The ... Frame
Overall Album Score: 8.6 out of 10 QUEEENNNNENENENENENENENENENNNN!!!!!!!! ...Okay, I really need to figure out more clever ways to begin Queen reviews. ... Hmmm. Nothing's coming to me. Well, why don't I just start writing the review, then? The year was 1980. Punk was turning into post-punk; New wave was turning into synth pop; and Disco was almost turning into something cool. But Queen was still marching on. The Game is jus' ano'er Qu'n alb'm, pl'n 'n' s'mp'e. There's the overly fluffy but fun-to-listen-to ordinary Queen tune ("Play the Game," "Need Your Loving Tonight"), there's the monster-hit ("Another One Bites the Dust"), there's at least one novelty act ("This Thing Called Love"), there's the awesome-rocker where May plays Zeus with his guitar ("Rock it (Prime Jive)", "Coming Soon"), and finally there's the underachieving tracks ("Sail Away Sweet Sister," "Save Me"). All in all, this is a pretty ordinary Queen album. ... I might even want to call it the most ordinary album Queen ever put out. Other than it having that one song on it that everybody likes ("Another One Bites the Dust"), there's nothing anymore special about this album than any other Queen album ever did. Well, they finally start to use synthesizers, but that doesn't actually change their sound much ... Well, it would later on, but not on The Game. Very ordinary. Ordinary Blordinary Cordinary Wardinary Zordinary. Of course, at least up until this point in the Queen discography, Queen has ordinarily been awesome ... so bring on the ordinary!!! Overall Album Score: 8.6 out of 10 (Another solid awesome Queen album! Hooray!!!) Average Song Score: 8.8 (Good songs all around! There's nothing on here that decidedly FLOPS.) Album Tilt: 8.5 (Again, there are a lot of good songs on here! It's not so much impressive as an *album*, though.) Artist Rating: 8.5 (Queen's not really doing anything daring here, but they do allow some synths to be in their songs ... that's got to count for something.) Track Reviews Play the Game 9/10 This is an excellent Queen tune and very true to the established Queen style ... except there's synthesizers now. Eh ... I don't know what Queen had against Synths anyway. Synths are cool. ... This is really just another catchy, lighthearted Queen pop ditty that's fun to listen to. Dragon Attack 9/10 Draaaaagoooooonsssssssssss!!!! ... Hay, this is a pritty guud song! It's kind of a wimpy-like Led Zeppelin song ... you know, like the stuff we kept hearing on Sheer Heart Attack. ... Those good old days ... Another One Bites the Dust 10/10 Do you know how often it must be for the DISCO song in a pop album to be the suckiest, most banal, and most embarrassing song in the album? ... Well, Queen does pretty much the exact opposite! Fortunately, they don't fall in the trap of over-garnering this with SOUND and those stupid DISCO SYNTHS. This is a minimalist disco dance song. And, as you probably know, the bass-riff is legendary. This is a verrrrrry fun song. Need Your Loving Tonight 8.5/10 Ohhhhh, this pales oh so dearly compared to the previous track! ... It's NOT FAMOUS!!! ... Anyway, this has one of Queen's signature pleasant melodies and some of their totally inoffensive instrumentation. This isn't *excellent*, but it's pleasant. That's it. Okay. Crazy Little Thing Called Love 8.5/10 Freddie Mercury pulls an Elvis impersonation out of his Hat O' Impressions! ... This is another song that received a good amount of radio play (and we still hear this everywhere today). That gets a little bit tiresome to me, but I won't deny that this thing is solid. Rock it (Prime Jive) 9.5/10 Hey! If Queen wants to treat us to some nice ROOOOOOCKKKKKKKK, I won't complain! This song ROOOOOOOCKSSSSSSS (Queen style, that is). This is a pretty awesome-like rock song for you to dance to. I love the groove, I love the beat, and I love that gruff attitude. May's guitar licks were the perfect touch, too. And even the synths were perfect. ... At least with The Game, I'm glad that Queen decided to use those things. Don't Try Suicide 9/10 If you ever are thinking about suicide, then you know what song you can look up to! ...... Actually, I think this subject is a tad bit ... uhhhhh ... unusual for such a light poppy Queen tune, but whatever! After all, they once wrote an operetta about a mother killing somebody (among other things), and people loved it. Sail Away Sweet Sister 8/10 Light and inoffensive ... this song really isn't that *great*, though! ... It's easily the least inspired thing on the album so far, but it's really not bad. It's inoffensive! Coming Soon 8.5/10 Good europop! This reminds me of one of ABBA's or Wings' attempts at doing HARD ROCK at their best! This isn't an *excellent* song, but it's very fun, indeed! And May graces us with some more awesome guitar licks. Save Me 8/10 Sortuvan attempt to do an epic ROCKNROLL thing ... and it only half succeeds. The melody lacks enough hooks to make it enjoyable, but May's guitar licks completely save it! ... It's not a great song, but it's fun. I suppose. The album's over now. He sincerely wants to hear from you deranged peoples here! slb23@shaw.ca (Simon B.) received Dec. 11, 2004 Bud-a bom, bom, bom ANOTHER ONE DITES THE BUST! er... other way around... This was, or was one of the first Queen records I bought. All the way
back in 1998. This is where Queen began it's trend of, for better or
worse (most say the latter) going from Rock to Dance-Rock. (arguably it
really started with the song "Fun It" from JAZZ).
This album spawned two major American Radio hits: "Another One Bites
the Dust" a dance-disco-rock song, and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
an old 50's style rock song. Thanks to those two hits, the album was
their (to-date) biggest commercial success in America. I still really like
most of the songs on the album. (I still hate "Coming Soon", though).
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