio CD review:
Queen - The Game (+ Bonus Track)

Queen - The Game (+ Bonus Track)

Band: Queen Title: The Game (+ Bonus Track) Rating: Release Date: 17 June, 1991 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Play The Game 2: Dragon Attack 3: Another One Bites The Dust 4: Need Your Loving Tonight 5: Crazy Little Thing Called Love 6: Rock It (Prime Jive) 7: Don't Try Suicide 8: Sail Away Sweet Sister 9: Coming Soon 10: Save Me 11: Dragon Attack

Customer Reviews Gonna use my stack...it's gotta be Mack... 'The Game' which was released in June 1980 was first and foremost a pop album. Queen may have jumped the shark by the time the seventies drew to a close but they were still by anyone's definition a serious hard rock band. For many longtime fans, the record may have come as a disappointment. Queen had always been a pop band with a slew of hit singles but their albums contained hard rock bombast along with the pop ditties. 'The Game' was different, it seemed to go out of its way to be poppy and bright and very much for the 1980's. Evidence would show that American audiences made it (next to 'News') Queen's biggest selling LP, a true case of crossover appeal. Add this to the fact the album, Queen's eight studio record, contained TWO US number one hit singles and both songs were like nothing the band had ever done. "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" was the first, a rockabilly for Chrissakes!. . . but it works! Freddie's tribute to the stylings of the King, the song actually made its debut the previous year before the rest of the album was reoorded. John Deacon's "Another One Bites the Dust" was the other megahit. . . a funk song but it blew the band's previous attempt, Taylor's "Fun It", out of the water! Brian contributed another funk rocker in "Dragon Attack", a good but not great song and my personal fave "Save Me", a ballad, sung beautifuly by Freddie and like "Crazy" came out in '79. Overall though I'm not a huge fan of this record, mainly because it is TOO pop. "Rock It" is a perfect example of what I mean. . . great anthemic intro by Freddie and then Taylor starts singing and. . . awww man. . . its like new wave! Ruins it. "Need Your Loving Tonight" is decent but again too poppy. . . sort of the sister song to John's "If You Can't Beat Them" from 'Jazz'. Title track is good but. . . it's too sappy, only Brians's metal guitar makes the song for me, and the synths are cool too. Needless to say I don't play 'The Game' that often. . . to me it's the end of an era. . . . and Freddie cuts his hair and grew a moustache. . . oh well. Queen's first and best 80s album still rules 25 years on The Game album was a fresh album for the band as they had not recorded a studio album since 1978's uneven effort Jazz. Queen's first album of the 1980s entitled The Game was released in June of 1980. First, they switched producers and engineers from Roy Thomas Baker and Geoff Workman to one-time ELO engineer Mack. The album was recorded in Munich, Germany between the summer of 1979 and the spring of 1980. Frontman Freddie Mercury has three great song on this album starting with the opener "Play the Game" (a minor hit here in the US), the rockabilly sounding US #1 "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" (which came out months before the rest of the album) and the anti-suicide number "Don't Try Suicide" which is a great song with a powerful message. Drummer Roger Taylor had the hard rocking "Rock It (Prime Jive)" in which he did lead vocal and the new waveish "Coming Soon". Guitarist Brian May had the hard rocker "Dragon Attack", the ballad "Sail Away Sweet Sister" in which he sang lead vocal and the closing ballad "Save Me" which is a great song and a UK hit though the song was not released as a single here in the US. Bass player John Deacon contributed the mammoth #1 rock/disco hybrid hit "Another One Bites the Dust" (which was the reason for this album's huge success) and the US Top 50 rocker "Need Your Loving Tonight". The Game album was Queen's only US chart-topper as it hit #1 and stayed for 5 weeks and sold 4 million in the US alone (tying News of the World's US sales tally making it Queen's best selling non-compilation album in the US). This was also Queen's last flawless IMHO album until 1989's The Miracle. Highly recommended! . Another typically bold but watered down Queen release Unfortunately, wonderfully competent they may be in the art of pop songwriting, the band succumbs too often to their keen, even innovative (the beginning of the 2nd verse of Another One Bites the Dust is transcendent) take on the genre instead of concentrating on their more fluid, tender, and most importantly, well written and played ballads (always fronted by the brilliant antics of guitarist Brian May coupled with Mercury's vocal mastery) as shown with a few of the album's closing songs, not to mention the great intro song. 3 1/2 There is always something for everyone on most popular Queen albums. In between however, lies some of their more predictable and formulaic material (when they still released important albums). . You can see a complete list of all Queen discography, or go back to the Queen tabs