After the synth-heavy Hot Space (1982), the album saw the re-emergence of Brian May and Roger Taylor's rock sound, while still incorporating the early 80s retro futuristic electronic music (at the behest of Freddie Mercury) and New York funk scenes (John Deacon's topic of interest).

While a spring tour of South America had been an early possibility, especially in light of the band's success there two years earlier, equipment and promotional problems brought an end to these plans.

Also during this time, their manager Jim Beach offered them the opportunity to compose the soundtrack for the film The Hotel New Hampshire.

Fred Mandel, their session keyboardist, put together an additive track with piano, synth and a temporary bass part.

"Tear It Up" was written by Brian May as an attempt to revive Queen's old sound, notably featuring riffs from the intro to the song "Liar".

May contributed with some of the lyrics, and the intro was based on Ruggiero Leoncavallo's "Vesti la giubba", an aria from his opera Pagliacci.

Mercury played piano and did most of the vocals, and instructed May about the scales he should use for the solo, described by May in the guitar programme Star Licks as very "Bohemian Rhapsody"-esque.

Producer Reinhold Mack programmed the synth-"demolition" using a Fairlight CMI II Sampler, and all the vocals are sung by the group's three vocalists, including Mercury and May singing in harmony and Taylor performing the robotic voices (using a Roland VP-330 Vocoder).

[10] "I Want to Break Free", written by John Deacon, is best known because of its video, featuring all four Queen members crossdressed as women, in a parody of the British soap opera Coronation Street.

The version used for the single and the promotional video includes an opening and instrumental bridge (after the synth solo) not part of the original mix.

"Keep Passing the Open Windows" was written by Mercury in 1983 for the film The Hotel New Hampshire, based on the novel by John Irving.

The phrase is mentioned on a number of occasions throughout the film and was, according to the opening credits, also co-produced by the band's manager Jim Beach, who changed it in order to suit the album mood better.

", which was written by Mercury and May in Munich after the two saw a news broadcast about poverty in Africa; the song was performed at Live Aid as an encore.

The sessions for The Works were highly productive, resulting in an overwhelmingly large body of material written and recorded.

May later worked on "I Dream of Christmas" with his future wife Anita Dobson, which was released as a single in 1988 and also features John Deacon.

Written by May some time in 1981, the song was recorded during the Hot Space album sessions but never made it onto the final cut.

Written by May, this song went through several rewrites and re-recordings before it was left unfinished and subsequently recorded by Anita Dobson, featuring May, for her 1988 album Talking of Love.

Written by Mercury and Giorgio Moroder, "Love Kills" was originally recorded for The Works, but was ultimately rejected.

It was then reworked as a Mercury solo track for inclusion in Moroder's 1984 restoration and edit of the 1927 silent film Metropolis, and was also released as a single.

Rolling Stone's Parke Puterbaugh described it as their "first real album in some time" and "a royal feast of hard rock".

"[21] In a retrospective review, Greg Prato of AllMusic felt that "while the songwriting had definitely improved" from its predecessor Hot Space, he also believed "the album sonically lacked the punch of such earlier releases as News of the World and The Game".