The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 475

oil's important in rock lo know when to move to new musical ground and when to stick with what you've got. By staying close to the perimeters of last year's hugely successful "A Night ai the Opera." Queen has another massive bestseller in "A Day at the Races." David Bowie could benefit from Queen's counsel. "Low," Bowie's latest change of direction, adds to the Englishman's colorful, elusive persona, but the album's icy disorienting Kraftwerk Meets Eno experimental rock leaves me wanting less persona and more music. Bowie's popularity will push "Low" into the Top 10 alongside "A Day at the Races." but its stay there should be brief. i his work that distinguished it.

Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust" in 1972 remains the most striking and original mainstream rock album of the 1970s. Bowie broke away from rock with "Young Americans," the 1975 album that relied on disco and soul influences. Though he claimed he was just following his changing musical tastes. Bowie was attacked by his old fans as an opportunist who jumped on the commercial disco bandwagon. The album give him his first back-to-back Top 10 singles.

Rather than make the ideal commercial move and turn out another disco album. Bowie turned to rock again in last year's "Station to Station." But the album was tentative, hesitant. The boldness of the "Ziggy Stardust" and "Aladdin Sane" was present only in spots. Bolstered by the confidence of his biggest U.S. tour, Bowie makes his most dramatic musical move since "Ziggy" in "Low." He gave a clue to his direction last year when he spoke fondly of Kraft -werk's tcchno-rock.

a cool, detached electronic style best known through its drone-like "Autobahn" single. Rather than enlist the German band for Bowie turned to Brian Eno. the electro-wizard who first came to attention with Roxy Music. Eno co-wrote one tunc on "Low" and contributes synthesizer and other touches on six more. For 12 minutes, this is Bowie's most striking and satisfying album since "Ziggy." But the remaining 26 minutes including all of Side 2 deal with a spacy, art- Queen follows up last year's hil, left, with a potent successor.

Pop Music Platinum From Queen, Icy Steel From Bowie BY ROBERT HILBURN Queen's "A Day at the Races" (Elektra 6E 101) From the start, Queen has aimed high. "You have to have a lot of confidence in this business," said the group's lead singer Freddie Mercury after the band's first hit in 1973. "It's useless saying to yourself. 'Maybe I'm not good enough, maybe I'd better settle for second place' The whole group aimed for the top spot. We're not going to be content with anything else." Last year's "A Night at the Opera" albumthe group's fourth finally gave Queen its shot at superstardom.

"Opera" spent 47 weeks on the national sales charts, spawned two hit singles and showed the band capable of both the high energy of Led Zeppelin and its own wonderfully eccentric pieces such as "Bohemian Rhapsody." The album and its flashy live shows helped Queen make the move from the Santa Monica Civic, where it played, three nights last year, to the 18.700-seat In-glewood Forum, where it is due March 2. Its Feb. 5 date at New York's Madison Square Garden is already sold out and a second show may be scheduled. Realizing the impact of the album, the stylish English quartet has reprogrammed much of the variety and charm of "Opera" rock style that is simply beyond mass pop sensibilities for it to build much enthusiasm. The album's several instrumental tracks, particularly the ones on Side 2, suffer from inaccessibility.

They lack both the melodic stamp and pop connection of "Some of Them Are Old" from Eno's "Here Come the Warm Jets" or the brightness and adventurousness of Eno's "Another Green World." There is such a remote, alien A. Album covers reflect Bowie's personamusical changes: "Low" 1977), "Aladdin Sane" 1973) and "Hunky Dory" 1971). luring folk and sojt rock guitar passages. Less interesting is "White Man," which is bogged down by its conventional social commentary. May's guitar dynamics barely salvages it.

But May's "Let's Cling Together" could become one of the band's anthems. It's a tender, sentimental statement of farewell; an ideal concert finale. If "A Night at the Opera" served notice that Queen is one of the few bands with the style and ambition to reach for Led Zeppelin's rock crown, this album legitimizes the challenge. It's no wonder that Queen includes a sly, mocking wink at Zeppelin. The jab comes at the end of "Tie Your Mother Down" when Freddie Mercury changes the lyric from "give me all your love tonight" to "give me every inch of your love." the key line from Zeppelin's first hit.

How's that for drawing your battle lines. in its new collection. The cover art work is similar, the title again is from a Marx Brothers film and the music even begins with the gong sound that closed "Bohemian Rhapsody." There are similarities, too, in the songs. "The Millionaire Waltz" recalls the ambition and pose of "Bohemian "White Man" has much of the guitar bravado of "The Prophet's "You and 1" suggests the disarming romantic charm of "You're My Best Friend." While this reliance on familiar strains puts "Races" in the shadow of "Opera," the band has approached the individual tracks with a care and skill that gives them their own personality and punch. More than simply a repeat of its last work, "Races" is a reconfirmation of Queen's position as the best of the third wave of English rock groups.

And Queen does step into new areas. "Somebody to Love," the current hit single, adds gospel and Memphis rock roots to Queen's arsenal, while guitarist Brian May's slide work on "Drowse" offers a misty, Delta feel not found on the band's earlier albums. The heart of Queen's strength rests in the conflicting, yet clearly compatible instincts of Freddie Mercury and Brian May. Mercury's songs tend toward the fanciful and ornate; May's are more straightforward and populist. Though Mercury and May write most of the band's songs, Queen continues to draw creditable material from its two feel to the tracks that it's no wonder Bowie uses a still from his "The Man Who Fell to Earth" film as the album's cover photo.

The album's best moments are in four tunes which are conveniently placed back-to-back on Side 1. The icy, experimental instrumental texture complements magnificently the neurotic tension that is at the heart of Bowie's highly vulnerable, searching vocals and his elusive, probing themes. The result is a series of striking mood pieces: the mystery and discovery of "What in the World," the enticement of "Sound and Vision," the dangerous compulsion of "Always Crashing in the Same Car" and the emotional outreach of "Be My Wife." Of the four, "Sound and Vision," with its sensual Bo Diddley guitar pattern, is the likeliest AM hit. By sticking closer to the more conventional range of the album's best songs, Bowie could have made a more cogent and appealing work. As it stands, the lure of Side 1 is tarnished by the remoteness of Side 2.

The problem with Bowie isn't as much opportunism as lack of discipline. Greater concern for mass pop tastes, in fact, would have made a better album. The question now is whether Bowie will stick with this art-rock style until he is able to match the consistency and power of "Ziggy" or whether he'll follow his changing tastes to elsewhere. There's already a rumor Bowie is spending a lot of time listening to acoustic albums. Gulp, other members.

Bassist John Deacon, whose "You're My Best Friend" was one of the hit singles from "Opera," has another potential smash in "You and Drummer Roger Taylor, who contributed the playful rocker "I'm in Love With My Car" last year, is more subdued this time. His "Drowse" is a moody, nostalgic look at childhood ambitions. Mercury's "You Take My Breath Away" is a bit too much in the pop melodrama tradition of "Love of My Life." But his "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" has some of the teasing Music Hall spunk of "Seaside Rendezvous." And "The Millionaire Waltz" and "Somebody to Love," are standouts. Both songs reflect the ambitious mix of harsh and soft textures, the multiple vocal harmonies and the guitar extravagance that are Queen's trademarks. May's four compositions arc also varied.

"Tie Your Mother Down" is one of the most tenacious, high-energy tracks Queen has ever recorded. It even has a classic rock teen theme: a boy's frustration over the way he is treated by his girlfriend's parents. May's "Long Way," by contrast, is a gentle, endearing tune with a comforting, spiritual -tinged message of optimism: "Take heart my friend, we love you Though it seems like you're aloneA mil-lion lights above youShine down upon your home." The arrangement combines an exquisite, Moody Blues-ish chorus with David Bowie's "Low" (RCA Records CPL1-2030) If Queen is aiming for the top in rock, Bowie wants even bigger game. His goal: a multi-media career that would establish him in the tradition of Sinatra or Garland as an entertainer whose person was more important than any single area of activity. Rock was simply his stepping stone.

But he proved a master at it. Though he leaned on familiar models (notably the Stones), he had a passion and boldness to.