Music / Hot Space

"Give me your body!"

"See what I got
I got a hell of a lot
Tell me what you feel
Is it real? Is it real?
You know I got what it takes
And I can take a lot"

— "Staying Power"

Hot Space is the tenth album by British Glam Rock band Queen, released on 21 May 1982 by EMI in the United Kingdom and Elektra Records in the United States. After the massive success that was The Game (Queen), Queen was shifting even further into influences of disco and funk with the use of synthesized backing.

Hot Space was supported by six singles: "Under Pressure", "Body Language ↑⬱", "Las Palabras de Amor", "Calling All Girls", "Staying Power", and "Back Chat".

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Tracklist:

Side One

1. "Staying Power" (4:11)
2. "Dancer" (3:49)
3. "Back Chat" (4:35)
4. "Body Language ↑⬱" (4:32)
5. "Action This Day" (3:32)

Side Two

1. "Put Out the Fire" (4:33)
2. "Life Is Real (Song for Lennon)" (3:32)
3. "Calling All Girls" (3:51)
4. "Las Palabras de Amor (The Words of Love)" (4:31)
5. "Cool Cat" (3:29)
6. "Under Pressure" (with David Bowie) (4:06)

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Principal Members:

• John Deacon – bass, guitars, drum machine, synthesizer
• Brian May – guitars, vocals, synthesizer, drum machine, synth bass
• Freddie Mercury – lead vocals, backing vocals, keyboards, drum machine, synth bass
• Roger Taylor – drums, percussion, vocals, synthesizer, guitars

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This is our tropes under pressure:

• Album Title Drop: Yelled by Freddie right before the guitar solo in "Dancer" begins:
  Hot space, let's go!!
• Alliterative Title: "Cool Cat".
• Anaphora: The David Bowie collaboration "Under Pressure" features two brief, consecutive anaphoras during the closing breakdown:
  Because love's such an old-fashioned word
  And love dares you to care for the people on the edge of the night
  And love dares you to change our way of caring about ourselves
  
  This is our last dance
  This is our last dance
  This is ourselves under pressure
• Canon Immigrant: "Under Pressure" was initially released as a non-album single in October 1981; it was ultimately incorporated into the album's tracklist a year later, hence its radically different sound from the rest of the album and the six-month gap between its single release and that of "Body Language ↑⬱".
• Dude Sounds Like a Lady: Freddie in a couple songs. Most notably "Under Pressure", to the point where David Bowie had his bassist, Gail Anne Dorsey, take up Freddie's role when he performed the song at the 2000 Glastonbury Festival.
• Epiphora: Near the end of "Under Pressure", Freddie Mercury sings "Can't we give ourselves one more chance? Why can't we give love that one more chance?"
• Gratuitous German: "Dancer" features a telephone recording of a German voice saying "Good morning, this is your wake-up call". The clip was recorded in the band's hotel room in Munich.
• Gratuitous Spanish: "Las Palabras de Amor", which was written as a tribute to the band's fans in Latin America.
• In the Style of: Given its nature as an homage for the then recently-departed John Lennon, "Life Is Real" is in his minimalist style.
• Let's Duet: "Under Pressure" is an impromptu duet between Freddie Mercury and David Bowie.
• Lucky Charms Title: "Body Language ↑⬱". The arrows, which appear on the sleeves for both the song's single and the Hot Space album, as well as in the video for the song, were never explained by any member of Queen.
• Lyrical Dissonance:
  • "Put Out the Fire", a cheery pop-rock tune... And the lyrics are told from the perspective of a man who used his gun against everyone he had a problem with, including his unfaithful lover and his neighbor she was having an affair with, alluding to the murder of John Lennon.
  • "Under Pressure" is an incredibly upbeat and cheery song with lyrics such as "It's the terror of knowing what this world is about / Watching some good friends scream 'let me out'".
• Musical Squares: The cover has the band's faces in multi-coloured squares.
• New Sound Album: The album went further into synthesized dance music than The Game, with prominent funk and disco elements. This turned out to be more polarizing, and for The Works, they returned a bit into the classic sound while retaining the new direction.
• One-Word Title: "Dancer".
• Performance Video: The music video for "Back Chat" sees the band mime to the song in a room with a giant piston.
• Scatting: Most of Freddie Mercury's vocals on "Under Pressure" consist of him making random syllabic sounds that start with the letters B or D.
• Shout-Out: The album cover nods to Andy Warhol's silkscreen celebrity portraits.
• Special Guest: David Bowie sang a duet with Freddie Mercury for "Under Pressure".
• Stock Footage: Old footage from films and other places was used in the music video "Under Pressure".
• Three Minutes of Writhing: The music video for "Body Language ↑⬱" consists primarily of scantily-clad women slowly and sensually moving around in a sauna, which got it banned from MTV.
• White Void Room: Most of the music video for "Calling All Girls" is set in a blank white room, tying in with its status as a parody of THX 1138.
• Whole-Plot Reference: The music video for "Calling All Girls" is a parody of THX 1138.

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