the game

With the usual fanfare–in this case, a “breakthrough” single released several months prior to the LP – Queen have shifted their sights from heavy-metal flash to stripped-down rock & roll.

The new decade finds Queen floundering for an identity. With the number of the faithful diminishing, Queen has used this album to throw some different styles against the wall to see what sticks.

Between them, Quiss and Keen represented everything that was depressing about music in the ’70’s – like emotional emptiness dressed up as spectacle, like irrelevance to anyone’s life, like the mega-success bought by corporate push and a new market of almost Pavlovian docility.

Some bands belong between the Mantovani and the Martini in the G-plan wall-fitting. Drag out the Pye music centre, flop down on the Habitat fat furniture, nibble on an olive and listen to Queen. Feel safe. Feel comfortable. We’ll worry about the mortgage in the morning.

So there you are, you bunch of jerks making your cute little sideswipes at one of Britain’s leading attractions. Go and slap on the next Willie Nile record and leave me in peace.