Hot Space is a great Album with funky music. Band that never change their formula are boring!

All I can say is that cocaine is a helluva drug, which strayed many an artist down the delusions of grandeur road, especially in the disco and post-disco era.

I'm 50/50 on this one, the tracks where Brian actually plays guitar are pretty decent my favourite being Las Palabras De Amour, unfortunately the disco based tracks are terrible and sounded dated even back then.

All Queen albums sound amazing.

Been a Queen fan since 1973 and saw them 7 times with Fred, including the Hot Space tour - Backchat and Staying Power kicks serious butt live. I love the album and there are only four dance tracks on it. Freddie was totally immersed in the Munich disco scene by this time and I sure he would have left the band if he wasn't able to get the music that motivated him onto the album. I still play it regularly and I love the production, there is a really great bass floor to the sound. I will agree on one thing - Body Language is shit.

Change of direction? Yes. Bad? No. I like it better than some of their later material.

They tried something different, and it mostly didn't work. Here's the the thing though, it still has Freddie's vocals, which will always make it worth a listen.

Having listened to this on and off for about 30 years, I have to say the only real turkey on it is Body Language. The solo on Backchat is wonderful and it's a great single, Cool Cat is pretty cool. Dancer has an enjoyable groove, there's some lovely ballads on this album, a killer rocker and an all-time classic in Under Pressure. I don't rate this any lower than The Game or The Works. Nice review as always.

Great review! As a lifelong Queen fan I can still recall playing Hot Space for the first time and thinking WTF. Apart from Put out the Fire, Las Palabras de Amor and the bolted-on sublime Under Pressure (which feels completely from a different time) it´s still pretty horrible stuff. Not sure Queen ever recovered to be honest. Had a few decent albums after this but absolutely nothing to compare to their magisterial 70´s output.

At the time I remember an interview with Brian where he said they had grown super-successful in the US and the UK, but with this album they wanted to conquer the music scene in other countries, particularly in South America. And he claimed that this album did go over well in South America, but lost them their fan base in the US and UK. I had been a huge fan of Queen starting with hearing the song _"Killer Queen"_ and then the full album of _"Sheer Heart Attack"._ They had a amazing run of excellent albums from that point up to _"The Game"._ I bought _"Hot Space"_ on the date of release, got it home and absolutely hated it. I still can't stand it. Maybe it's an OK album for some people, but not for me. Note that while I loved some albums like _"Saturday Night Fever",_ I hated at least 70% of all disco songs which dominated radio play lists at the time. IMO there were a few great songs in disco, and a whole lot of repetitive unimaginative crap. I think _"Under Pressure"_ is a great song, but I listen to that off a greatest hits collection instead of this album. I never considered that song as part of this album, given that it was released as a single in 1981 and I owned that single for around six months before this album was released.

Well, it's very idficult for anybody, even Queen, to equal albums like Queen I, Queen II, Sheer Heart Attack and A Night at The Opera.

I never thought it was that bad, but in fairness there's only one or two queen albums I've got anytime for. I don' think you can fault the album for being irrelevant - part of Queen's charm was their steadfast refusal to be relevant, but also Thriller came out 5 months after it and proved that dance music was far from dead.

Thanks Barrie, for another witty and profound review. I enjoyed it very much, and dare I say Hot Space is one of my favourite Queen albums.

Great review as usual, I feel like many artists Queen lost their way. Queen after Day at the Races , Bowie after Scary Monsters, ELP after Brain Salad Surgery , even Muse post Drones, all these artists have a sell by date , they might make the odd album which sounds decent but it never lasts forever.

It must be over 35 years since I last listened to it, which probably tells you all you need to know. But hearing those long forgotten titles you mention I'm going to have to dust it off right now. It's always interesting to listen to something for the first time after that sort of interval.

Last good Queen album was Sheer Heart Attack. Could make a good cd length collection out of all the others.

Just listened to the full album for the first time and I found it enjoyable and refreshing. The kind of album you can do a workout to. I thought it sounded good and well produced. Yes, I could have had more of the traditional Brian May guitar sounds and more vocal harmonies but I’d give it a 4 out of 5 star ⭐️

"A kind of calculated retreat," BOOM. Perfect. I've thought the same thing for decades about The Works, but that's the most succinctly I've ever heard it put.

Hot Space was a Hot Turd. You could mostly blame German cocaine for this Hot mess....

Agree the album shows Freddies ego at its worst. 🤘✌️🏴🇦🇺

When I purchased Hot Space on day of release. I took my Queen Collection to the second hand record shop and sold the lot

All us hippies in the 70s had 2 albums mostly; News Of The World and Sheer Heart Attack

Las Palabras del Amor, Put Out the Fire and Under Pressure are still better singles than 80% of bands have in their whole careers, so while Hot Space is a bad Queen album, it's just a meh album to me. And even then I kind of respect it for how bold it was. Honestly I think The Miracle is worse for just being kind of dull save for the title track and a couple of good singles.

Let's be real -- Queen peaked with Night at The Opera. Does anyone think that the horrifically lame "Another One Bites The Dust" would fit on Sheer Heart Attack? So why is Hot Space such a surprise? It was the 80's and they were cashing in on the disco craze. I believe that appealed to Mercury because there was a big gay audience who were into the whole techno dance craze in the clubs and he embraced it. As with many bands, they achieved the most success after they had a hit and they milked it for all they could. But their best work was behind them. To me, Queen 2, Sheer and Night are fantastic representations of what they had to offer -- back when they were making a statement and not just cashing in on their fame. Everything after that is rehashed, cliche ridden pablum.

Had all their albums up to and including "News of the World", which I didn't rate tbh. If I ever bother to listen to Queen these days it's always the first two albums. So thankfully I totally missed Hot Space.

Way to squander their rising popularity in the USA. In retrospective, even Under Pressure don't fit anywhere in their discography. Queen never recovered from this, and I think The Works is nearly as bad if it weren't for the hit singles. A kind Of Magic is much maligned but I think it's their best output of the latter period after Innuendo, and even Innuendo has its moments of self indulgence. I got the coloured vinyl box set and I must say Hot Space looks seductive in blue vinyl, I may spin it several times just for that reason alone.

6:25 I think it was more Freddie's "Friends, Romans and countrymen, lend me your rears." that was the problem at the time.

I bought it on vinyl back in 1982. It was different sounding and I ended up selling it at the record exchange in camden town a couple of years later. Last week I bought the studio collection, so all 15 albums, so I own it again!

I think Roger Taylor summed it up saying Freddie & his personal manager said they wanted to do a disco/funk album for the clubs...... And i didn't !!! And believe me they shouldn't have as it's asbolute trash with nothing going for it !!!!

Boy, you were very kind to them about that 'mistake'. As always, well spoken.

I have never understood the hate this album gets,maybe it's because my first Queen album was live magic. But then I'm also a fan of fun in space and Mr.Bad Guy so plainly I'm in minority.

There can be no argument about personal taste, but I totally disagree on you referring to the disco times of Saturday Night Fever, because Queen does not sound at all, or tries to sound like that kind of disco music. Michael Jackson had publicly stated that Hot Space inspired him for the Thriller album. A year later, in 1983 David Bowie came with let's dance, teaming up with Nile Rogers. So I do not agree that Hot Space was in the 'wrong' time. Every Queen album is different. What if Queen had not experimented and not tried different sounds, but something in the development from Jazz to The Game ot The Works? Then you would get critics saying there's not enough change. I am glad they made it, although for me Hot Space is their weakest studio album But it is stil a good album, far better and far diverse than most of the other artistst came with in the eighties.

I"ve never heard it..but my wife has it on vinyl.....now I'm going to have to listen to it.

The best thing about this album, apart from Under Pressure, is it's iconic cover artwork 👌

To this day i really enjoy 'Hot Space'!! I don't always have issue with bands 'exploring' new avenues and this album does have some 'Funk' but makes it all the more interesting. Must have been difficult for a band like Queen to alter the formula and make themselves relevant within an ever changing industry.

With Queen, every album was different, I still enjoy Hot Space, maybe because I am influenced as was the only time I saw Queen in concert, supporting this album at Milton Keynes, my first ever concert, not even a teenager. I love the album cover, and I Always remember Freddie seemed very relaxed talking about the album at the MK concert, it's an Album I still enjoy and in my own ranking it is better than albums that came afterwards, just in terms the amount of time I played them.

I never did understand the criticisms of this album. Really enjoy it!

Try as I might I just can’t enjoy the album but I do think it is Queen emerging into a vastly new tumultuous musical landscape of 80’s from punk, dance, synth etc and trying a whole bunch of experimentation. A bit like Sheer Heart Attack and News Of The World. It was a way to bring together a lot of new ideas which drove them forward

Well, you can’t really say it went wrong. By 1982 Queen had been on the top of the world for a decade with some great albums and singles under their belts. The funk side started with “Fight From The Inside” from NOTW, “Fun It” from Jazz, but “Another One Bites The Dust” was such a big hit in 1980 it must have been a sign for the to go in that direction. Freddie was hanging out in gay clubs and nightclubs soaking up the camp disco cuts. “Body Language” was based on “Searchin” by Change. An Italio Disco Band that used Luther Vandross on their 1980 album “The Glow of Love”. I still like Hot Space for its crazy misadventures and shamelessness. Freddie’s vocals are incredible on it and I always loved the controversial aspect of it. Queen were capable of being a multifaceted beast albeit not 💯 percent convincing on Hot Space. Hot Space is like a harmless half nutty relative you invite to a Christmas party hoping they’ll behave but you know deep down they’ll be acting the weirdo after a few glasses of punch! Hot Space box set? I’m all over it if the cover lights up like the game Simon!!

I absolutely adore hot space for me it's a fun album 🙂

Somebody, somewhere in the Queen camp (🤭) must have thought 'Body Language' was a good track as they had the audacity to release it as a single!! Mercury and Deacon were the driving forces behind this album; May and Taylor weren't keen.

I just remember listening to the album for the first time and wanting to like it; forcing myself to draw out positive things to like about it but in the end, I couldn't do it. it really came across to me that "Queen" was not on the album. We have all seen how each band member when they have gone solo, are not as good as the whole entity of "Queen". Queen literally brings together the chemistry of four musicians and elevates the music in a way their individuality does not. Even Freddie loses something without "Queen". After this, Queen obviously move towards Pop rock to maintain commercial value. Brian himself talked about their music becoming "throwaway" music later in their career even though there were still good songs. In the second half of their career, all of the musical adventure was in the past. I suppose this was the era of the 1970s when most of the great adventures in rock were written and where the 1980s move to something less musical.

I’ve gone back and forth with Hot Space…mostly “back.” It’s just weird… very artsy fartsy and such a departure for them stylistically. Truly, the only album after HS that is worth mentioning, is Innuendo-they saved one of their best, for last…it’s a masterful album, I thought. They went out in a blaze of glory with that one.

For me personally, Jazz is the last Queen album i love and obsessed with. The Game just don't quite do it for me apart from the hits and Dragon Attack.

Hot space has some really good tracks and some werk onces. Just listen and u Will see what I mean. Its not that negative completely folks

How about Calling all girls? It's catchy and kind of happy.

I remember the 11 year old me hearing Hot Space for the first time and thinking, "Oh, this sounds a bit weird for Queen." I also remember the thirtysomething me firing up the album for the first time in an age and thinking, "Yeah, this really isn't all that great, is it?" By this point, I'd already discovered the formula for what makes a good album. It kind of goes like this: - If the first three songs are hit singles, the album is mostly "meh" - The later in the album the hit singles are, the better it is likely to be - If the biggest (or only) hit is the last song on the album, the whole thing is trash And that last one pretty much sums up Hot Space. All that said, though, I'd still argue that this is only a bad album for Queen. When compared with albums in general, it's actually somewhere in the realms of okay. Granted, some of the songs are truly dreadful in any context, but there's more than enough on here to make it listenable. If you're sticking it on and expecting Queen then yes, disappointment is imminent, but as something to just throw on regardless of who it is, it's not that bad. As bad Queen albums go, this isn't the worst. That honour goes to the Flash soundtrack. Some soundtrack albums can be phenomenal pieces of work and even Queen's own A Kind Of Magic is, for my money at least, a bit of a masterpiece. But Flash is a lazy, throwaway slab of vinyl that never fails to disappoint. The film itself is B movie cheese, managing to be fun and watchable in that "so bad it's good" vein, but the album retains none of that. As for The Works, I view that album in the same vein as The Cure's Japanese Whispers. Both are akin to albums designed for those who didn't buy the singles (more so for The Cure's album), and both came on the back of an album that was hampered by the band being in a really bad place, with their preceding album Pornography not exactly receiving critical acclaim at the time. Both The Works and Japanese Whispers got the bands back on track, too, despite playing it relatively safe.

I've watched your channel often but never felt the need to comment...until now! For a usually enlightened commentator I'm surprised you've fallen into the usual 'disco' clichés for this album - it's nothing of the sort. There's plenty of guitar and some really great tracks like Dancer and Backchat. Oh, yeah, and Staying Power is great too! Whilst Hot Space is clearly no Queen II, none of Queen's albums after this are anywhere near as good. Although I obviously disagree on this one, I do enjoy your videos and respect your knowledgeable opinions - thanks for some interesting watches.

I Doubt I've listened to the entire album more than one time.

Sparks' No. 1 in Heaven is a better example of a rock band going the disco route. I feel like if Queen had combined the multi layered vocals and guitar harmonies of their earlier work with the Moroder style synths and pulsating rhythms, they would have had a more successful disco album. It also would have helped if they did it a couple of years earlier.

I love this album, great production indeed. Something different from their other albums. I put it in the top half of their catalog. Even Body Language is a fun song, which is not to be taken as high art. Staying Power is great an Dancer has a great groove and great vocals by Fred.

I like Las Palabras De Amor. And I prefer the single remix of Back Chat which is available on the second disc of the 2011 digital remaster CD of Hot Space. It's the version you hear in the promotional video for Back Chat. You know, the one with Freddie prancing around with that large wrench.

I don't like the album myself and it's not a 'normal' Queen album but to paraphrase Freddie at the time. They were trying something different but it wasn't the end of all things. I saw Queen live at Milton Keynes when this came out and they included a couple of tracks but it was the usual Queen extravaganza. Panic not.

Hot Space is one of my favourite Queen albums and i have them all . It was so refreshing to hear them attempt more dance orientated music Body language reached number 11 in the Billboard Hot 100 25 in the UK , i thought it would have reached number 1 here.Cool cat is excellent too with a great guitar work . The Works which followed was much more standard Queen , but where they ever that standard anyway , there were always surprises . I enjoyed your review and the interview you did with Francis Rossi the other day . I remember the commotion in the Quo fan base when Marguerita time came out , such was the depature in style.

Gimme Queen2 any day!

More than fair, and quite frankly, generous review of a truly abysmal album.

Never was interested in Hotspace. Much rather track down their 2nd album, which is REAL Queen.

Unless I've missed it, just out of curiosity.....could you do a 10 Classic albums of the (dreadful) Eighties.....???

What I've found is the og's who were around for Queen, mostly detest 'Hot Space'. Whereas millennials and gen z's mostly think it's actually quite a quality album. And we're always right so 🤷🏻‍♂️😉😂

I really like your Channel I generally appreciate the reviews And I'm really not one of those SJW's who accuses people of being this that and the other But come on.... You could have turned your homphobia down a little in the review I'm saying this as straight white middle aged rock fan A fair review of the album from a Queen fan's point of view though I'm a Queen fan that loves their stuff up to 1980 and just "cherry pick" tracks after that as likeable I bought Hot Space as a 12 year old after buying Queens Greatest Hits So I would have played this lots seeing as an LP purchase was a big thing back then, but was very disappointed.... News Of The World was bought next, which probably to this day is my favourite Queen album I mean, any album with "It's Late" on makes it a worthwhile purchase Listening to it now...it's pretty awful Only "Put Out The Fire" stands up Plus the Bowie tune I've never heard "Body Language" being compared to that Billy Ocean tune.... Plus that was from 1985 What a little pedant I am Overall excellent channel though

I am a massive Queen fan and a fan of the genre of disco/funk , so I quite like this album personally. However, I can see how this album went down like a plate of cold vomit when it was released in 1982. At the time the "disco sucks" movement had taken hold in the US and radio stations payed it safe by playing out MOR soft rock in 81/82. Disco was still prevalent in Europe, but even then it was still in it's death rattle.

A real low point... I do remember Freddie saying (at Milton Keynes?) 'Hey, it's only a bloody record...' so maybe nothing to get too uptight about. All bands have to have a low water mark to show just how good their best stuff is I guess.

It contains some of Freddies best vocals and side two is solid. I always enjoyed it. Not a classic but fun. Also if you watch a live version of Staying Power it's a whole different animal. They should have done the studio versions more like that.

And then they became totally irrelevant in the USA IIRC. No tours and no radio play. Not until Wayne’s World revived them.

I detect a possible ESG influence on Body Language.

I can’t believe that one online critic counts “Hot Space” in the top five of their top 20 Queen albums, with “ Body language “ their favourite track. Erm!!! When the the band shun their own creation , that should be enough to tell you it’s F*#kin shite! I agree with your opinion of “Jazz”. The band got so far up their own arse , they could see Zeppelin’s feet!

I cant handle anything on this album then beyond Put out the fire and las palapras de amor. I dont count under pressure. Since early pressings did not had under pressure..

I don't think I ever really got over the disappointment of the 1st play though. I was a lot younger then of course but never really went back. With the exception of Put Out the Fire - there was a lot of rewinding & playing of that one. Still love it. (Under Pressure being in a completely different league of its own.)

Pretty much agree - this has Freddie’s palm prints all over it! Just look at his ‘Mr. Bad Guy’ for more of the same. If evidence was ever required to show that Queen was not just Freddie, then this is surely it, love Freddie but I love Queen more!

The album was mostly Freddie's work with help from John Deacon doing the bass, (of course), and some keyboard work. Brian and Roger weren't enamoured with a lot of the concepts of the songs but did contribute when requested to do so. The album wasn't very well received by Queen fans initially. It was one of those, 'WTF?', kind of things. It's essential that all bands evolve, so to speak, in that they have to do whatever they deem necessary to remain relevant for the time. It was the early 80's and synthesizer based music was becoming very prominent. So, it kind of stood to reason that they'd want to up the ante in that direction. However, with this album, they kind of went a bit too far away from what they were known for and it failed to hit the right chords with fans in general. I thought a couple of the singles taken from the album were ok, though. 'Las Palabras De Amore', and, of course, 'Under Pressure.' I wasn't too bothered about, 'Body Language', though as the constant references to sex where deemed a tad cringy for a young teenage boy at the time. And the video for it didn't help, either. I only got to hear the full album toward the end of the 80's, when I was completing my LP collection of their work, and I'd matured enough to see the merits of the songs, but even so, it tended not to get played too often. Nowadays, I've no issue with any of the tracks, as I see it for what it was. Queen doing their, 'thing', in 1982. Much like any other album, it's a snapshot of what the band where doing at the time and shouldn't be looked upon from a modernistic/hindsight perspective. As with all art, it's better to take away positives from it than to mire yourself with the negatives. If it's not your thing then don't play it. Let those who do like it enjoy it. There's nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

Love watching

The Lennon tribute is great, underrated album, basically a Freddie solo album......even Queen's worst song is better than most critics could write, that's my problem with critics, just enjoy the music and being alive. Cool T shirt; cheer up mate........

Since Another one Bites The Dust was a major hit in the USA, it was a matter of time they want to try out more of funky disco stuff. May and Taylor not so much i believe afterwards. Nothing to be worry about. Side one have some dance stuff and i really like Staying Power. Side 2 is far more traditional Queen stuff. I like Side 2 much better than what they produced on The Game and The Works. Hot Space is Absolutely not their strongest work (far from), but i can't say it's bad overall. " it's only a bloody album" Freddie said!

I agree, well-said! For me the last Queen great album is The Game. Afterward they became caricatures of themselves.

The Queen I loved went off the rails with the Jazz album.

I like it weakest tracks were the dreadful Body Language and the Roger Taylor tracks, but Back Track, Staying Power, Los Palabas, Put Out the Fire, Cool Cat and of course Under Pressure are all terrific. No doubt it was driven by Freddie and to a degree John.

Hot Space came out at such a weird time and to be in the middle of classic albums The Game and The Works just magnifies its flaws even more. Queen were coming off the huge successes of A Night At The Opera all the way up to The Game and continued to try and progress. But unfortunately Hot Space regressed too much. About half the album is good but for me it's not one of the Queen albums I go to. I think Calling All Girls, Action This Day and Under Pressure are stand out tracks for a discombobulated album. Plus the cover looks like the band was playing Twister and thought "why don't we make this the album cover." Well they went right back in the right direction with the powerhouse of The Works.

To be perfectly honest, all of the albums after News of the World, with the possible exception of The Game, were highly dubious. (Just my opinion, of course.)

The problem with calling this album 'disco' is that it's really not disco. It's more of a white funk album... not like that helps it much. (If it had been disco, it might have at least been fun in retrospect). Under Pressure is a great closer, but that track was only tacked on as an afterthought once it had already been a hit standalone single the year before. I still enjoy Put Out The Fire and the ballad Las Palabras De Amor, while most of the tracks that appeared live on the 1982 tour were far better than the albums versions. While Under Pressure was played until the final Queen tour in 1986, I believe only one song - Staying Power - was performed after the 1982 tour... for only a few dates on the Works tour in 1984. Queen has always been my favorite band, and will remain so, but if I hear Body Language or Cool Cat ever again, I'll be forced to jam pencils in my ears!

I never bought this album, but I have heard the songs on KZfaq and radio. I've never cared for Freddie's overly sexualized songs and "Body Language" is a prime example; "Get Down, Make Love" is even worse, but that's from another album. "Put Out the Fire" is classic Queen and I can listen to "Las Palabras De Amor", "Back Chat" and "Staying Power". I'm not sure why, but "Under Pressure" isn't a favorite of mine; maybe like "One Vision", it sounds like it was 100% created extemporaneously in the studio. I've read that Hot Space and the video of "I Want to Break Free" tanked Queen's popularity in the USA, and there is truth to that, but in the 1980's Queen's demographic changed: the devoted fans that bought their first 3 albums (1973 to 1974), were now parents trying to raise young families and grow their careers, so purchasing music had to compete with paying rent, food, transportation, etc...

I really like this album. However I also agree with pretty much everything you said. Very much "guilty pleasure" material.

I quite like this album, although it's certainly not the album I listen to the most. It's a failure, but at least it's an interesting failure and that in itself gives me a soft spot for it. You can almost hear the behind-the-scenes political clashes as you listen to it. I still think it has some really nice moment, and had a song like Back Chat been featured on an album like The Game (which was still very rock oriented overall, and released two years before Hot Space) it would have been considered a very solid album track on its own merits, rather that being one of a batch of failed dance experiments by a rock band that temporarily lost the plot. Put Out The Fire and Calling All Girls are brilliant tracks, and I think Love Is Real is a rather touching, if slightly clumsy tribute to someone who was a genuine hero to the lads. I also have a soft spot for Cool Cat. Love the guitar on it and it kind of falls into the semi-tradition of Freddie indulging in a bit of falsetto crooning on the album's final track - in a way, it feels to me like a funky successor to My Melanchy Blues, and Dreamer's Ball in that sense. That being said, I haven't seen many Queen apologists that defend Body Language. 😅 I certainly do not defend it. Weirdly it was quite a big hit in North America (#11 in the US, #3 in Canada), and parts of Europe, mainly the Netherlands and the Nordic countries where it managed to land in the top 10. Especially considering how it was such a reflection of the German disco scene Freddie was deeply involved in, it's rather curious that this single did so well in North America. The far better Back Chat or Calling All Girls didn't get anywhere near that kind of success.

IMO Queen can do no wrong , ooops they did here ,well at least 2/4 of the album with a couple of gems still able to surface through the weeds.

When I listen to Queen it's always one of the first five albums I put on.

And to put Under Pressure at the end which doesn't fit with the rest of the album. It's the only good track though.

I do not like disco music, but somehow this album made something because of the voice of Freddy Mercury.

Freddie was hanging out in the New York gay disco clubs during this time And don't forget Another One Bites the Dust was a HUGE Hit!

I remember feeling, KNOWING, that one of my absolute favorite bands had take a turn…for the worst? I KNEW..I didn’t like the feel, and hated the look (video) of “Body Language “. It was not the Queen…I had loved as a kid. I was saddened more than anything when I heard these tunes. Time has been kinder to this record in my mind, as a few of the songs you CAN hear how great of songwriters they were even when not in sync. Calling All Girls, Las Palabras De Amor, Put Out The Fire, all solid. Back Chat, Cool Cat, Dancer….not as much.

Not being aware of the club scene or any of that stuff back then, I always thought this was an attempt to further the sound they had such great success with from "The Game". "Another One Bites the Dust" was a massive # 1 in the US, whereas a more traditional Queen single "Play the Game" didn't even crack the top 40 here. I've always looked at this album as having a few good songs, all on side 2, and a bunch of things that don't really do it for me, though some of the more dance oriented tunes are catchy. I do dislike "Cool Cat" greatly. Freddie's falsetto voice is like someone buggering a cat for me. That said, "Put Out the Fire" is a solid track. I love "Life Is Real" and who could not resist "Under Pressure", a song that I actually didn't care for too much when it came out but I like quite well now. The rest of it doesn't really work too well for me. Of course, it's all subjective. Good video.

It wasn't just Queen that were at it in the early '80s. Robert Palmer's 'Pride' comes to mind, even the marvellous John Martyn produced some horrid early synth-sequenced stuff around then, like on 'Well Kept Secret'

I really like "Calling all girls" with the nice accented guitars and classic Queen melody. "Body language" oddly enough was a decent hit in the U.S. going into in at number 11. It is a complete Freddie ego trip with a crap melody.

What you didnt mention was although "disco stuff" had gone 1982 was the beginning of high compression recordings of which this album reflects.Even the likes of ACDC and more so ZZ Top took on board and of course Dire Straits most famously.It was all about crispness and highly compressed sound that won the battle at the time.You did it or you died at pop level and Queen were a pop outfit.

I think this album could've easily been called 'Jazz 2"

News of the world, sheer heart attack, opera, races and jazz. 5 good ones to me

Personally I love Hot Space and the art work . As Freddie said at the time it’s just a bloody record

"Put Out The Fire" was good and sounded like the Queen of old. "Las Perlabras De Amor" is my favorite and of course "Under Pressure" is a classic. But the rest of Hot Space ain't worth a fudge cycle!

if people consider this awful, imagine their reactions to A kind of magic.

Yes it does

I’ve just done a countdown of James Bond soundtrack and the 1981 film For Your Eyes Only has an awful disco soundtrack and I said this was akin and as badly timed as Hot Space. At least Freddie, after the even worse Mr Bad Guy, came back to the mothership with his ego slightly dented. Whilst it’s got many, many faults, it gets a play once in a while. Staying Power is a guilty pleasure…. And a certain Michael Jackson was a fan…. I do think his Thriller album has more than a passing similarity to Hot Space.

They were always a pastiche band; their bigger albums all had pastiches of other eras and styles ( which is a trope in pop/rock anyway) and it seems this one didn't work whereas the others did. Maybe the con was exposed.