"The Freeze" is a song by the English new wave band Spandau Ballet, released on 12 January 1981 as the follow-up to their debut single, the number 5 UK hit "To Cut a Long Story Short".

In 1981 the pathfinding band were consolidating the new approach they had styled White European Dance Music — led on 'The Freeze' by Gary Kemp's two-fingered synth arpeggios, plus enough percussive kick-drum snaps underpinned with bassline rhythms to fill dancefloors.

For the cover art featured on the single for "The Freeze", he selected an image of a chariot from a reference book on Egyptian icons that he thought was symbolic of the album's title.

"[15] At the time of its release, Ronnie Gurr of Smash Hits was ostensibly positive, writing that the song "glides along on one of those disco bass lines and again shows a certain amount of two-fingered prowess from the keyboards.

"[16] Mike Gardner of Record Mirror, however, was negative, asserting that Spandau Ballet "completely blow the favourable impression made with 'To Cut a Long Story Short' by thinking that superbly chunky dance stance drums are enough to compensate for a lack of imagination.

[19] Bassist Martin Kemp found this chart performance to be "a little worrying" when comparing it to how well "To Cut a Long Story Short" had done: "All those people who congratulated you the week before are waiting for the moment when they can revel in your failure.

[23] In the July 2021 issue of Classic Pop magazine, Spandau Ballet's guitarist/saxophonist, Steve Norman, said, "Looking back, I’m not really surprised 'The Freeze' didn’t turn out to be as big a hit as 'To Cut a Long Story Short'.