[Hot Mess?] -- After achieving their first #1 album (The Game) and releasing a top 25 soundtrack (Flash Gordon) in 1980, Queen took some extra time wrangling their next studio release. And on May 21, 1982 – nearly two years after The Game dropped – Queen released Hot Space, their tenth studio album. More dance-y and more synthy, Hot Space was a definite departure for Queen. Perhaps the huge success of "Another One Bites the Dust," the fourth single off The Game, encouraged them to go for more of a dance-oriented album this time around. Maybe it was the band's inner strife and piecemeal recording process they fell into for this record. Or, it was the outsized, and perhaps unwanted (per journalist Mark Blake in the 2016 book, Freddie Mercury: A Kind of Magic), influence of Paul Prenter, Freddie Mercury's personal manager.
Whatever made Queen expand their use of synths, add horn sections, and tinker with drum machines for an entire record, the results were ... mixed. Well, the reception was mixed. Reviews were mainly, but not entirely, negative. And sales were lukewarm. If not for "Under Pressure," a collaboration with David Bowie that was released in October 1981, the album might have been forgotten. However, with the advantage of 40 years of hindsight, Hot Space is not a bad album, it's just different. It's not what might be expected from a band largely regarded as a guitar-driven rock quartet, but Queen has never been static with their sound. They were always rather eclectic. It's just that, I suppose, Hot Space went so far in one direction that many of their fans felt left behind. Still, the album does have its fans, even if it is an experimental blip in the extraordinary career of Queen (15 studio albums, 10 live albums, 2 EPs, 2 soundtracks, and 72 singles).
Do you have a favorite track from Hot Space? Setting aside "Under Pressure," which I always felt stands on its own rather than being part of this album, I'm kind of partial to "Put Out The Fire" and "Life Is Real (Song for Lennon)." Oh, and I like how Queen used THX 1138 (George Lucas' 1971 dystopian film) as the basis of the video for "Calling All Girls."
Flashback: Hot Space (1982)
That's all till next week. Dedicated 80s-philes can find more flashbacks in the Prophet or Madman archives or via Bookended's 80s Flashback tag. As always, your comments are welcome on today's, or any other, flashback post. And if you like what I'm doing here, please share the link with your friends. If, however, you don't like the flashback, feel free to share it with your enemies.
I'll see you in seven!
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