| qrock 10.05.2010 06:07 |
The Works was a very short Queen album with 9 tracks. A large number of people think that it's stronger than Hot Space and competes with A Kind of Magic to be one of Queen's best albums of the 1980s. Hit wise, the album was very sucessful and probably the strongest for many years with three top ten hits. Is The Works a good album, average or is it no better than Hot Space.! |
| plumrach 10.05.2010 06:32 |
Personally i like Hot Space there is nothing wrong with it but i would have to say The Works is better only because the songs are a stronger quality I like Radio Gaga Its a hard life I want to break free Hammer to Fall Is this the world we created Tear it up |
| dragon-fly 10.05.2010 08:36 |
Ok, let's go. Radio Ga Ga- like it. But never was so mad about it. Tear It Up- love the riff. It's A Hard Life- ok. Man On The Prowl- so-so. Never was keen on it. Machines- like this one too. Good potential. I Want To Break Free- like it. But the video is even better. :D Keep Passing The Open Windows- ok. Hammer To Fall- love it! Superb. Is This The World We Created- love it! Simple and brilliant. |
| The_CrY 10.05.2010 09:30 |
I most often regard The Works as Queen's worst ever album. The album is dominated by an aspect I definitely do not like: synthesizers. Now, of course Hot Space featured a lot of them as well and later 80s albums too, but at least they had some good songwriting to at least be able to look past the synths. The Works is a hit machine, and that is another aspect that I dislike to the fullest. I hate commercial albums. Not because they're successful, but because they are mostly simplistic and boring, much like The Works. All of this is of course just my opinion, but I don't think I'm the only one. Hot Space had character, The Works doesn't. Radio Gaga - Annoying Tear it Up - Unoriginal It's a Hard Life - Play the Game reprise, but sounds good nevertheless Man on the Prowl - Skip-worthy Machines (Back to Humans) - Not worth my time I Want to Break Free - Not as good as any other Queen song Keep Passing the Open Windows - Keep Passing them... Hammer to Fall - Rocks your socks off, despite its simplicity. Best track off the album. Is This the World we created? - Cheesy lyrics and forced. |
| Holly2003 10.05.2010 10:57 |
Radio Gaga - unusual opener. Nicely done. Very catchy. It's a Hard Life - A great little song. Has all the Queen trademarks. Man on the Prowl - Can't stand this style of music. Machines (Back to Humans) - Good idea, nciely put together. Not great, but not bad eitehr. I Want to Break Free - Lightweight, but catchy. Keep Passing the Open Windows - Perhaps the Queen song I listen to least. Not bad necessarily, just forgetable. Hammer to Fall - Agree, best track on the album. Is This the World we created? - Weird attempt to do a studio version of the live version of Love of My Life. Nice but forgetable. Overall, a weak album. Compare it to anything from the 1970s and it looks really poor. |
| master marathon runner 10.05.2010 12:33 |
The_CrY wrote: I most often regard The Works as Queen's worst ever album. The album is dominated by an aspect I definitely do not like: synthesizers. Now, of course Hot Space featured a lot of them as well and later 80s albums too, but at least they had some good songwriting to at least be able to look past the synths. The Works is a hit machine, and that is another aspect that I dislike to the fullest. I hate commercial albums. Not because they're successful, but because they are mostly simplistic and boring, much like The Works. All of this is of course just my opinion, but I don't think I'm the only one. Hot Space had character, The Works doesn't. Radio Gaga - Annoying Tear it Up - Unoriginal It's a Hard Life - Play the Game reprise, but sounds good nevertheless Man on the Prowl - Skip-worthy Machines (Back to Humans) - Not worth my time I Want to Break Free - Not as good as any other Queen song Keep Passing the Open Windows - Keep Passing them... Hammer to Fall - Rocks your socks off, despite its simplicity. Best track off the album. Is This the World we created? - Cheesy lyrics and forced. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Are you sure you actually like Queen ? |
| ANAGRAMER 10.05.2010 14:54 |
The Works - pretty listenable after Hot Space but nowhere nearly as original To me it's paint by numbers Queen style - with the exception of Radio Gaga, every song is derived from a previous Queen song (or Joe Jackson in the case of Passing the Open Windows) It's Queen on safe ground reclaiming the territory lost by Hot Space. Might as well have rerecorded GH1 with different lyrics! Wonder why it bombed in America - should've sold by the truckload!! |
| Sebastian 10.05.2010 14:54 |
IMO, 'The Works' competes with 'Magic' for being the worst album of the band. 'Hot Space' is a masterpiece compared to it. |
| maxpower 10.05.2010 15:59 |
Having not heard it from start to finish for some years now this is my opinion, it confirms what Queen became in 1980's a "singles" band which having 3 top ten UK singles backs this up & to add to only have 1 non album b-side from the singles is disappointing, I agree with Sebastian it isn't a great album, personally I think A Kind Of Magic is slightly worse as an album as a whole |
| mike hunt 10.05.2010 17:05 |
I have mixed feeling about the works....not a bad album by any means, but not great either. a weaker version of the game i think. My rating for this album. Radio ga ga- 9/10 stood the test of time tear it up- 3/10 a weak rock song IMO hard life- 10/10 Favorite on the album man on the prowl- 3/10 not a fan of this one Machines- 6/10 not bad, but forgettable Break free- 8/10 simple but catchy pop song Hammer to fall- 9/10 Good song world we created- 8/10 a nice ballad....better live. bonus track I go crazy.- 9/10 Should have been on the original album |
| JacquesDaniels 10.05.2010 17:38 |
I just have to voice my opinion on this one, because I think this album is way too underrated - specifically by people who call themselves Queen fans. "The Works" was amongst the first 5 albums I had thoroughly listened to from Queen, and I have certain nice memories of situations when I used to listen to it a lot, so I maybe a bit biased towards it, but I'll try to give an honest view on all the songs anyway. 1. Radio Ga Ga: one of those stadium anthems that made what Queen really was towards the end of their time with Freddie. Not very much to say musically, but the video is brilliant, and while the lyrics are definitely Rogery, they're not without a valid point. At least, at the time. Sounds a bit dated with the synth sounds and drum machine, but would you honestly want it to sound otherwise? 2. Tear It Up: while the riff is nice enough, it goes into my Top 5 Uninteresting Queen Rock Songs list. Sweet Lady is brilliant compared to this. The only two reasons I can think of this being here, instead of "I Go Crazy" is because this fits in better on the album, and there's a slight bit of (perhaps unintentional) linkage to "Radio Ga Ga" at the end of this one. 3. It's A Hard Life: in my opinion, one of Queen's best songs from the 80's. This is around when Freddie learned how to be musically more subtle, while everything else about it would be completely over the top. 4. Man On The Prowl: very underrated, but I always loved when Freddie went a bit Elvis. Sure, it's nothing spectacular, but it's stylish and nicely different, and don't you just love the arrogance of ending the song abruptly with the piano thing at the end? 5. Machines (or Back To Humans): meh. Took me a long time to get into this one, and I still don't really like it too much. Kinda sloppy occasionally, and the subject leads to some awkward rhyming. For me, the lowest point of the album. 6. I Want To Break Free: yeah, I don't like it all that much, but there's a reason for it to be a hit single - and it's not just the (at the time) outrageous video, although it helped. John Deacon knew how to get a song straight into the head of a regular radio listener. And the solo is just so cool, it's offensive. 7. Keep Passing The Open Windows: another strangely underrated song, which I always thought was brilliant. Just because it's a blatantly upbeat pop song with a bit of awkwardly positive lyrics, don't hold it against it, because it's a very finely tuned composition. I'd die a happy man knowing that I'd ever written a song with that brilliant a structure, and not berating myself for copying it from here. 8. Hammer To Fall: I know some of you are going to lynch me for this, but while it has the merit of being a hit song with a brilliantly clichéd stadium rock video, it's still a very traditional, and frankly boring rock anthem - up until the bridge part kicks in. But then, I always thought that the extra solo bits in the album version were just pushing it too far; the single version was beautiful in its relative compactness. The lyrics are nice, though. 9. Is This The World We Created...?: a nice try to make a companion for Love Of My Life, but that's all it managed to be - a nice try. Still, I think it's a better choice than "There Must Be More To Life Than This" to end the album. Anyway, it's not nearly as pathetic as what Phil Collins, Sting and Bob Geldof were starting to do with their careers at that point, and Bono a bit later. If you add "I Go Crazy" to the mix, there's another fine rocker, which just didn't happen to fit in, but it's surely more fun than "Tear It Up". AND NOW, let's take a closer look at the ten songs above. Some of you hate this album for the overusage of synthesizers, but in reality, there's only 4 songs here with synthesizers, two on which they are only used as a bit of a spice. Some of you don't like the lack of good rockers here - there's 3 straight rock songs and a couple that have a nice rockish beat to them. My only real complaint is that it lacks one good track to earn the title "The Works" as how they wanted the title to represent the album, and it would've been in the funk/disco category, as they had done with the last two albums and revisited that idea in a lot of different ways later on. |
| Wiley 10.05.2010 18:15 |
Queen had certainly become a singles band by then. Why else would a crap album like A Kind of Magic have 7 out of 9 songs released as singles in various countries: AKOM, One Vision, Friends Will Be Friends and Who Wants to Live Forever widely available, Princes of the Universe (Elektra territories), Pain is So Close to Pleasure (U.S., Germany) and One Year Of Love (France, Spain). Being fair with AKOM, it's got some great tracks in there, but it is hardly a proper album, if you get my drift. Back to "The Works", It's almost an insult that it's got only 9 tracks and that they left out "There must be more to life than this" and "I Go Crazy" in favor of "Is this the world we created?". It still "feels" like an album for me, though. I don't know, maybe it's the whole Metropolis - Ga Ga/Machines - synths vs. guitars -wheels/cogs theme. And it also has some album tracks that make it worthwhile to own, like Tear it Up and Machines. |
| ok.computer 10.05.2010 19:59 |
You mention I Go Crazy - they must have been to leave it off. When I played in a band years ago, we used to play a very striped-down version of it. People loved it - thought we wrote it, actually - but only because they'd never heard it anywhere else. Great tune, much under-rated. |
| Sebastian 10.05.2010 20:33 |
I think the first draft of the track-list was a better idea than what ended up happening. |
| Michael 10.05.2010 21:29 |
Radio Ga Ga - Great single Tear It Up - Just a riff; poor lyrics, sound incomplete It's A Hard Life - A Play the Game clone, like Life Is Real and Friends Will Be Friends - just Okay Man On The Prowl - I like this one. They tried to clone Crazy Little Thing - and were partially successful Machines- A waste of time. I Want To Break Free- Okay, but single version was better. Keep Passing The Open Windows- Good one. Hammer To Fall- Brian's best song on the album by far, but also not half as good as Tie Your Mother Down Is This The World We Created- Tried to clone the live Love of My Life, with little success - decent, but not spectacular All in all, I like The Works. It kind of brought them back into the Rock and Roll game after Hot Space, which really confused their fan base. IMHO, with Hot Space, they were trying to duplicate the success of Another One Bites the Dust across (most of) an entire album, and it just didn't work. It seems to me that they completed the first side of Hot Space, saw that it was less than successful, and tried to fit a few more traditional Queen songs on the second side. The Works took them back into the Rock and Roll arena, but, perhaps, not as thoroughly as they had hoped. They tried to rock out even more on A Kind of Magic, but, again, the material just wasn't strong enough to duplicate the success of The Game or News of The World. In fact, again IMHO, Queen really wouldn't challenge their classic period again until Innuendo - and even that album has nothing on Opera, or Races, or Sheer Heart Attack - or even Queen II. |
| Holly2003 11.05.2010 03:21 |
It could be Go Crazy didn't appear on the album because they needed an incentive for fans to buy the single. An unreleased B-Side is a bigger incentive than an album track. Queen really needed The Works to be a success, otherwise it was probably all over for them as a band (their own words). |
| Simon Brown 11.05.2010 06:31 |
Thanks to the beauty of iTunes playlists, I have my own "The Works - Resequenced" playlist, which i far far prefer. 1 - Tear It Up 2 - I Go Crazy 3 - It's A Hard Life 4 - Man On Fire 5 - Machines 6 - Let Me Live 7 - Man On The Prowl 8 - Radio Ga Ga 9 - Man Made Paradise 10 - Hammer To Fall |
| Rubbersuit 11.05.2010 08:00 |
The Works? At the time I loved it, but I would have anything Queen at the time. Considering it was released in 1984 - when a lot of rock bands lost the way, it weathered the storm pretty good. Radio Gaga is a strong song - yes I'm sick of it, but only because I've heard it 8 billion times. Same for I Want to Break Free and Hammer To Fall. The rest of the album is kinda meh. It's a Hard Life is a decent ballad, Keep Passing Open Windows is a decent Joe Jackson cover... I dunno, it's a solid 7/10 Queen album. Nowhere near the greatness of the 70s or Innuendo revival, but IMO better than Hot Space or the Miracle... and yes, they definitely should have added I Go Crazy. |
| Over the Field 12.05.2010 16:22 |
Radio Ga Ga: Very good song musically but the synthesizer based sound is so dull and lifeless. To be honest, never liked the studio version. I prefer the more "natural" and rocker live take of this song, and then it is more listenable in my opinion. Vocoder was an excellent idea though. Tear It Up: A very very good riff! But the song repeats it's "hook" too much. If they had pushed the song more further, the results would have been much better. Perhaps even a challenger to another arena rock song...We Will Rock You. It's Hard Life: It's ok. It consists the trademarks of Queen and is indeed a listenable ballad penned by Freddie. What else can you say? Man On The Prowl: One of my favourites really! I don't get it why everybody hates it. Very underrated. Perhaps not catchy as Crazy Little Thing Called Love but I like more the piano base than the acoustic guitar base in this kind of genre. I like oldies! The piano finale is one of the best moments of Queen's music (don't kill me, I'm a pianist). The (dull) guitar solo just extends the song too much - straight to the piano ending would have been better. Note the use of occasional triplets by Freddie, very effective. Machines (Or Back to Humans): The theme of the song is a nice idea but the song itself is boring. Actually one of the worst Queen song in my opinion. Never liked this, but I'll try. I Want to Break Free: I think that no-one can deny that this is a nice catchy tune. A radio song. The overall pop sound is not for my taste though. The single version is much better than the studio version. Keep Passing the Open Windows: It's ok actually. Roger's drumming work is very precise and admirable. The intro/pre-chorus is very catchy and I wished when I heard this song for the first time that it would have had more prominent role. Perhaps an another Don't Stop Me Now would have evolved from this? After all, average song I think. Hammer to Fall: This totally rocks! My favourite from this album. Brian's solo is stunning. Very enjoyable song in live too. One of the best songs from Queen's 80's. Piano or Hammond organ should replace the "candy-floss" sound. Is This the World We Created...?: I've always loved this one. Very sensitive and beautiful vocals by Freddie. Easily one of the best ballads of Queen, only second to Love of My Life in my opinion. Why everybody says "it's okay", it's fantastic! Queen never used a Mellotron as far as I'm concerned, but to this song it would have fitted magically. I Go Crazy: A nice standard rocker by Brian. Not Tie Your Mother Down but still a decent song. I don't get it why the album didn't include this one. My overall review is very critical and contains a lot of "what if...". Sorry, not my favourite albums. At least they tried. |
| We Are The Champions 12.05.2010 18:42 |
maxpower wrote: Having not heard it from start to finish for some years now this is my opinion, it confirms what Queen became in 1980's a "singles" band which having 3 top ten UK singles backs this up & to add to only have 1 non album b-side from the singles is disappointing, I agree with Sebastian it isn't a great album, personally I think A Kind Of Magic is slightly worse as an album as a whole When I heard this first time round it was such a "return to form" after the really experimental and change of direction Hot Space. As you say, Queen's first really "singles band" album of the eighties. They were desperate for a successful single after the Hot Space album. Not their best album by a mile but better than AKOM, but a lot weaker than Innuendo which is their best of the eighties by a mile. Their eighties albums are not a patch on their seventies albums. GH1 outselling GH2 is an example but then sequel albums are not as good as the originals anyway. Really an example of many supergroups over the ages - early works exceptional and then lesser, weaker albums over the yeras. However, Innuendo is a great album. |
| GratefulFan 16.05.2010 19:31 |
I'm a bad fan. I've never really gotten 'Hammer to Fall'. It's too poppy to be a proper rock song, and I find it wholly average. I mean it's fun enough, you tap your toes, you sing along, there's some cool guitar, but ultimately it's fairly forgettable. I'd never use it to try and inspire somebody to become a Queen fan. If that's all I had I wouldn't even try really. |
| mike hunt 16.05.2010 20:38 |
GratefulFan wrote: I'm a bad fan. I've never really gotten 'Hammer to Fall'. It's too poppy to be a proper rock song, and I find it wholly average. I mean it's fun enough, you tap your toes, you sing along, there's some cool guitar, but ultimately it's fairly forgettable. I'd never use it to try and inspire somebody to become a Queen fan. If that's all I had I wouldn't even try really. A forgettable song that's still played 26 years after it's original release?....and we're still discussing all these years later?....yea real forgettable!....lol. Though i do agree that the 70's rockers like stone cold crazy, tie your mother down are the real deal and are better overall songs. |
| tcc 16.05.2010 21:05 |
Can somebody explain what element makes a song a pop song versus a rock and roll item or heavy metal item ? |
| GratefulFan 16.05.2010 21:10 |
@mike They don't play it here. Not on terrestrial radio and not on satellite. I've never heard it. Brian wrote the book, slammed it shut, locked it up and threw away the key with TYMD. Love that track. |
| Winter Land Man 17.05.2010 01:41 |
I quite like the production on 'The Works'... sounds good to me. 'Hammer To Fall' and 'Radio Ga Ga' are still played on radio stations around here. I just wished the LP contained 10 tracks instead of 9. A lot of bands did shit like that in the 80s, and the excuse was "they didn't have enough room", but that was just a load of garbage. |
| mike hunt 17.05.2010 08:36 |
I guess putting down the 80's is the cool thing too do....that's all I hear are these clowns alway's saying how disposable the music from the 80's is, but why is all that garbage more popular in 2010 than it was in 1985?....millions of people still love that stuff. |
| Amazon 21.05.2010 13:06 |
Blue Roses Unlimited wrote: "I just wished the LP contained 10 tracks instead of 9. A lot of bands did shit like that in the 80s, and the excuse was "they didn't have enough room", but that was just a load of garbage." I completely agree. The album is far too short. mike hunt wrote: "but why is all that garbage more popular in 2010 than it was in 1985?....millions of people still love that stuff." Just because millions of people like something doesn't mean it's good, and vice-verca. Under Pressure is by far the most famous song off Hot Space, but I don't think it comes close to being the best song off the album. |
| Amazon 21.05.2010 13:36 |
GratefulFan wrote: "I'm a bad fan. I've never really gotten 'Hammer to Fall'. It's too poppy to be a proper rock song, and I find it wholly average. I mean it's fun enough, you tap your toes, you sing along, there's some cool guitar, but ultimately it's fairly forgettable. I'd never use it to try and inspire somebody to become a Queen fan. If that's all I had I wouldn't even try really." I really like HTF, but it's not a song I go out of my way to listen to. Certainly, when I put on The Works, I look forward to listening to it, but unlike other (superior) Queen rock songs, I never feel an urge to listen to it. |
| Amazon 27.05.2010 00:44 |
The Works is IMO Queen's second weakest album. It's interesting as I've had a change of heart about it. I used to love it, but now while I don't regard it as a bad album by any means (no Queen album is bad), I think it is extremely disappointing by Queen's standards. There are several reasons: Firstly, it's too short. It's not simply that it has less tracks than any other Queen album (other than AKOM), but it FEELS short. I listen to it, and I think to myself, 'is that there all there is?' It could really do with one or two extra tracks. Secondly, there aren't really any 'quiet' tracks (songs which don't sound like hits to me); Machines, perhaps, but that's really the only one, and even that one I could imagine as a hit. Thirdly, while it is extremely consistent, it has very few tracks which IMO represent Queen at their very best. It has a couple of tracks (IWTBF & KPTOW) which IMO are among Queen's best, but as good as they are, I'm not sure if they are among Queen's absolute greatest. Nonetheless, it is a good album, although not a great one, and I would classify it as Queen's second weakest. Here are my thoughts on the songs: Radio Ga Ga- A very, very good song, and among Roger's best songs. But I'm not a huge fan of it and I rarely listen to it in full. Tear It Up- fun but forgettable. It's A Hard Life- I've never been able to warm to this song. It strikes me as trying too hard; it wants to be taken seriously but it comes on far too strong. Man On The Prowl- the weakest song on the album, I've always regarded this as a poor man's version of Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Machines- I love Freddie's performance. Whilst this song feels a little dated, I think it's great fun. I Want To Break Free- I love it. It's arguably among Queen's finest pure pop songs. Keep Passing The Open Windows- My favourite song off the album. Apart from the 'love is all you need', I think it's almost flawless. One of Queen's best pop songs. Hammer To Fall- A really good, albeit not great, rock song. One of the best songs on the album. Is This The World We Created- Very nice. |
| qrock 09.12.2010 05:28 |
Now thw Works is a bit more fluent and free flowing than it's predecessor. However it's inconsistent and short of tracks. Radio Ga Ga - 10/10 - A unique song Tear it Up - 7.5/10 - Okay but a bit weak It's a Hard Life - 10/10 - Fantastic Man on the Prowl - 7/10 - The band knows that they doing a remake of Crazy ...... Machines - 8/10 - Quite Good I Want to Break Free - 9/10 - Funny track, but single version is better Keep Passing the Open Windows - 8.5/10 - Could easily have been released as a single Hammer to Fall - 10/10 - Brilliant track Is this the world we created? - 8/10 - Simple but effective track. |
| ole-the-first 09.12.2010 06:41 |
Radio Ga Ga — 7/10 (long and poppy) Tear it Up — 2/10 (really bad rocker) It's a Hard Life — 7/10 (overrated) Man on the Prowl — 6/10 (too close to Crazy Little Thing Called Love, but much worse) Machines — 7/10 (good experiment) I Want to Break Free — 10/10 (truely gem of the album) Keep Passing the Open Windows — 10/10 (great inspiring song, it's shame that this song wasn't released as a single) Hammer to Fall — 10/10 (great rocker) Is This The World We Created? — 8/10 (good idea, but very boring incarnation) I Go Crazy — 9/10 (great rock'n'roll) Hammer to Fall (Malouf Mix) — 10/10 (great remix) |