(Hed) Pe

Jazz

Not Merely More Of That Jazz

Review Score:

(8/10)
Jazz by Queen is an often overlooked album, chock full of decent material. This may be due to the fact that, unlike some of their previous releases like Night At The Opera or Queen 2, this album doesn't follow any concept or theme and any track sequence really could have had the same effect as any other. This is merely a collection of songs that don't hold together as a cohesive beginning-middle-end listening experience. That said, the songs themselves are great.
With their previous 'News Of The World', Queen began to move away from the conceptual 'music hall' orchestrations and into their 'hedonistic' period: leather, disco, pop culture. Jazz consolidates this direction, but is also a bit of a transitional album as well. This is also the very last of Queen's studio albums with 'no synthesizers'. They still cover a lot of styles and variety by way of somewhat 'mock' genres(like Bohemian Rhapsody did for opera, Somebody To Love did for gospell or My Melancholy Blues did for lounge jazz). There is also still a good dose of ridiculousness, pomp and novelty as well, as we can expect from Queen. The songs:

MUSTAPHA - a Middle Eastern sounding track and bizarre opener. Not sure if Freddie singing in a real Arabic language or just a made-up collection of effective words(like 'Scaramouche' etc in Rhapsody).

FAT BOTTOMED GIRLS - Brian's song in a sloppy southern rock mode, guitar driven and one of their classic hits.

JEALOUSY - similar in style to piano-driven ballads found on earlier Queen albums like Day AT The Races. A lovely song, lovely harmonies.

BICYCLE RACE - pomposity to the ever lovin' core. Here is Queen back in campy mode, another classic hit which shows up on any greatest hits disc they ever rerelease.

IF YOU CAN'T BEAT THEM - an upbeat John Deacon one, not too unlike 'Need Your Loving' or 'You And I' from other albums. Not particularly outstanding but Queen enough for me.

LET ME ENTERTAIN YOU - Freddie's homage to the debacherous lifestyle they had gotten themselves into, and another classic rocker. Also I notice I liked Roger's drum sound on this album/period.

DEAD ON TIME - another rocker, an unremarkable heavy-ish track which I suppose balances out the more harmony-laden ones and ballads, but again, Queen enough for me.

IN ONLY SEVEN DAYS - another John one. Nice, singer-songwritery song about meeting someone and falling in love while on vacation. Warm, summer-y guitar and harmonies.

DREAMERS BALL - another Brian blues one, surpassing his lame 'Sleeping On The Sidewalk' from the previous album. This time a lazier, slower blues.

FUN IT - a lot of people hate this track, I actually dig it. Queen begins their love affair with funk/disco here, with Freddie and Roger trading lead vocals. Usually Queen singers handle all their lead vocals on their own tracks or one song at a time. Rarely did they ever sing duets or lead vocals together. Here was one occasion they did. Fun it.

LEAVING HOME AIN'T EASY - Queen in Supertramp mode on this one. Brian May is lead vocals. Similar to 'In Only Seven days' in atmosphere and execution.

DON'T STOP ME NOW - one of Queen's classic pop rock songs, a feel-good classic which should be on any fan's top ten Queen songs list.

MORE OF THAT JAZZ - a heavier, driving Roger song in which he sings on. It's actually ruined by the the abrupt appearance of collage 'soundbites' of most of the tracks over the course of the album, probably spliced in to give the false sense of Jazz being a conceptual album. That trick really did the album no favors. It still sounds incohesive as a whole, but the individual songs are decent to great.

The bonus 'rap' remixes added on are really unnecessary and really should be taken as just some fun .. slapped on at the end of the disc as icing on your cake.

Jazz is a classic album, one that you need.

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