Queen Game CD

Queen: Freddie Mercury (vocals, piano, synthesizer); Brian May (vocals, guitar); Roger Taylor (vocals, drums); John Deacon (bass).
Recorded at Musicland Studios, Munich, Germany.
Personnel: Brian May (vocals, guitar, banjo, keyboards); Freddie Mercury (vocals, piano); Roger Taylor (vocals, drums); John Deacon (guitar).
Audio Remasterer: Eddy Schreyer.
Recording information: Musicland Studios, Munich, Germany (06/1976-05/1980).
Photographer: Christopher Hopper.
Queen had long been one of the biggest bands in the world by 1980's The Game, but this album was the first time they made a glossy, unabashed pop album, one that was designed to sound exactly like its time. They might be posed in leather jackets on the cover, but they hardly sound tough or menacing -- they rarely rock, at least not in the gonzo fashion that's long been their trademark. Gone are the bombastic orchestras of guitars and with them the charging, relentless rhythms that kept Queen grounded even at their grandest moments. Now, when they rock, they'll haul out a clever rockabilly pastiche, as they do on the tremendous "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," a sly revival of old-time rock & roll that never sounds moldy, thanks in large part to Freddie Mercury's panache. But even that is an exception to the rule on The Game. Usually, when they want to rock here, they wind up sounding like Boston, as they do on John Deacon's "Need Your Loving Tonight," or they sound a bit like a new wave-conscious rocker like Billy Squier, as they do on the propulsive "Coming Soon." But even those are exceptions to the overall rule on The Game, since most of the album is devoted to disco-rock blends -- best heard on the globe-conquering "Another One Bites the Dust," but also present in the unintentionally kitschy positivity anthem "Don't Try Suicide" -- and the majestic power ballads that became their calling card in the '80s, as they reworked the surging "Save Me" and the elegant "Play the Game" numerous times, often with lesser results. So, The Game winds up as a mixed bag, as many Queen albums often do, but again the striking difference with this album is that it finds Queen turning decidedly, decisively pop, and it's a grand, state-of-the-art circa 1980 pop album that still stands as one of the band's most enjoyable records. But the very fact that it does showcase a band that's turned away from rock and toward pop means that for some Queen fans, it marks the end of the road, and despite the album's charms, it's easy to see why. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Following up the most idiosyncratic album of their career (JAZZ), Queen makes the transition here from weird pomp-rock band to weird pop band, marking a new musical direction for their '80s output. The major development here is the incorporation of funk into Queen's already-broad stylistic pallete. The mega-hit "Another One Bites the Dust" is based around an irresistibly funky bass riff that would be sampled by countless rappers over the next two decades. "Dragon Attack" mixes the funk quotient with some fiery guitar heroics from Brian May.
The pure pop aspect of Queen's music blossoms into full flower as well. "Need Your Loving" could be a Badfinger or Records out-take. "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" predates (at least in the U.S.) the Stray Cats-led rockabilly revival of the early '80s. There are hints of late-period ELO on "Coming Soon." On "Rock It" the band shows that they still know how to pull out all the rock & roll stops. THE GAME is arguably Queen's most artistically successful, fully realized work.
THE GAME found Queen at the top of their craft and the top of the charts, with two number-1 singles ("Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and the Chic-inspired "Another One Bites The Dust"). It also featured the first appearance of a synthesizer on a Queen album.Q (8/02, p.148) - "...Saw them adapt their sound for the first time: to the rockabilly and funk groove fads of 1980..."