Jazz (1978)
1. Mustapha
2. Fat Bottomed Girls
3. Jealousy
4. Bicycle Race
5. If You Can't Beat Them
6. Let Me Entertain You
7. Dead on Time
8. In Only Seven Days
9. Dreamer's Ball
10.Fun It
11.Leaving Home Ain't Easy
12.Don't Stop Me Now
13.More of That Jazz
Fortunately for Queen, they never
really put out a bad album. There might be a few that would fall into
that "mediocre" category, but only a few. They seem to be at their
best from the mid seventies through the early eighties - putting
this album smack dab in the middle of that period, and it fits
perfectly. This album is everything that an excellent Queen album
should be. Yes, it's missing that one trademark song that would grace
many of its counterparts that were released a few years around it, but
that shouldn't be a deterrent. The music here is mostly top notch.
Contrary to what one might think, this is not a jazz album. Not
in the musical sense anyway. When you think of "jazz" in this case,
think of enthusiastic and/or energetic - as in "all that jazz". In that
case, it serves as a perfect title, really, for any Queen album.
Like its predecessor, News of the
World, this album has a more lean sound, and shows off the hard,
rock side of Queen more frequently, and the songs of this style resonate
much better. The theatrical sound of the band is toned down, or as
toned down as it could possibly be on a Queen album - for there will
always be melodious harmonies, theatrical interludes, and semi-strange
snippets throughout. Witness the somewhat peculiar opening song
Mustapha with its Eastern like influence as Freddie Mercury wails
what sounds like an Arab prayer throughout. Although to be fair, the
song does rock out a minute or so in the track. In other words,
a perfect Queen song.
They again go for a "double" single (is that an oxymoron?), probably
since they arguably released the best one ever in the history of popular
music on the last album with We Will Rock You/We Are the
Champions. This time, they don't try to replicate the anthem at the
risk of coming off as cheesy, rather they tackle the chore with the
somewhat humorous, but just as powerful Fat Bottomed Girls and
Bicycle Race. It's a little strange that the songs aren't back
to back on the album. The fact that Freddie Mercury's touching,
heart-filled Jealousy is sandwiched between the two, takes a bit
away from the bite of the particular pair.
They're also getting a bit funky on tracks such as Let Me Entertain
You the almost disco-ish Fun It and the aptly titled closer
More of That Jazz. All of this is a bit of new ground for Queen,
but they prove they can handle the style just as well as anything else
they would try to tackle. The album does feel as though it's running
out of gas during the last part of the album. They wisely end the album
with the above mentioned More of That Jazz, and, wisely Don't
Stop Me Now right before. A few songs prior to those two, they
sound a bit like they're going on auto pilot, and those tracks, although
all good, seem to lose a bit of focus. And, yes, sadly they do
blow it by throwing in a montage of most of the songs at the very end of
More of That Jazz. Not only does it ruin a very good song, but
it just seems unnecessary and quite hoaky. An edit of this track would
be nice.
This would be the last "seventies" album by Queen, and whereas the
eighties would be mostly kind to them as well, it does seem that this
record sort of "ends" a period in the band's history. They would never
let the synthesized eighties sounds swallow them up, thankfully, but
they seem to be at their most raw and focused during this period. And
although their changes in style were always mostly well-received, it's
always nice to revisit this particular period in the band's history.
Critics be damned. These guys were perfect for seventies arena rock.
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