The Infidel

I debated about including Live Killers in these threads, but finally opted against it. So we go right to...

The Game: released June 30, 1980



Personnel:
Freddie Mercury: Lead Vocals, Piano, Backing Vocals, Guitar, Synthesiser
Brian May: Electric, Acoustic & 12-String Guitars, Piano, Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals, Synthesiser
Roger Taylor: Drums, Electronic Drums, Guitar, Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals, Synthesiser
John Deacon: Bass, Guitar, Piano

Produced by Queen
Engineered and Co-produced by Mack

Track listing:
Play the Game (Mercury) 3:30
Dragon Attack (May) 4:18
Another One Bites the Dust (Deacon) 3:35
Need Your Loving Tonight (Deacon) 2:50
Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Mercury) 2:44
Rock It (Prime Jive) (Taylor) 4:33
Don't Try Suicide (Mercury) 3:52
Sail Away Sweet Sister (May) 3:33
Coming Soon (Taylor) 2:51
Save Me (May) 3:50

This album includes the fisrt appearance of a synthesizer (an Oberheim OBX) on a Queen album.

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The Infidel

I do like this album, even though I was initially pretty dead-set against them using synthesizers. Fortunately, they're not completely overdone on the album. There's some good songwriting to be had here, and I think using the synths allowed them to further express what they wanted to do with their music. UNfortunately, I think they went a little overboard with them on future endeavors (Flash and Hot Space), and they really started to fall out of favor with me after that.

For that reason, I don't feel right about starting any threads past Hot Space, since that's pretty much the last album I fully absorbed by Queen*. After Hot Space, someone else is more than welcome to continue the threads.

* (To be completely honest with you, I couldn't tell you the title of any post-1982 Queen song, other than "Radio Ga-Ga", and the stuff they did for Highlander.)

nothingfails

^ You're missing out with Innuendo. Most old-school Queen fans I know consider it one of their best and Freddie and the band knew it would probably be their last album (not counting the posthumous Made In Heaven) and that they went out with an album that many people argue ranks with their 70's material.

I love Queen but I haven't really replied because it's been so long since I've listened to most of these albums, I do plan to immerse myself in the catalog again.

The Infidel

I have heard one or two things off Innuendo, but I guess the idea of the whole album having a feeling of impending death is a bit of a turn-off.

Like I said, after Hot Space, I lost the feel for what they were doing with their music, and I decided I truly am a fan of their classic, pre-synth albums.

slop101

No.

As an "old-school" Queen fan, I bought Innuendo the day it came out, and while I didn't hate it or anything, it doesn't even approach their first 8 albums.

As for The Game, it was among the first few albums I got back when I was 8 (I was allowed to get 4 albums, the others being Back in Black, Pyromania and Live at Budokan, all were relatively recent releases), and out of those firsties, The Game is the only one I still listen to with any regularity.

Dragon Attack is probably my favorite song on the album.

The Infidel

Don't get me wrong. By the time The Game came out, I was at the peak of my interest with Queen's music. They couldn't do any wrong with me at that point. I was all over it, and loved it. But that year, I was 13 years old, and still had a lot to learn in my own music education. As I learned more about music in general, and started really dissecting their older albums, I didn't have a choice but to lean more towards the "sheer art attack" they created from 1973-1976. Their later albums are fun, creative, and never completely unlistenable, and they will always have a special place with me, based on how they affected me as a kid, but as a now-semi-musically-educated adult, they just don't hold the same interest for me as they had in the past.

Supermallet

I think The Game is as effective as mass entertainment as A Night At The Opera was at being artsy. Every song on the album is a winner, being either something you can sing along to, dance to, or both. Aside from two awesome number one hits, the album features such classic tracks as "Play The Game," "Dragon Attack," "Don't Try Suicide," and "Save Me." Even the lesser known songs are still great. This may very well be in my top three Queen albums, after Sheer Heart Attack and A Night At The Opera.

nothingfails

that;s why I said most not "all".

I have a friend who has literally spent thousands on Queen, he is totally obsessed with them and he ranks Innuendo just below Queen II and ANOTO. And a lot of other people I know seem to love the album as well.

Supermallet

Innuendo has a few filler tracks, but the majority of the album is excellent, if not entirely up to par with their albums through 1980.

slop101

I think my main problem with Innuendo was that it felt so overwrought and over-produced, even by Queen standards - but we'll get to that in it's proper thread.

cdollaz

I like Innuendo a lot.

Mr. Salty

So are we discussing Innuendo in this thread or The Game?

With respect to The Game, it's one of my favorite Queen albums, even though I know it isn't artistically their best. "Dragon Attack" is one of my favorite Queen songs.

cranberries fan

Well I was 10 at time of this release and still very much in the "KISS frame of mind".

But I had this LP and love it as did my buddy's back in the day we would jam-out to queen and kiss all day long on the weekend's.

Dragon Attack has one of best bass licks of all of time!

slop101

For the record, this was the last Queen album to feature "no synthesizers".

Not to mention, this is where Freddy adopted his cropped hair, push-broom 'stache look!

Mr. Salty

You kissed your buddies all day long while listening to Queen? That sounds very ... advanced ... for 10-year-olds!

Fist of Doom

Queen pretty much ditched the flamboyance with this album, and I think it was the right move after the disappointment that was Jazz.

The Game is straightforward pop/rock and has a great set of songs. Not one of my favorites, but a solid album.

(Was this the first Queen vinyl since the first album that didn't have an inside cover?)

hdtv00

Ok so I'll chime in here some. First I wanna start by saying the dvd-audio of this album is just SICK. It is beyond awesome, Dragon Attack alone is worth the entire price of buying a setup and disk.

Ok story time, for me The Game is what saved me from my parents music, literally. It was on the jukebox at like the VFW or whatever I'd sometimes have to go hang out with my mom. So it kept me from having to pick some country crap that they listened to and showed me what real music was about at the time. I was probably 13 or so. Anyway there are lots of songs on here to enjoy and each time I listen to the dvd-audio disk brings a smile to my face. Pure Joy.

The Infidel

Actually, The Game was the first album to feature a synthesizer, as noted in the first post.

They may have ditched the flamboyance, but Freddie's adopted look was pretty much the gay look of the time. I've seen pictures of him partying with other guys, and every one of them had the hair/big-ass-mustache thing going.

If you're talking about a gatefold album, the first album didn't have it, nor did Sheer Heart Attack, making this one the third out of the first eight.

Jack Straw

Being a fan of Queen's earlier more guitar driven and harder rocking material, this album leaves almost everything to be desired. Play The Game and Save Me are decent songs. The rest is "FF" material.

slop101

What an odd, contrary thing to say. You say you like their harder guitar-driven material, but the two songs you like on The Game are a couple of the least guitar-driven tracks on the album and you neglect to mention Dragon Attack, which is one of their more harder rocking guitar tracks. Weird.

akrate69

I think this is the album that really made "Queen" known to the public. Sure, people had heard songs like "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions" at sporting events etc... but they didn't necessarily assosciate them with "Queen" the group. I remember working with people who weren't in to Rock music knowing that Queen sang "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" or "Another One Bites The Dust ".

The Game was the last Queen album I ever bought.

Coral

I was 11 when this album came out and at the time I liked it. But looking back I remember that I wouldn't listen to it all that often and when I did - it was only for a few tracks.

As I got older I realized that the album only had a couple solid songs, a couple "ok" songs and a few that that irritate me (ie. Another One Bites The Dust and Dont Try Suicide).

The sound of The Game feels empty. I didn't expect them to be over-produced, but it sounded like they played in a an empty hallway with some Microphones set up. Didn't sound very professional.

The only songs from the album I can listen to today is "Sail Way Sweet Sister" and "Save Me".

ResIpsa

Always got a laugh from the previous albums' "No Synthesizers" proclamations. Lots of rock bands used synths in rock-worthy ways, why revel in being Luddites?

Fist of Doom

Nah, there was no Luddite snobbery. Per Roy Thomas Baker:

"There was no stipulation that we wouldn't have any synths, but the statement 'No synths' was printed on the album sleeves because of peoples' lack of intellect in the ears department. Many people couldn't hear the difference between a multitracked guitar and a synthesizer. We would spend four days multi-layering a guitar solo and then some imbecile from the record company would come in and say, 'I like that synth!'"

Jack Straw

Disagree. PTG has a great guitar solo. Dragon Attack has some decent guitar licks, but for me does not really rival the aforementioned balls-out harder edge material (see Liar, Stone Cold Crazy). Crazy Little Thing and Another One Bites are "Queen-Lite" and are plays for a less discriminating and accepting MOR/disco-dance audience.