I hope Lester doesn't mind, but I'll revive the Album Discussion threads with "The Game". I don't want this job permanently, so the floor is someone else's to discuss Flash Gordon or Hot Space next!! Same rules as Lester's by the way...if you don't have the album, don't contribute etc.
The Game:
This is my third favourite album - personally I think it's great and is the best of the 80's in my opinion. It is a very versatile album and features new styles for the group - funk, dance and hip-hop, as well as the trademark Queen roots of rock and ballads but is strikingly different in the production. Gone are the layers and overdubs of the earlier albums; I've always felt the sound is very minimalistic in as much as "never play two notes where one will do" and of course this is the first album to feature the band working with Mack and also the use of synthesizers....
Going through the tracks themselves...I feel there are 7 really strong tracks, 2 clangers and 1 average filler....the album gets off to a good start and the a-side is certainly one of the strongest the band ever put together. Roger's Rock It is a good track and transfers well live, and perhaps if it had been on either Hot Space/The Works it may have been a great success but it is overshadowed somewhat here...Don't Try Suicide and Coming Soon are the two clangers of the album in my opinion and although DTS has a very similar riff to The Police's Walking On The Moon it is not the same class. Brian's two ballads though help compensate for an otherwise average b-side, Save Me providing the band with a #11 UK hit. Why Sail Away Sweet Sister was never performed live I don't know, and would have made an excellent single release as the b-side to Save Me.
The only non-album b-side from this era is A Human Body....which I will elaborate on here...I think it should have been included in the album proper, and if you replace another one of Roger's tracks, Coming Soon with it it provides a stronger tracklisting.
In a lot of ways the album is a hotch-potch of various sounds and styles, the phomenonal success of Dust lead to the next studio album in some ways. Certainly for the older fan I would imagine The Game was the start of a slippery slope, but for me personally it is the best complete album of the 1980's and certainly marked a new era for Queen, in terms of sound, style and production.