Customer Reviews

Works

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After the release of the Hot Space album in 1982, Queen knew that their next album had to be a good one, as Hot Space was poorly received by even their biggest fans. Some fans even got very picky and wanted Queen to reinstate their "no synthesizer" policy, which was lifted in 1980 with "The Game."... ... ...

This album gives you a taste of Queen both new and old. "It's A Hard Life" could have well fit on albums such as News Of The World or Jazz, while "Radio Ga Ga" and "Machines" showed everyone that Queen were just as hip to new sounds as anybody.

The album opens with "Radio Ga Ga," probably one of the best songs of the 80s. Ironically, this song with the sound of those others being played on MTV is about how much the singer misses listening to the radio, and how MTV has replaced the radio. Then, things get rocking with Brian's anthemic "Tear It Up," a track very reminiscent of "We Will Rock You," giving the listener an adrenaline rush and a musical high. Next is a track that is vintage Freddie Mercury from top to bottom. "It's A Hard Life" has everything one loves about Freddie. It is a piano ballad ala Somebody To Love with plenty of multilayered vocals and and excellent May guitar solo, yet it still rocks you. Following this then-current classic is a catchy rockabilly track. "Man On The Prowl" is somewhat reminiscent of Elvis Presley, except with a little more modern rock mixed in, as was their 1980 hit "Crazy Little Thing Called Love." The next track is not one of the more popular Queen tracks, but "Machines" is very very cool. All the synthesizers fit the lyrics perfectly. If the Terminator movies were made back then, one could picture a pretty cool video based on the movie being used for this synth track. There are even vocals sung through a vocoder, to simulate the voice of a robot. Next is a song, which is the one disappointment on this album. The single release of "I Want To Break Free" had a lot happening in it, and clocked in at a little over four minutes. On the album, the song is stripped down and a lot shorter. It seems to much like something is missing, though the song itself is quite enjoyable. Next is "Keep Passing The Open Windows," a Freddie track that sounds both old and new at the same time, and would have been fitting for "The Game." Up next is one of Queen's classic hard rock songs, "Hammer To Fall," this Brian May-penned track will rock you (no pun intended) and make you bang your head. Finally, closing the album is a track reminscent of the live performances of "Love Of My Life," which just featured Freddie at the microphone while Brian played acoustic guitar. "Is This The World We Created" is a duet of Freddie and Brian as they are on the live performances of "Love Of My Life," and the track was often played after "Love Of My Life" at concerts during all future tours.

Another positive thing about this CD release is the bonus tracks are actually quite good. Though I couldn't care less about the extended versions of "Radio Ga Ga" and "I Want To Break Free," "I Go Crazy," the B-side to "Radio Ga Ga," just rocks. It should have been included on the album's original release, it's a great rocker that fits in perfectly with the rest of the album.

In conclusion, The Works is an absolutely fabulous album. Not only did it completely make up for the "mistake" the band made with Hot Space, it also provides a great variety of everything Queen was and would be in the future. Excellent piece of work, recommended to all music fans and musicians everywhere. A true showcase of the many talents of one of the greatest bands to ever grace the planet.

Queen is my absolute favorite band on the planet and I am totally obsessed (as also with Freddie Mercury). I have a total of 12 Queen albums, and I plan to get more. I just picked up this one along with "A Kind Of Magic", about 3 weeks ago, and to be quite honest from listening to the song clips, I didn't think I was going to like this, along with the rest of Queen's 80's and 90's catalog...boy was I wrong. I knew the song's "Radio Ga Ga", "Hammer To Fall", and "I Want To Break Free", from both "Queen's Greatest Hits", and "Classic Queen".

All of those songs, plus those 2 albums are fabulous. But the rest of the tracks literally are just as fabulous, if not even more. "Tear it Up", is ultra heavy, and was written by Brian May. "It's A Hard Life", another great song, written by Mr. Mercury. "Man On The Prowl", is reminiscent of "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", which Elvis-like rockabilly. "Machines", sounds like 80's incorporated music. "Is This The World We Created", is soft, melodic and beautiful.....But, my absolute,favorite track on the whole entire album has to be "Keep Passing The Open Windows", written by the man himself, Freddie Mercury. This song is reminiscent of "Bohemian Rhapsody", (don't believe me?, listen to it yourself)and basically the Queen we know from the mid 70's, featuring Freddie's elegant, heartfelt vocals against his elegant piano playing, progressions containing pop/hard rock, choiral overdubs, guitar solos, etc, to make it short, the perfect ingredients to a perfect song. The lyrics talk about feeling lonely and thinking about the end, which I think everyone has felt, or will feel some time in their life.

I hear alot of things like Brian May is the best songwriter, blah, blah,. Well, I say FORGET THAT. 2 things. I think the people who admire Brian May that way are the ones who love Queen mainly for the hard rock influence he had on the band, even though he's written soft one's too. Secondly, their is no better of the 2 because they both were strong songwriters, and their songwriting styles you really can't compare because they were kind of different to begin with.

But, I on the other hand love Queen mainly for Freddie Mercury, and his influence on the band. His elegance, his eccentricities, his operatic and dramatic tendencies and his indulgence, all heard in his influence of Queen's music. I guess the moral of this this story is: to each his own.

Anyway, this is an excellent album and Queen was, is, and always will be my favorite band.

Thanks.

'The Works' kicks off with Roger Taylor's addictive masterpiece, 'Radio Ga Ga', a nostalgic and catchy ode to the days before video. It's followed by an average rocker by Brian May, 'Tear It Up'. 'It's A Hard Life' and 'Man On The Prowl' are both by Freddie Mercury, the former being a classic rock/pop hit, the latter echoing 1979's Elvis-inspired 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love'. The fifth track, a May/Taylor collaboration, is the sorely under-rated 'Machines'. Great lyrics, great music. Next up we have John Deacon's utterly brilliant 'I Want To Break Free'. (Love the video...) 'Keep Passing The Open Windows' is Mercury again. Originally recorded for a movie project, it's a high point of the album with stunning lyrics and a beautiful melody. 'Hammer To Fall' is another hard rock song by Brian May, completely surpassing his earlier contribution, and is - well, brilliant. The album ends with 'Is This The World We Created...?', another masterpiece, this time a thought-provoking collaboration between Mercury and May. Some of Queen's best work is on this album, although bear in mind that this is coming from someone who prefers their late 80s/early 90s work to the earlier 70s stuff.

Although Queen made a fantastic turn into the 80s decade with their hit album "The Game", their disco-funk album "Hot Space" left them off charts in the United States and other long time fans skeptical. "The Works" marks the hit pop/rock band's return to the top in the UK, featuring several classic hit singles. However, as a full length studio album, "The Works" does not quite stand up Queen's best material. Read on for more.

The album opens with probably the best song Roger Taylor ever composed in his time with Queen. "Radio Ga Ga" is a beautiful, synth-driven pop classic which showcases Queen's ability to still write pop hits. "Tear it Up" is simply an all-out 2 minute rocker, and is well done. "It's A Hard Life" is maybe Freddie Mercury's best contribution to this album, and he pioneers it with his superb vocals and infectious piano line. "Man on the Prowl" is a folk/rockabilly song which is lacks a catchy melody. "Machines" is a little too ridiculous of a song, but has its moments. "I Want to Break Free" was a huge hit off this album, purely a fun pop tune. "Hammer to Fall" is an excellent rock song from Queen, showing that Brian May could still rock out with his guitar anytime he wanted to. "Is This the World We Created..." is a haunting melody, backed beautifully by Mercury's gorgeous vocals. "I Go Crazy" is another solid rocker to close and the remixes are decent.

Overall, this is a pretty solid studio album by Queen, and skyrocketed them back on top of the charts in the UK. Featuring a few hit singles, this marked Queen's use of synthesizers excessively. Although it does not stand up to their 70s albums, this will be a hit for any diehard Queen fan. Recommended.

I have to admit, I didn't want to like this album after their half-hearted "Hot Space" album. However, "The Works" has such varieties in style it's difficult not to love it. It has some hard-hitting rock-n-roll songs like "Hammer to Fall" and "Tear It Up" as well as some very well done techno songs like "Radio Ga Ga" (every MTV Gen Xers' theme song) and "Machines (Or Back to Humans)". My favorite song is Mercury's incredible torch song "It's a Hard Life", which rivals some of his earlier love songs from "A Day at the Races". Love 'em or hate 'em, Queen was a one-of-a-kind group that refused to be cheaply categorized by pop radio. Truly one of the great ones!

After dissapointing Hot Space and FlashGordon albums, Queen produced classic 80s sound and very much queen pop with The Works album. "Radio Ga Ga", the opening song, hit number one in 17 different countries and was a concert favorite. Couple of Brian May standard rockers are ofcourse included with the political "Hammer to Fall" and party time "Tear it Up". Typical Queen ballad included ofcourse with "It's a Hard Life" and a very sentimental May/Mercury written "Is this the world we created?" The classic off this album is without a doubt "I Want to Break Free". A song used countless times on America TV and British TV and even Russian TV where I was born. Recently used heavily in a Coca-Cola commmercial, and everyone always recognizes this vintage 80s classic.

IF YOU HAVE HEARD FREDDIE SING IS THIS THE WORLD CREATED AND REALLY LISTEN TO THE WORDS YOU CAN FEEL THE LOVE HE HAD FOR ALL.

QUITE THE BEST ALBUM FOR VARIETY. REAL ROCK AND ROLL WITH FEELING

This is a back-to-form album for Queen in the '80s. I bought it the year it was released. While it is a product of its times (1983) with synths and big electronic drums, I have to say it has aged pretty well and it sounds as big and good now as back then.

Not easy for Queen to keep their superstar status in the mid-'80s. the tastes were changing and the ecleticism of the band, which worked to their advantage in the '70s, became a liability in the '80s. At least in the USA, where Queen failed to sustain the massive fan base they kept in Europe and elsewhere. Not heavy enough for the Van Halen fan, not pop and cute enough for the Duran Duran crowd, plus I suspect Queen suffered a bit from homophobic bias in the USA (the flamboyant visuals of the video clips of the era were Ok for Europe but were poorly received in America).

The album itself is a fine effort and contains a pretty strong batch of songs that cover the territory that Queen did best, from bad-ass hard rock ("Tear it up", "Hammer to Fall") to beautiful, dynamic ballads ("It's a Hard Life") to catchy power-pop ("Radio Gaga", "I want to break free"). "Man on the Prowl" is on the same rockabilly vein of "Crazy Little Thing...". Two tracks that are not as well known but are fine moments of the band: "Machines" is a hard rock meets electronica sci-fi epic with great drums and guitar and an interesting theme. Good joint effort of May and Taylor. And "Keep Passing the Open Windows" is a fine track, penned by Mercury and with a beautiful piano, but nicely augmented by a muscular performance of the band. Finally, their first and only studio effort at a true acoustic guitar + voice tune, the melodic "Is this the world we created?"

The individual performances are top-notch, with the voice of Mercury (now the main singer in all tunes) and the distinctive guitar of May being the obvious highlights, but Taylor and Deacon play a rock-solid rhythm section, either on a traditional rock format or via electronics.

Favorites? Hard to say, the four singles from the album are truly memorable and have a lot of Queen magic. I think Mercury's finest singing is on "It's a Hard Life" and May's "Hammer to Fall" is a serious contender for best rock track of the band.

En 1983, Queen pasaba por un mal momento, con el fracaso de "Hot space", y el decaimiento definitivo en Estados Unidos, tanto por fans con por criticas especializadas. Sin embargo, Queen vuelve a la gloria, principalmente en Europa y America (excepto E.E.U.U.) con este magnifico album que fue "The Works".
Temas como "Radio ga-ga", "I want to break free" e "It's a hard life" fueron grandes exitos del grupo. Otros como "Hammer to fall", "Tear it up" y "Is this the world we created" son temas totalmente inolvidables para los que conocemos a Queen. Otros como "Keep passing the open windows" y "Machines", temas menores pero no dejan de ser interesantes. Tal vez el unico punto bajo sea "Man on the prowl" ya que es una copia innecesaria de "Crazy little thing called love". Pero de todas maneras, un gran disco, gran regreso despues del traspie de "Hot space", tal vez algo menor que algunos discos historicos.

En la edicion de Hollywood Records, viene como bonus track, el tema "I go crazy", tema muy rockero y potente, que deberi?a haber estado sin duda en la edicion original.

Like so many Queen albums, you usually hear one song before you hear the rest. Radio GaGa was my first absolute favorite Queen song ever, and one of the first that I knew by heart. Then I went and listened to the rest of the album and fell instantly in love. Seeing Radio GaGa in concert is truly mezmorizing. The entire audience punches the air and claps in unison. That is the influence that a song can have on thousands of people at once. It is truly a great album, with highlights including Hammer to Fall, with it's great anti-nuclear message and rippin guitar from Brian, Is This the World We Created, the gentle, simple song penned by the winning combo of Brian and Freddie, and I Want to Break Free, with it's contraversial video featuring the entire band in drag for one half, and a stunning ballet piece in the other. I can't imagine a Queen collection or even a rock collection being complete with out it.