Hot Space Is Pretty Cool After All4 Out Of 5 Stars
After being adamant about being a rock band with "No Synthesizers," Queen picked up the Prophet on The Game. When that album launched two of their biggest hits, it seemed like the band would become unstoppable. "No Synthesizers" was once a point of pride for Queen. But you know what they say goeth before the fall?
The result of that fall is "Hot Space." While it most certainly can't be considered a Hot Mess for trying to be a clone of any prior Queen album, the songs are so off expectation that I remember wondering at the time of its release if it was meant to be a Freddie Mercury solo album. The hallmarks of Queen (and the other band members) are notably absent from "Hot Space," including the fact that rock steady drummer Roger Taylor is barely on the album at all, replaced by machines.
"Hot Space" took Queen's glorious arena rock and ditched for a predominance of blue-eyed soul. Mercury, as usual, shines, and that is especially true on "Cool Cat," easily the most soulful falsetto he ever put to record. This is also the album with one of Queen's classic singles, the David Bowie duet "Under Pressure." In fact, it is such a perfect song that it underscores how mediocre the bulk of the material on "Hot Space" is.
The best of the rest after "Under Pressure" includes Taylor's "Calling All Girls" and the deep funk of "Body Language." While "Body Language" was an obvious attempt to capitalize on the mammoth success of "Another One Bites The Dust," the slippery synthed-out bassline was - like the best of Queen's experiments - completely unlike anything the band had tried before. It's one of my favorite Queen moments, even if many fans deride it. Dave Grohl and The Foo Fighters liked it so much that they made a parody video of it to announce the FF 2011-12 tour.
The final highlight is "Life Is Real." Written in the aftermath of John Lennon's assassination, it is an affecting ballad that sound natural (something the keyboard driven first half of the album doesn't). Had this been the first single instead of "Pressure," "Hot Space" might have been remembered a bit more fondly than as just the Queen album that derailed the band. The band atoned for this nicely with The Works, but they never really regained their US audience afterwards. The bonus disc underscores the material's strengths, with live versions of "Staying Power" and "Calling All Girls" besting their studio versions, and bringing the album's rating up by a full star.
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