Did anyone actually like Queen's Flash soundtrack?

Jaycee

I saw Queen in Knebworth must have been 1886 ish (give or take 100 yrs) one of my fave bands, " Flash I love you, but we only got 14 hours to save the earth"   Hot Space imo is bad, I only got it to complete my Queen collection. Night at the Opera and Day at the races, A kind of magic,

pintspiller

A cousin of mine liked it when he was eight. But he liked science fiction and Queen were his first rock band crush.

Octahedron

Sporky said:

The Flash soundtrack is their best work apart from that one with Bowie, which is their best work by an enormous margin because the amount of Queen in it is diluted. A bit like Lilt, which is better than pineapple or grapefruit.

There's something about comparing Queen to Lilt that just seems a tad unfair... 

NotNowJohn

I'm a big fan of the Flash soundtrack, particularly 'Football Fight', 'Flash's Theme', 'Vultan's Theme' and the 'Wedding March'. 'Flash' was the first single I ever bought. Also, the version of 'The Hero' at Milton Keynes is superb.
It is a strange album though, a lot of Brian messing about with his new Oberheim.

It marked the end of an era - the band moved on to mostly writing separately, using synths and drum machines, stripped down production with Mack, the Munich years...

I really think 'The Game' was their last great album. After that they became a bit bloated and lacking ideas. 
'Hot Space' does have its moments: 'Put Out The Fire', 'Under Pressure', 'Life is Real', 'Las Palabras...' but the production has dated badly. Personal relationships within the band and Freddie's entourage also caused huge problems.
However, low-ish sales and criticism led to Queen deciding to revert back to what they did best - which was being Queen. 

IMHO etc

Sporky

Octahedron said:

Sporky said:

The Flash soundtrack is their best work apart from that one with Bowie, which is their best work by an enormous margin because the amount of Queen in it is diluted. A bit like Lilt, which is better than pineapple or grapefruit.

There's something about comparing Queen to Lilt that just seems a tad unfair... 

Possibly, but I'm not mad-keen on Lilt either.

axisus

Although I didn't like it as an album, I really like the film! well, everything apart from the hawkmen's terrible wings.

I've been reading up a bit since I posted the thread, and it is generally considered the black sheep of the Queen discography. Apparently the reason that it was viewed so unfavourably was because it was released/marketed as a 'Queen album' rather than a soundtrack, and it is most definitely just a soundtrack.

DiscoStu

It has its moments - Football Fight for one - but it's not the sort of thing I could listen to on repeat. I have it on vinyl which means it almost never gets played

@NotNowJohn I would say The Works was their last great album. 

siraxeman

RocknRollDave said:

It's the only Queen album I don't own (EDIT: Except for the posthumous ones), because I figured it was a soundtrack rather than a proper album and that doesn't interest me.

Hot Space is OK, Staying Power is a fun track. Hardly an essential album but at least I could bring myself to buy and listen to it which is more than can be said for Made In Heaven

Made In Heaven was an album made from left overs and Freddie solo stuff with all the music stripped off and Queen putting their own music to Freds voice. Simply trying to make an albums worth of material when there really wasn't enough material left to do a full album. Let Me Live from that album though is a cracker IMO, Freddie only did the 1st verse and a chorus and it was just left unfinished for years...so Brian and Roger sang a verse each and they re used the choruses with Freddies voice on and made a whole complete finished song from it. Similar with Mother Love. I quite liked the album, not realising at first it was half Freddies solo stuff rehashed with Queen music. Beautiful Day reprise is another fave of mine from said album.

As for the OPs Q...Flash is the weakest album then Hot Space after that. I really like Hero from the Flash album and quite liked Football fight but them and the title track and the rest is meh. Got it as I'm a die hard Queen fan but its the one album that rarely gets played these days but it has been played a bit in the past as I gave it a fair crack!  Hot Space was Queen well, John and Freddie getting carried away with the success of Another One Bites the Dust from the previous album The Game. Brian and Roger went along with it reluctantly as they never really felt it..but Freddie and Johns desire to persue dance/disco music and the epic success of Another One Bites The Dust meant they had to try their luck in that genre. Gladly for most Queen fans they did a sharp u turn immediately after that! They felt/heard the backlash from their fans and responded accordingly.

NotNowJohn

@DiscoStu I do like 'The Works' but always find it a bit light and way too short. Full of hits though and 'It's A Hard Life' will always be one of my faves.