From the “Bloody Hell! Where The F#%k Did That Come From?!” file is Queen’s Hot Space, an album that contains one of their best known and most loved tracks, and a whole heap of other stuff that is quite… extraordinary… in its format.
This album is quite simply one of the more bizarre and chameleonic albums I have ever heard. The quite radical change in musical direction that happens on this album is quite confronting, and in some ways difficult to take and accept. Having spent the best part of the previous decade pushing the boundaries, but still retaining the general hard rock element of their music, they have come out here at the time of synths and other such wonderful gadgets, and gone down a completely different path.
Does it work? Well, from me it is a quite emphatic “NO!” However, experimentation is something that most bands eventually come to in order to freshen things up for themselves. The songs themselves aren’t bad, they are just in a completely different style than the world is used to. Using synths for the bass guitar, and a drum machine rather than Roger Taylor, in a couple of the songs is somewhat of a surprise. I’d be interested as to what the band members thought of this whole recording. It is a very early 80’s sound with the various use of synthesizers, and an almost disc-like feel – which seems strange as disco had pretty much concluded by the release of this album.
The most famous song here is of course the Queen and David Bowie duet “Under Pressure” which went to number one around the world. Not surprisingly it is also the most traditional Queen song on the album, along with “Put Out The Fire”.
In the long run, this IS a Queen album, albeit a rather different and experimental one. Whilst the band continued to use the techniques that they concentrated on with this album in future releases, it was very much toned down and refined from what appears here. I guess that is a good thing.
Rating: Even the super fans must have some trouble swallowing this. 3/5.
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