Queen - Hot Space (1982)

Tracklist:
1. Staying Power
2. Dancer
3. Back Chat
4. Body Language
5. Action This Day
6. Put Out the Fire
7. Life is Real (song for Lennon)
8. Calling All Girls
9. Las Palabras de Amor
10. Cool Cat
11. Under Pressure


The Synths Strike Back – 6,4/10

And finally we’ve come to Queen’s most disliked album of all time, Hot Space. Nevertheless, it did contain one of their bigger hits, “Under Pressure” featuring David Bowie. The album is mostly disliked for its break with the traditional Queen way of making music. It is dominated by disco influences and synthesizers and sounds very different from any other Queen album. Actually I do understand that Queen wanted to experiment for once. You can’t possibly do the same or at least try to do the same all the time. Risks are needed and sometimes a band goes for it. Mostly I like such risks like on the Scorpions’ Eye II Eye, Megadeth’s Risk or Judas Priest’s Nostradamus, but I’m not so sure whether I’m all that happy with Hot Space.

It seems the terror is mainly hidden on the first few tracks of the album. “Staying Power” right away starts with this synth-bass line and a Freddie Mercury who is quite enjoying himself. Actually it’s him who gives most boring songs on here a good lift-up with his ‘yeah’ and ‘woo!’ in between. Synth-based themes come back in the May-penned “Dancer” although this one tends to become more of a rocker when the solo begins. Deacon strikes us with his “Back Chat”, which contains friendly synth-pop with another soaring solo. Apart from “Staying Power”, I could say these tracks are quite enjoyable. They’re perhaps different from anthems like “Fat Bottomed Girls” or “Love of my Life”, but certainly are charming in a way. Especially “Dancer” invites listeners to fill the dance floor. And that’s what Hot Space is all about. It’s about filling the dance floor. But then it’s a very dated 80s dance floor to be filled, and that’s on the negative side of the album. A climax has been reached with the Mercury-written “Body Language”, which is perhaps the most controversial Queen song to date. It’s based around a dirty synth-bass line, which actually is not that bad. What nails the song is Mercury’s longing for sex as he praises ‘your’ body, which he apparently desires. With quite dirty lyrics, executed in an even more dirty way, the song becomes dirty and infects the otherwise cool synth-bass. Perhaps a song like this should’ve been for Mercury’s solo career instead?

The second half is a more familiar side as they make more use of normal bass guitar and add more guitars to the tracks. Roger Taylor saves the day with two splendid songs, “Action This Day” and “Calling All Girls”. The former is easily my favorite of the album, featuring a steady rock rhythm with a cool riff, not to mention it’s another duet between Freddie and Roger, and those always do the trick. The latter is more in the vein of “Dancer”, yet is based on an acoustic guitar instead of synths. Brian May brings us a real rocker with hilarious lyrics in “Put Out the Fire”, being somewhat repulsive mostly due to the flat production and sound, which I think was done on purpose for the disco effect. That doesn’t make it alright, though. Furthermore there’s a slick ballad “Life is Real”, which is good, but slightly to very much ruined by the sudden “Life is a bitch” at the end. All of sudden the atmosphere of a gentle ballad is ruined because of his ““cool”” use of words. “Las Palabras de Amor” is an instant stadium song, which could’ve been a much bigger hit if it were on a ‘normal’ album with ‘normal’ production. It’s a really powerful anthem with a strong synth theme. “Cool Cat” features Mercury on his falsetto-voice, while being accompanied by a very relaxing rhythm guitar. The song isn’t worth more than two listens in your life. And then finally there’s the much anticipated “Under Pressure”. It obviously sounds the most Queen. Despite it being a big hit I think it’s quite obviously one of the better songs of the album, mostly because the rest isn’t really interesting.

Additionally, even though I said about quite a few songs that they were enjoyable, it’s all just not the level it has been. As for the experiment, I think it succeeded. It’s mostly just the genre why I dislike it, not the failure in quality. Now, if all this talk about discos, dance floors and synthesizers has got you all excited, then I could recommend this album to you. Else, be warned.

Strongest tracks: “Action This Day”, “Las Palabras de Amor” and “Under Pressure”.
Weakest tracks: “Staying Power”, “Body Language” and “Cool Cat”.