The album begins with the quasi-theme song «Play the Game», written by lead vocalist Freddie Mercury in the style of a classic Queen piano ballad, with great rock elements. It all starts with spacey and shrieking synth sound effect before settling into the warm and delicate verse. Everyone in the group brings their «A» game to this track, as middle section blends the heavier rock elements led by May with some more wild synth effects. «Dragon Attack» was composed by May and is the first track built on pure textures, a practice which Queen would expand on later on this album and on later albums. The song features a slight drum solo by Roger Taylor before it reaches its heights with some wild, dueling guitars above the middle section with a unique arrangement that allows these guitars to creep in and totally invade the song’s core.

The hit song «Another One Bites the Dust» was composed by John Deacon and is largely built on his simple bass riff which was inspired by the contemporary group Chic. Later, the song takes on a funky element when May adds guitar in the second verse before it goes «pure disco» during a bridge which includes a simple dance beat strewn by various synth sound effects. The formula worked, as «Another One Bites the Dust» sold seven million copies as a single, reached the Top Ten in Britain, and became Queen’s second and final #1 hit in the United States.

Queen’s initial #1 hit is also on The Game, although it was released nearly a year earlier. «Crazy Little Thing Called Love» was written by Mercury as a tribute to the late Elvis Presley. This is also one of the few tracks in the Queen catalog where Mercury plays guitar, as he claimed he composed it in just ten minutes while strumming the few chords that he knew. This all worked out, as a rockabilly track with great style, rich harmonies, and a potent bass line and guitar riffing. Preceding the hit track in the album’s sequence is Deacon’s very pop-oriented «Need Your Loving Tonight», a bright and light tune driven by melody and produced with a much different approach than the more up-front and focused tracks on the album.

The second side commences with «Rock It (Prime Jive)», written by Taylor. This song is in two distinct parts, with Mercury crooning during the long intro and Taylor taking over during the new-wave influenced body of the song. While the song really doesn’t go anywhere from here, it is still intense and interesting enough in its upbeat approach. «Don’t Try Suicide» is a song that’s hard to peg. It does have some very cool sonic motifs throughout, but it is so extremely corny in its PSA-style message that it almost sounds like it should have reserved for a non-album project;

The album’s final three tracks were each recorded during the 1979 sessions. «Sail Away Sweet Sister» is a fine tune by May where the guitarist takes lead vocals and performs his most potent, harmonized guitar lead on the album. This song also features English folk elements and more great harmonies and production. Taylor’s, «Coming Soon» , is percussion driven with a stylistic blend somewhere between ELO and Cheap Trick, along with some heavy new wave elements to top it off. The album concludes with May’s «Save Me», which starts as a sad song of lament but soon launches into a dynamic theatrical piece. While Mercury is back on lead vocals, May played most of the instruments on the track including acoustic and electric guitars, piano and synthesizer. While not a big hit in the US, this album closer peaked at #11 on the UK Singles chart.

Source:http://www.classicrockreview.com/2015/01/1980-queen-the-game/

June 30, 1980

THE GAME

Release of «The Game» album (vinyl, compact cassette). 1 place in the UK, Canada, the Netherlands and the long-awaited top of the Billboard 200 chart in the USA. Fragments from the book written by Jackie Gunn and Jim Jenkins «As It Began»:

Queen spent the summer of 1979 (June-July) working on her new album, mostly at musicland studios in Munich. The usual way of working for the band was to come to the studio with concrete ideas and almost finished works; it was only necessary to bring them to mind, adding fullness of sound. This time they had very few preparations: no ready-made ideas, no half-made songs, only vague sketches. They had to create every song from scratch. They now collaborated with new producer Reinhold Mack (better known simply as «Mack»). In parallel, they began working on the soundtrack to the film «Flash Gordon». It was not easy to record two albums at the same time.

<…>

The recording for the new album and the soundtrack for the film was also done in early 1980 (several sessions from February to May). The band again worked in Munich, deciding that musically it was a very inspiring place; they were also interested in the nightlife of the Bavarian capital.

It was at this time that Freddie decided to change his appearance, cut a thick mane of black hair, which caused a strong anger of many fans. In 1980, after the release of the video to Play The Game, he angered them even more by letting go of the mustache and finally giving up the nail polish. The result was not long in coming: the group’s offices were flooded with mountains of razors and bottles of varnish.

June 30, 1980 started an American tour, and on the same day in the UK went on sale the game, the ninth album of the group (if count Live Killers; approx.). He immediately soared to the top of the British charts, which did not prevent NME to make a scathing criticism:

«Old izezzhena corny, and they like wearing blinkers. Purring from self-gratification.»

However, the sounds inflamed them with love, typing the first lines of the review in capital letters:

«I LOVE QUEEN, LOVE QUEEN… This album hits the bull’s-eye, it’s as good as winning men’s singles at Wimbledon.»

Synthesizers were involved in the process of creating the album. John explained the situation: «We just wanted to test the latest studio equipment. But in general, we are always ready to try something new or unusual while recording. The synthesizers were already quite advanced at that Time, compared to the early Moog, which produced only a few strange sounds. The synthesizers that we used could play all kinds of sounds and instruments, it was possible to create a full-fledged sound of the whole symphony orchestra by simply pressing a button. Unbelievable!»

They created a «new sound» upset some old fans who would never have thought that the group is interested in electronic music, but Freddie said that the Queen should not engage in self-deception, it’s time to keep up with the times. After the release of the album, which won first place in the UK charts (for the third time in their career), the group has a lot of new fans.

galaxy-lilies:

Happy April fools

The heart attack I nearly had

eliot-wolfgirl-spencer:

It’s come to my attention that a good portion of the younger generation has not been made aware of one of the greatest and most hated PILLARS of millennial society.

So I apologize, but I must take on this task. A new hand must touch the beacon. The knowledge must be passed on. The chain can not be broken.

So.

The Game.

The following are the rules of The Game:

1. there is no winning The Game
2. once you know of The Game, you are always playing the game
3. the point of The Game is to not think about The Game
4. if you think about The Game, you have lost The Game, and must announce this to those around you - causing them to also lose The Game

A “reset period” of roughly an hour or two before loss announcements is common in colloquial rules to allow yourself and those around you to properly temporarily “forget” about The Game, however that is not an official rule.

Go forth, you next generation, and I am sorry.

WIP Cover art for The Game! I’m !!! so proud !!! of it !!! so I had to tag @gobln-overlord​@thunderstruck-owl-gal​ 

This week on Aiden Needs to Stop Sassing the FBI Agent:

savannahsdrabbles:

It’s always my favorite character

lul me with Aiden

The final draft of the plot/outline is complete for The Game! Now, all I have to do is suck it up and….a-actually…. write…. hmm.

kagerou-project-official:

noodle-mum:

hEY you should totally take this quiz and see which character in my unpublished wip you are!

https://uquiz.com/nckPLM

Bartholomew (Team Green)!

aaahhhh I love Bartholomew! :) A sweet boi who is madly in love with Liz from Team Yellow!

hEY you should totally take this quiz and see which character in my unpublished wip you are!

https://uquiz.com/nckPLM

ovur:

This is how I win. *loses*

mrspockomakeitso:

Wait if you say the words “you just lost The Game”…did you not, in fact, lose The Game first?

I lost the game

I just lost the game

dasha-aibo:

hartsnkises:

eliot-wolfgirl-spencer:

It’s come to my attention that a good portion of the younger generation has not been made aware of one of the greatest and most hated PILLARS of millennial society.

So I apologize, but I must take on this task. A new hand must touch the beacon. The knowledge must be passed on. The chain can not be broken.

So.

The Game.

The following are the rules of The Game:

1. there is no winning The Game
2. once you know of The Game, you are always playing the game
3. the point of The Game is to not think about The Game
4. if you think about The Game, you have lost The Game, and must announce this to those around you - causing them to also lose The Game

A “reset period” of roughly an hour or two before loss announcements is common in colloquial rules to allow yourself and those around you to properly temporarily “forget” about The Game, however that is not an official rule.

Go forth, you next generation, and I am sorry.

What have you done

Fuck you