February 27, 1984 - The Works and I Want To Break Free

Almost two months since my last release and almost two years after "Hot Space", Queen continue their run of lesser 80s albums with their eleventh album "The Works", released on February 27, 1984. This album had four singles but I only have one of them, the hit song "I Want To Break Free", written by bassist John Deacon. Freddie Mercury opens the song by himself on synthesizer and after settling into a catchy main riff Brian May joins in with some cool guitar and the rhythm section finally comes in for the first verse. Deacon plays a nice bass riff and Mercury sings in his amazing voice, splendidly leading this catchy verse. They play a couple solid verses before finally moving into the chorus where the synths return in a big way. Mercury only sings the name of the song a few times but his voice sounds so nice that you don't really care. Right after the chorus May goes off on a computer-y, synth-like guitar solo and while I would prefer guitars stay sounding like guitars, he does deliver a pretty cool little solo. This leads back into the main riff but instead of kicking right into another verse they play the main riff with no lyrics for a bit and while it's nothing flashy or crazy, it's peaceful mood sounds very smooth. They eventually do play a final verse and chorus and Mercury continues to sing the name of the song, holding lots of different long notes as they slowly fade this song to a close. It's a cool and quite catchy song, but this is certainly still a lesser form of Queen than the previous decade. At least they still write a good song or two???

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