Crazy Little Band Called Queen
This album has to be Queen's most transitional album. There is less heavy metal style guitar (as featured on Queen, Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack) and even less campiness (which was featured on A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races and Jazz). On the liner notes, they admit that they used synthesizer "for the 1st time" (for the 1st 6 albums, they proudly boasted that synthesizers were not used at all). They even looked different with the shorter haircuts (sans Brian, whose long curly locks remained unshorned). But I digress. On with the review.

4 of the songs were written and performed for a mini tour called the "Crazy Little Tour." One of them, an uncharacteristic rockabilly tune "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," which lead singer Freddie Mercury wrote. This gave them a big hit in the 1980's. 2 of the songs are sensitive ballads written by versatile guitarist Brian May, "Sail Away Sweet Sister" (Brian sings lead on this, with Freddie singing on the bridge) and the powerful "Save Me" (a minour hit in the UK). Drummer Roger Taylor penned "Coming Soon," which sounds a lot like the Cars (he was the band's true classic rock fan).

The rest of the album was recorded in the 1980's. Around the same time, Queen was preparing the Flash Gordon soundtrack (that's another review). The Game opens with Freddie's "Play the Game," which captures Queen's "classic" sound and features an interesting synthesizer intro (a minour hit for them). Bass player John Deacon had his biggest hit with the funky "Another One Bites the Dust" (he admits it was originally going to be a cowboy song, but for some reason changed it). Other songs include the heavy "Dragon Attack" (written by Brian, "Slow down, don't take no prisoners!"), John's catchy poprock "I Need Your Lovin' Tonight" ("No, I'll never look back in anger...") Freddie's bluesy "Don't Try Suicide" (a tongue in cheek message song- "Don't try suicide, nobody's worth it... nobody cares... you're just gonna hate it!") and "Rock It (Prime Jive)" written and sung by Roger, with help from Freddie at the intro (it sounds a mix between Led Zeppelin and early Sammy Hagar).

I'm giving this 5 stars for the album. I'm not counting the throwaway remix of "Dragon Attack" (instead, they should have included "A Human Body," which was one of their B-sides). Skip that, it'll only leave you wondering why Brian approved of it. Just enjoy the classic sounds of a crazy little band called Queen.

A new era for Queen
As most people know, this was the first Queen album to utilize synthesizers, though they did not go overboard with them, as they later did on 1982's "Hot Space." This album opens with the sublime Mercury-penned "Play the Game," then heads into more bass-laden funky tunes like "Dragon Attack" and "Another One Bites the Dust." There are some weaker songs on here as well, notably Roger Taylor's "Rock It (Prime Jive)" and "Coming Soon," which are both kind of...well, dumb. "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" is a rockabilly goof/homage that actually works. "Need Your Loving Tonight" is a light bit of pop, but not bad. This is also shorter in length than their '70s albums, so that's a bit disappointing. A mixed bag of songs and definitely a new era as Queen headed into the '80s.

Transformation
First of all this is not a bad record. Over all it is quite a good record. It contains several good songs. For Queen fans this marks the point were Queen began to transform it's self.
Instead of forging new ground, they began to take in what was happening around them and sort of conforming their style. The sound is a bit toned down from its previous offerings and it also sounds compressed and tight. You never get the sense or feeling of grandeur or over the top production that they become famous for. Still a nice effort.
Never really cared for "Another one bites the dust" I feel this song is way overrated and very silly.

Gonna use my stack...it's gotta be Mack...
Queen may have jumped the shark by the time the seventies drew to a close but they were still by anyone's definition a serious hard rock band. 'The Game' which was released in June 1980 was first and foremost a pop album. For many longtime fans, the record may have come as a disappointment. Queen had always been a pop band with a slew of hit singles but their albums contained hard rock bombast along with the pop ditties. 'The Game' was different, it seemed to go out of its way to be poppy and bright and very much for the 1980's. Evidence would show that American audiences made it (next to 'News') Queen's biggest selling LP, a true case of crossover appeal. Add this to the fact the album, Queen's eight studio record, contained TWO US number one hit singles and both songs were like nothing the band had ever done. "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" was the first, a rockabilly for Chrissakes!...but it works! Freddie's tribute to the stylings of the King, the song actually made its debut the previous year before the rest of the album was reoorded. John Deacon's "Another One Bites the Dust" was the other megahit...a funk song but it blew the band's previous attempt, Taylor's "Fun It", out of the water! Brian contributed another funk rocker in "Dragon Attack", a good but not great song and my personal fave "Save Me", a ballad, sung beautifuly by Freddie and like "Crazy" came out in '79. Overall though I'm not a huge fan of this record, mainly because it is TOO pop. "Rock It" is a perfect example of what I mean...great anthemic intro by Freddie and then Taylor starts singing and...awww man...its like new wave! Ruins it. "Need Your Loving Tonight" is decent but again too poppy...sort of the sister song to John's "If You Can't Beat Them" from 'Jazz'. Title track is good but...it's too sappy, only Brians's metal guitar makes the song for me, and the synths are cool too. Needless to say I don't play 'The Game' that often...to me it's the end of an era....and Freddie cuts his hair and grew a moustache...oh well.

Queen's first and best 80s album still rules 25 years on
Queen's first album of the 1980s entitled The Game was released in June of 1980.
The Game album was a fresh album for the band as they had not recorded a studio album since 1978's uneven effort Jazz.
First, they switched producers and engineers from Roy Thomas Baker and Geoff Workman to one-time ELO engineer Mack. The album was recorded in Munich, Germany between the summer of 1979 and the spring of 1980.
Frontman Freddie Mercury has three great song on this album starting with the opener "Play the Game" (a minor hit here in the US), the rockabilly sounding US #1 "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" (which came out months before the rest of the album) and the anti-suicide number "Don't Try Suicide" which is a great song with a powerful message.
Drummer Roger Taylor had the hard rocking "Rock It (Prime Jive)" in which he did lead vocal and the new waveish "Coming Soon".
Guitarist Brian May had the hard rocker "Dragon Attack", the ballad "Sail Away Sweet Sister" in which he sang lead vocal and the closing ballad "Save Me" which is a great song and a UK hit though the song was not released as a single here in the US.
Bass player John Deacon contributed the mammoth #1 rock/disco hybrid hit "Another One Bites the Dust" (which was the reason for this album's huge success) and the US Top 50 rocker "Need Your Loving Tonight".
The Game album was Queen's only US chart-topper as it hit #1 and stayed for 5 weeks and sold 4 million in the US alone (tying News of the World's US sales tally making it Queen's best selling non-compilation album in the US).
This was also Queen's last flawless IMHO album until 1989's The Miracle.
Highly recommended!