Queen 12: Hot Space

While the band had proved they could evolve with the times, with Hot Space Queen seemed to go completely off the rails. There’s no mistaking that voice for Freddie Mercury, but especially with the dearth of guitars, much of the album sounds little like the Queen everybody (thought they) knew.

The band that boldly eschewed synthesizers now embraced keyboards and drum machines, and with Arif Mardin-arranged horns, “Staying Power” was an ironic title in a country that rejected disco. “Dancer” is a slower strut that improves whenever the guitars come in to crunch, especially that nutty solo, but most of it is burbling funk. “Back Chat” sounds even more like Chic than “Another One Bites The Dust” did, and the canned drums, which now sound so generic from countless records, do not help at all. We will admit that the tune isn’t that far off from the type of dance songs the Rolling Stones had put out recently. “Body Language” was the first single (and video) released for the album, almost all Freddie and synths; the reaction of many suburban kids was that it sounded “kinda gay,” which was Freddie’s point, of course. Then there’s Roger Taylor’s “Action This Day”, which has an incessantly pounding beat, subtle guitars, but rhythm piano for a trashy sound. An unexpected neo-classical flourish heralds a surprising saxophone solo.

Side two is a major improvement. “Put Out The Fire” finally, mercifully, has some Brian May riffing for a potential stadium anthem. What’s not immediately obvious is the song’s anti-gun content, culminating in cries of “shoot!”, which set up “Life Is Real”, subtitled “Song For Lennon”, and written in memory of the fallen Beatle. The somber mood is fleeting, as Roger’s pro-love “Calling All Girls” uses prominent 12-string acoustic guitars but still sounds robotic; the video doubled down on that feeling. The sentiment continues on “Las Palabras De Amor”, helpfully subtitled “The Words Of Love” for those who don’t speak Spanish, driven by swirling arpeggiated keyboards, real drums, and gang harmonies. The lazily jazzy “Cool Cat” now sounds like a template for George Michael, particularly in the falsetto vocal approach. A very trying album closes with “Under Pressure”, the untouchable duet with David Bowie that had already appeared on the American Greatest Hits, but not elsewhere.

Hot Space was not a hit in America, and was seen as something of a stumble around the world. Some of the songs would improve onstage, but it would take some time for the band to recover commercially. The U.S. took even longer to come around, by which time it was too late. (The first CD reissue included a new remix of “Body Language” with guitar and piano added, which was not included in the expanded CD two decades later in favor of three live tracks from 1982, the remixed single version of “Back Chat”, and the vintage B-side “Soul Brother”.)

Queen Hot Space (1982)—2½
1991 Hollywood reissue: same as 1982, plus 1 extra track
2011 remaster: same as 1982, plus 5 extra tracks

Queen 11: Greatest Hits

At the start of the ‘80s, Queen was still huge, the Flash Gordon soundtrack notwithstanding. As they had more than enough for a greatest hits album, their label went ahead and released not just one, but different sequences in different countries, depeding on what qualified. And here’s where it gets confusing.

In the US, side one began with “Another One Bites The Dust”, having been so huge here, before going back to “Bohemian Rhapsody”, which opened the set practically everywhere else. “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” brought it current again, then it was back to “Killer Queen”. “Fat Bottom Girls” and “Bicycle Race” are still in the wrong order to these ears, but the real draw was “Under Pressure”, the brand new (and stellar) collaboration with David Bowie. After the one-two punch of “We Will Rock You” and “We Are The Champions” starting side two, the single version of “Flash” doesn’t sell that album very well, but “Somebody To Love” and “You’re My Best Friend” are always welcome. The single version of “Keep Yourself Alive” is still a kicker, though “Play The Game” is still kinda underwhelming. The packaging was not elaborate but still nice, with custom labels and an inner sleeve that helpfully said what songs came from what albums.

Eleven years later, after Freddie had died, their American distribution changed, and Wayne’s World revived interest in the band, the label wanted a companion to the previous year’s Classic Queen, which mostly focused on the later years of the band but still included “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Under Pressure”, and “Keep Yourself Alive”. So the updated Greatest Hits repeated and reshuffled the rest of the first one (save “Flash”) and included songs that were on the British version of the first hits album, such as “Don’t Stop Me Now”, “Save Me”, and “Now I’m Here”, but also threw in “Body Language” and “I Want To Break Free”. The older additions were welcome, but three songs stuck on the other album were missed. (New cover art underscored that this was not the original 1981 sequence.)

It wasn’t until 2004 that the original UK sequence was released in America, with three odd extras: “I’m In Love With My Car”, and two songs from that year’s release of their 1982 Hollywood Bowl concert of the album. But for those of us who loved that first US hits album, there’s always Spotify.

Queen Greatest Hits (1981)—4
Queen Greatest Hits (1992)—4
Current CD availability: none

Queen 10: Flash Gordon

Most major bands were excited when they were tapped to provide a full soundtrack for a film, and Queen got their chance with the mega-budget cult classic Flash Gordon. They even took time out while making The Game to work on it.

When the soundtrack album came out, fans may have been disappointed to find it was just that: music for the background of the movie, used as counterpoints to the onscreen action, and not meant to swamp the dialogue. And this album has lots and lots of dialogue. While each band member gets credit for the tracks they spearheaded, and worked on individually, the orchestral touches were not provided by any of the band, and don’t sound like them anyway.

The album is bookended by the two closest things to actual songs, being that they have distinct sets of lyrics, sung by Freddie Mercury. “Flash’s Theme” was the basis for the single, and probably the one piece most people have heard from the album. The chorus is fairly obvious, but unfortunately the slower “just a man” section isn’t exploited more throughout the rest. “The Hero” is the closing piece, loaded with guitars and drums, which of course goes back to repeat most of “Flash’s Theme” before ending with, yes, an explosion.

But in between, there is just music that would probably resonate more with those who’ve seen the movie more than once. Timbales and space effects abound, and the band certainly got over their earlier stated disdain for synthesizers. Most of these tracks are fleeting, less than two minutes apiece, and run seamlessly together with few noticeable gaps. There are a few standouts, like the very new-wavey “Football Fight”, which accompanies the scene in which our hero picks off the enemy’s minions with his gridiron skills (not really much of a stretch, as Flash was a polo player in the original comic strip). “Execution Of Flash” is a brief guitar theme, played not by Brian May but John Deacon, yet there’s no mistaking Brian’s touch on his arrangement of Wagner’s well-known “Wedding March”. “The Kiss” is very much a movie theme, with impossibly high vocals from Freddie. “Flash To The Rescue” and “Marriage Of Dale And Ming” recycle the familiar parts of “Flash’s Theme”, as does the reprise, of course, while “Battle Theme” is a precursor to “The Hero”. (Halfway through that, we hear a character intone, “Who wants to live forever?”—which would become another movie song one day.)

The Flash Gordon film failed to launch a franchise, so this relatively short album remains part of that failure. The 1991 CD added just a modern hip-hop dance remix of “Flash’s Theme” that was pretty stupid, but the bonus disc in the expansion twenty years later at least tried to put the emphasis back onto the music. The single version of “Flash” is shorter than the album track but includes dialogue not on the album, yet still manages to encapsulate the whole thing. The “revisited” mix of “The Hero” puts more emphasis on the vocal and instrumental parts, and while there are still some sound effects, it’s a better track overall. The early version of “The Kiss” is simply wordless vocal and piano, followed by a piano-driven “Football Fight”. Live performances of “Flash” and “The Hero” from the following year are good, and should sate anyone who really needs to hear the songs again.

Queen Flash Gordon (1980)—2
1991 Hollywood reissue: same as 1980, plus 1 extra track
2011 remaster: same as 1980, plus 6 extra tracks

Queen 9: The Game

Like most bands, a live album presented something of a chapter break for Queen, who leapt right into the ‘80s with The Game. There wasn’t a complete overhaul of their sound, but everyone except Brian May had shorter hair, and while he doesn’t have it on the cover, the inner sleeve shows Freddie with his new mustache.

Right away it’s clear that the band’s legendary aversion to synthesizers has passed, as “Play The Game” whizzes into place, but it soon turns into a standard if Beatlesque piano-driven piece from Freddie, with lots of layered harmonies and guitar bursts. (The video is worth watching for its now hilariously dated green screen effects and the freeze frame on each of the singers in turn, as well John Deacon, who of course never sang a note in the band and so just stands there.) “Dragon Attack” has a terrific snaky riff and a vocal not too far removed from “We Will Rock You”. This might have pleased those who weren’t happy with the overt funk of “Another One Bites The Dust”, the smash single that definitely sold the album. Deacon wrote it, as well as the more rocking “Need Your Loving Tonight”. The other draw was the undeniably catchy, rockabilly-tinged “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, which had been a single a full six months before the album came out.

“Rock It (Prime Jive)” begins with Freddie singing over a slow arpeggiated guitar, but the tempo changes and Roger Taylor takes over, its stupidity underscored by a cheesy organ. But for the handclaps, things get darkly humorous with “Don’t Try Suicide”, a track that otherwise sounds directly derived from “Walking On The Moon” by the Police. “Sail Away Sweet Sister”, sung mostly by Brian, is more somber but not mournful, and we wish the instrumental coda was longer. Roger brings back the stupid with “Coming Soon”, but Brian rises to the occasion with “Save Me”, an expression of empathy that could have been on any of their earlier albums.

Even with the modern touches, The Game is one of their better albums, and a return to form. Some of the credit could go to their new co-producer, who at this time was known only as “Mack” and apparently kept them reined in. They still sounded like Queen, and that’s all that mattered. (The routine modern remix on the 1991 reissue—this time of “Dragon Attack”—was again ignored for the later expansion, which instead included two live versions, the contemporary “A Human Body” B-side, the first take of “Sail Away Sweet Sister”, and a snippet of the unfinished “It’s A Beautiful Day”.)

Queen The Game (1980)—3½
1991 Hollywood reissue: same as 1980, plus 1 extra track
2011 remaster: same as 1980, plus 5 extra tracks

Queen 8: Live Killers

While their albums were popular, Queen was one of those bands that was best experienced in person. They were a big concert draw around the world, even in countries where English wasn’t the primary language, so when the time came for a live album, they were ready. Being the ‘70s still, and being Queen, Live Killers was a double.

A thunder crack opens the album, and the band soon kicks in with a sped-up rendition of “We Will Rock You”. Freddie actually asks the attendees if they’re ready to rock, then they plow into “Let Me Entertain You”. The introduction to “Death On Two Legs” is bleeped, apparently purposely to avoid a lawsuit from the object of the lyrics. It ends almost abruptly to segue into “Killer Queen”; this too is cut short to switch to “Bicycle Race”, which also is truncated in order for Roger to sing “I’m In Love With My Car”, salvageable due to Brian’s shredding. Things slow way down for “Get Down, Make Love”, complete with nutty interlude, and “You’re My Best Friend” closes the side.

“Now I’m Here” has an interesting intro, as the delay effect used for his voice kicks in before the song starts. After about four minutes the band stops so Freddie can the crowd in a call-and-response, which continues after the band comes back in, and then again towards the end. The crowd, of course, eats it up, going on to cheer the drum break. Rather than continue the illusion of a concert, the album fades to silence before returning with an acoustic “Dreamer’s Ball” and a gentle “Love Of My Life”, with which the crowd also sings along, eventually taking it over. They also cheer the return of the band for a stomp through “‘39”, and then the band plugs back in for “Keep Yourself Alive”.

“Don’t Stop Me Now” isn’t ecstatically received; maybe the audience wasn’t that familiar with it yet. They’re more happy about “Spread Your Wings”, and for singing along with it. “Brighton Rock” is twelve minutes long, mostly to accommodate Brian’s lengthy guitar showpiece and Roger’s phased drums, recommended to fans of Led Zeppelin’s later performances of “Dazed And Confused”.

Side four opens with the crowd chanting “Mustapha”, of which Freddie adds a few lines instead of the expected intro to “Bohemian Rhapsody”. And since there was no way to replicate the middle section onstage, that part from the record itself comes through the speakers until they can finish it themselves. “Tie Your Mother Down” ends with Freddie bidding the crowd good night, fading to silence, and encoring with “Sheer Heart Attack”. After another fade, the familiar beat of “We Will Rock You” signals that song, followed by “We Are The Champions” and their version of “God Save The Queen” played over the PA.

Live Killers is one of the few Queen albums never to be expanded with bonus tracks. Some of it sounds a little too clean for a live recording, and indeed overdubs have been accounted for. Other enterprising souls have also spent a lot of time documenting which tracks came from which shows. But as a representation of the band onstage, it delivers. Which was the point. Besides, their next album wasn’t ready yet.

Queen Live Killers (1979)—3

Queen 7: Jazz

We’re guessing that anyone who got into Queen on the back of “We Will Rock You” and “We Are The Champions” would have been sorely confused by the first track on Jazz. While it does eventually incorporate some trademark Brian May licks, the majority of “Mustapha” is an operatic exploration evoking Allah and sung confidently by Freddie Mercury, mostly in Arabic and Persian.

Of course, they might have bought the album on the basis of the first single, which paired the equally intricate “Bicycle Race” with the unlikely singalong “Fat Bottomed Girls”. Around our way these songs were often played back to back a la the aforementioned openers from News Of The World—and considering each song references the other, it made sense—but they don’t appear on the album that way. Instead, “Fat Bottomed Girls” is the second song on side one, followed by the moody piano ballad of “Jealousy”, and only after that do we hear “Bicycle Race”. (To confuse things further, a poster of about 70 nude women on bicycles came with early copies of the album, which likely distracted those bewildered teenage boys for the duration of their youth.) “If You Can’t Beat Them” is a straightahead rocker, and proof yet again that John Deacon wrote some terrific songs for this band. “Let Me Entertain You” recalls the heavy sound of their first albums, even if the sentiment in the lyric, thanks to the mildly campy delivery, tries to hard to convince.

The hard rock continues on “Dead On Time” with a rapid-fire, tongue-twisting chorus and a closing thunderclap effect that’s as startling as it is silly. “In Only Seven Days” borders on yacht rock with its romantic chord changes—one of which will feature four tracks later—and acoustic guitars (courtesy of Deacon, who wrote it), while “Dreamers Ball” is more of a lazy New Orleans blues. That makes “Fun It” a real anomaly, being extremely disco-influenced an intentionally inane; they would do better on their next real album. We can blame Roger Taylor for this one, though Freddie must have liked it since he sings half the vocals. Brian sings his sentimental heart out over trilling acoustics on “Leaving Home Ain’t Easy”, even the part in the middle where the “wife” responds. All this is forgotten once “Don’t Stop Me Now” kicks in, however. This song was criminally ignored in the U.S. for the better part of 25 years, which is insane because it just might be the greatest Queen song of all time. This makes the closing “More Of That Jazz”, another one-man-band demo from Roger, all the more anticlimactic, especially when the mix suddenly weaves in earlier snippets of the album before returning to the song proper.

The songs on Jazz all over the place, touching on virtually every known genre except jazz itself. While it has its moments, and the bad parts aren’t necessarily bad, it simply doesn’t hold together as an album. Still, it’s further evidence that there never has been another band that sounds like Queen. (The first reissue added only modern remixes of “Bicycle Race” and “Fat Bottomed Girls”, while the one twenty years later included an instrumental of the former, the single edit of the latter, an alternate mix of “Don’t Stop Me Now” with too many guitars, an early take of “Dreamers Ball”, and a live “Let Me Entertain You” from a 1981 Montreal concert released on video and CD a few years before.)

Queen Jazz (1978)—3
1991 Hollywood reissue: same as 1978, plus 2 extra tracks
2011 remaster: same as 1978, plus 5 extra tracks

Queen 6: News Of The World

With every album, Queen had always strived for being bigger. This would be something of a stumbling block in the UK, where punk was all about tearing down pomposity (in others, anyway). In America, loud and heavy music still ruled the high school parking lot, so News Of The World was not only welcomed, but expanded the group’s popularity.

Still, they throw a curve at the start. Rather than another rococo fanfare, the stamping feet and clapping hands of “We Will Rock You” take a football chant worldwide, and Brian May’s guitar solo is one of his best. On the radio stations we listened to, the song went right into “We Are The Champions”, which anyone else would have put at the end of the album. It only took us a zillion listens to realize that the melody under “no time for losers” is the same as the schoolyard “nyeah nah na-nah nah” taunt. For another curve ball, “Sheer Heart Attack” isn’t just the long lost title track from a previous album, but a solid punk track that doesn’t take the piss in the slightest. For another whiplash-inducing switch, “All Dead, All Dead” is more morbid lyrically than musically, and it turns out Brian never got over the death of his pet cat. While “Spread Your Wings” could be read as a suicide note, it’s actually a strong message advocating survival, and another songwriting success for John Deacon. (We wonder if Sammy ever got to compare life lessons and melody with Anthony from Billy Joel’s “Movin’ Out”.) “Fight From The Inside” was recorded almost completely by Roger Taylor, and is more of the dirty and stupid rock and roll he usually delivered.

If parents weren’t already disturbed by the album’s gory cover art, they would have had major conniptions over the content of “Get Down, Make Love”, where the extremely minimalist accompaniment leaves plenty of room for the lyrics to be heard and understood as intended. The effects-laden interlude provides a link between Led Zeppelin and Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Brian sings the bluesy “Sleeping On The Sidewalk” in a nice Bad Company pastiche; John’s bassline is particularly deft. Deacon’s also responsible for “Who Needs You”, and its overly Spanish samba mélange unfortunately only predicts George Michael today. The severe stereo mix obscures the lyrics. While using very simple chords and the most basic of riffs, “It’s Late” is this album’s version of a suite—indeed, the lyric sheet even splits the verses up into stage “scenes”—but without the piano that earlier ones sported. We also hear echoes of Meat Loaf and Asia in here, and the double-time sections are particularly welcome. Just in case you thought Freddie wasn’t camp anymore, “My Melancholy Blues” put paid to that, bringing the album squarely back to where they left off the last time.

Being so popular, it was natural that the album would be expanded for reissues, but this didn’t happen right away. The 1991 CD added merely a “bonus remix ruined by Rick Rubin” that extended the final guitar figure over bass and drums from Flea and Chad of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. This was eschewed on the later remaster for the rockin’ outtake “Feelings, Feelings”, two songs from a BBC session, “Sheer Heart Attack” live in 1979, and a revved-up “We Will Rock You” three years after that. The album’s 40th anniversary gained the most, kinda, with two full CDs—one dedicated to so-called Raw Sessions, comprising alternate takes and rough mixes save for a live “Sleeping On The Sidewalk”, and the other containing the 2011 bonus tracks, previously released BBC sessions and live versions, “karaoke” tracks, and one radio edit. (By that time box sets like this included the original album on vinyl as well, which this did, plus a DVD and a book, yanking up the price and further angering fans who already had most of the material already.)

Queen News Of The World (1977)—3½
1991 Hollywood reissue: same as 1977, plus 1 extra track
2011 remaster: same as 1977, plus 5 extra tracks
2017 40th Anniversary Edition: same as 2011, plus 25 extra tracks (and DVD)

Queen 5: A Day At The Races

Named after another Marx Brothers film and sporting a similar cover design, it’s easy to view A Day At The Races as a companion to Queen’s previous album. That would be incorrect, since it’s as different from A Night At The Opera as that was to Sheer Heart Attack, which this one more closely resembles.

Something of a pompous synthetic fanfare opens takes up the first minute, and it’s a distraction before “Tie Your Mother Down” crashes in with its terrific riff. After that solid opener, Freddie is left alone with his multitracked harmonies and his lonesome piano for “You Take My Breath Away”. At five minutes it takes a while to make its point, and the closing loop makes an unsettling transition to the more typical ‘70s rock of “Long Away”. Brian sings this one, and we’re reminded of how much his voice does match Freddie’s. “The Millionaire Waltz” begins like Freddie solo again, this time in operetta mode. When the drums finally come in, they’re welcome, but it’s become a little too much of a retread of “Bohemian Rhapsody”. “You And I” returns us to straight rock, proving once again how much of a secret weapon John Deacon was as a songwriter.

While “Somebody To Love” is as over-the-top as anything on this album, it’s still one of Freddie’s (and the band’s) greatest creations. Here it all comes together—the piano, the bass, the drums, the guitar, and especially the choir on top of that voice. We even feel let down after it dribbles to a close, since it’s followed by the angry rock outrage of “White Man” (though it should be said that English bands singing about the plight of Native Americans was a smart shift away from those who were obsessed with cowboys). It’s another U-turn to the mild vaudeville of “Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy”, more along the line of the Queen that had been emerging. Roger Taylor’s songs always stick out like a sore thumb on Queen albums, and “Drowse” fills the same requirement as “I’m In Love With My Car”, though it’s nowhere near as silly. Brian apparently provides the keyboards for “Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)”, which is a nice lighter-waver sung partially in Japanese. The already anthemic song ends with that backwards-sounding fanfare that opens the album.

A Day At The Races is good, but it had a hard act to follow. Still, it shows they were trying, highlights their versatility, and continues the brand they were building. They were getting there, certainly. (Neither of the modern mixes on the 1991 expansion were included on the 2011 remaster. Instead, consumers got the backing track for “Tie Your Mother Down”—which still has the backing vocals on the choruses—a lengthy live “Somebody To Love” from 1982 and a preview of “You Take My Breath Away” from 1976, a slightly different “Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy” from a Top Of The Pops appearance, and an “HD mix” of “Teo Torriatte” that omits the crazy ending.)

Queen A Day At The Races (1976)—3
1991 Hollywood reissue: same as 1976, plus 2 extra tracks
2011 remaster: same as 1976, plus 5 extra tracks

Queen 4: A Night At The Opera

This is approximately where the legend of Queen really begins. Calling the album A Night At The Opera hints at the bombast contained within. Throughout, they deliver.

Furious classical piano arpeggios compete with sinister guitar effects before a tempo change and a sudden choral hit announces “Death On Two Legs”. Subtitled “Dedicated To…”, it’s a nasty riposte to a former manager that’s directly deflated by the Rudy Vallee crooning of “Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon”, playing right into Freddie’s camp. While brief, it leaves room for Brian May’s guitar solo, which sports his signature sound. Roger Taylor again provides unintentional comic relief, this time with the unfortunately sincere “I’m In Love With My Car”. Despite having been used humorously in the closing credits of countless TV shows and films, “You’re My Best Friend” remains a sweet tribute, and above all, catchy as all get-out. (Plus, John Deacon gets his share of the lucrative royalties.) The misleading folkie strum of “‘39” belies the lyrics, which are right out of science fiction; much more typical of the band is the cock rock of “Sweet Lady”. Lest anything the earlier vaudeville tease was just that, “Seaside Rendezvous” is even more produced and even sillier.

They haven’t completely left their prog influences behind, as demonstrated by the content and construction of “The Prophet’s Song”. While impressive, the indulgence of the intricate and echoed a cappella midsection is tempered by their resisting to name it, as Rush and other contemporaries would have done. The harp-like guitar effects at the close of the song nicely meld with the opening of “Love Of My Life”, a gorgeous ballad that also shows off Freddie’s piano prowess. Vaudeville returns yet again, this time courtesy of Brian, for “Good Company”. Though not brief, it’s a stark contrast to what comes next. Even before Wayne’s World wore out its fifteen minutes, “Bohemian Rhapsody” was always worth the listen, and it remains one of the most impressively intricate songs of its time. (Its use of the stereo spectrum is particularly expert.) What could possibly follow that? A Queen-style arrangement of “God Save The Queen”, of course.

Anyone who buys A Night At The Opera on the basis of “Bohemian Rhapsody” or even “You’re My Best Friend” will not be disappointed, particularly since there’s more to the album than those. It’s an excellent gateway to the band. (Two remixes were added to 1991’s expanded reissue; these were ignored for the version twenty years later, which instead offered the contemporary re-recording of “Keep Yourself Alive”, later live versions of “Love Of My Life” (from Live Killers) and “’39”, and new isolated mixes of “You’re My Best Friend”, “I’m In Love With My Car”, and the “operatic” middle section of “Bohemian Rhapsody” to highlight the vocals.)

Queen A Night At The Opera (1975)—3½
1991 Hollywood reissue: same as 1975, plus 2 extra tracks
2011 remaster: same as 1975, plus 6 extra tracks

Queen 3: Sheer Heart Attack

Once upon a time, a young and hungry band would write, record, tour, and repeat. Sometimes this would lead to not one but two brand new albums being released in the space of a calendar year. Those were the days. (Plus, records were cheaper then.)

Sheer Heart Attack finds Queen determined to leave their mark on the music scene, and loudly. But first: remember how the last album with “I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside”? Well, that’s referenced in the atmospheric intro to “Brighton Rock”, which hides a tale of star-crossed lovers at the seashore in a frantic arrangement. Brian May takes a mostly unaccompanied solo that takes up about three minutes in the middle of the song, setting up a showcase for live appearances; we’re going to assume this is supposed to illustrate their romantic interlude before the twist ending. After all that volume and bombast, the campy “Killer Queen” is a surprise, but one that better signals the band’s sound going forward, with the prominent piano and flanged vocals and guitars. “Tenement Funster” is a dark little recording, wherein Roger Taylor boasts of his rock star coolness (tongue in cheek, thankfully) before an abrupt switch to “Flick Of The Wrist” returns Freddie Mercury to center stage for a portrait of an even more unsavory character. This too goes directly to the next song; here “Lily Of The Valley” appears to be another overwrought ballad in a prog suite, particularly with the reference to “seven seas” and the “king of Rhye”, but’s it’s more clever than that. “Now I’m Here”, with its dizzying time changes and chord changes, plus a reference to Chuck Berry’s “Little Queenie”, brings a fairly adventurous side one to a breathtaking close.

An impossible high note sung by Roger heralds “In The Lap Of The Gods”, which belies its bombastic intro and strangely processes Freddie’s voice to a lower pitch, and frankly, doesn’t go anywhere, limping to a close. A speed-metal template save the harmonies, “Stone Cold Crazy” barrels past in just over two minutes, with two guitar parts chasing each other over the bridge. “Dear Friends” another left turn, and another piano and voice interlude. John Deacon’s acoustic strumming on “Misfire” makes the song sound like any number of Doobie Brothers tunes from the period, but the same cannot be said about “Bring Back That Leroy Brown”, which shares a title and the traits of Jim Croce’s character, but this is a vaudeville sendup with incredible bass work from Deacon and Brian on ukulele. The echoed acoustics and vocals on “She Makes Me” doesn’t quite match the “Stormtrooper In Stilettos” subtitle, though the police sirens and heavy breathing over the end are tough to miss. Finally, “In The Lap Of The Gods… Revisited” merely presents a wholly different song to the one heard at the top of the side, and one more likely to cause audiences to sway and sing along, at least until the explosion at the very end.

There’s a lot going on throughout Sheer Heart Attack, and we suspect its charms truly emerge with time. At any rate, the inclusion of “Killer Queen”, “Now I’m Here”, and “Stone Cold Crazy” alone launch it above the line. (The 1991 expansion of the album added only a modern remix of “Stone Cold Crazy”; this was ignored two decades later, which offered a live “Now I’m Here” from 1975, two tracks from a contemporary BBC session, a fun a cappella mix of “Leroy Brown” that incorporates other instruments only where there are no vocals, and “Gods Revisited” from the 1986 Wembley show.)

Queen Sheer Heart Attack (1974)—3
1991 Hollywood reissue: same as 1974, plus 1 extra track
2011 remaster: same as 1974, plus 5 extra tracks

Queen 2: Queen II

With the imaginatively titled Queen II, Queen attempted to further their image, though they still seemed stuck between Zeppelin-style hard rock and English prog. They’re clearly still finding their way, but not embarrassingly. (As a record or cassette, it was divided into “Side White” and “Side Black”, which wasn’t just an art concept to flesh out the packaging. Mostly it makes it easier to remember which similarly titled epic is on which side.)

The album begins with a stately “Procession” of treated guitars—no synthesizers!—with only a kick drum helping it along before morphing into “Father To Son”, which has that triumphant anthemic feel they were perfecting. “White Queen (As It Began)” follows the maiden-in-the-tower trope without being too cheesy, and builds nicely. Brian May sings “Some Day One Day”, with its “Ramble On” acoustic and electrics, then Roger Taylor offers “The Loser In The End”, still trying out his rock ‘n roll rooster persona. It’s got good crunch and nicely layered guitars, bass, and of course drums, but it’s a style they’d leave behind.

Interestingly, Brian wrote most of the white side, while Freddie Mercury gets sole writing credit for the songs on the black. These seem to be even more inspired by fairy tales and whatnot, and even segue like any good prog side should. “Ogre Battle” takes a while to rumble in before exploding with backwards sounds and heavy, heavy riffing, sounding almost like Black Sabbath before Freddie starts singing. Any gravitas is deflated by the way over-the-top harpsichord on “The Fairy-Feller’s Master Stroke”, not to mention the truly dippy lyrics. “Nevermore”, though brief, provides a good future template, based on piano with stacks of vocals. There’s only a brief pause before “The March Of The Black Queen” incorporates tongue-twisting couplets and several melodies into another harbinger of a certain rhapsody. While it’s not a lyrical fit with what’s come before, “Funny How Love Is” is a perfect, energetic successor. Finally, “Seven Seas Of Rhye” appears as a fully fledged song and without the ellipsis from the first album, bringing a challenging album to a strong finish. (The snatch of “I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside” stands out strangely, but would also be explained in time.)

The first expansion of Queen II included the ultra-bluesy yet campy B-side “See What A Fool I’ve Been”, plus a remix of “Ogre Battle” and a misguided extended dance mix of “Seven Seas Of Rhye” that pits the vocals against samples from a variety of Queen tracks. Only “See What A Fool I’ve Been” was repeated on the next upgrade, alongside a BBC performance of same plus “Nevermore” from another BBC session, a live “White Queen”, and an instrumental mix of “Seven Seas Of Rhye”.

Queen Queen II (1974)—3
1991 Hollywood reissue: same as 1974, plus 3 extra tracks
2011 remaster: same as 1974, plus 5 extra tracks

Queen 1: Queen

Most successful and, particularly, iconic musical figures have spawned clones. Lots of bands tried to emulate the Beatles, the Stones, Led Zeppelin, and so forth; singers from Frank Sinatra all the way to Madonna inspired imitators. But no other band in history sounds like Queen.

The main reason is the one and only Freddie Mercury, for whom the term “frontman” should be exclusively reserved. It was his voice that perked most people’s ears, plus his onstage presence was positively magnetic. But the other guys weren’t exactly slouches. Brian May built the guitar he played himself, and would eventually get his doctorate in astrophysics to back up his methodical approach to music. He, like drummer Roger Taylor, were excellent singers, and handsome in their own ways, but knew their place in this lineup. John Deacon, the quintessential quiet bass player, didn’t seem to add much beyond bad haircuts, but turned out to be a secret weapon in songwriting.

Their debut album sports some of the aspects that would define their work going forward, even if the distinct Queen sound isn’t there yet. Any band would be proud to have “Keep Yourself Alive” as their opening anthem, full as it is of fretwork, swagger, and energy. “Doing All Right” can’t decide if it’s a campy ballad or prog experiment; the fact that it predates Freddie’s arrival in the band might be the reason, except that the next two tracks sit firmly in fantasyland. “Great King Rat” is an unsavory character out of a nursery rhyme, whose demise is celebrated via a galloping rhythm, while “My Fairy King” begins the experimentation with layered, impossibly high harmonies.

“Liar” is interesting, as it begins with a basic drum solo, a minute or so of riffing on one chord and then another, before the vocal begins its narrative, complete with responses that solidify its genetic connection to a certain bohemian rhapsody down the road. “The Night Comes Down” was written by Brian, but sounds perfectly suited for Freddie; it’s another one where the intro doesn’t seem to point the direction of the track. “Modern Times Rock ‘N’ Roll” is an embarrassing slice of speed metal sung by Roger; luckily it’s over quickly. “Son And Daughter” is slower sludge with enigmatic lyrics that modern ears take as gender-questioning, whereas “Jesus” is much more straightforward, being a scene straight out of the Gospels. In a wonderful instance of foreshadowing, “Seven Seas Of Rhye…” provides a brief instrumental teaser of a song to be completed later.

The band’s albums were grandly reissued and slightly expanded on CD in 1991; Queen’s bonus tracks consisted of the outtake “Mad The Swine”, a later re-recording of “Keep Yourself Alive”, and a modern remix of “Liar”. Of these, only “Mad The Swine” made it to the next round of reissues 20 years later, where it was joined by demos of five album tracks recorded six months before the album sessions proper. (Since the version of “The Night Comes Down” on the album was mixed from the demo, it arguably appears twice.)

A little late for its 50th anniversary, what was now called Queen I was given the Collector’s Edition treatment, with a new remix that inserted “Mad The Swine” in the middle of what was side one and relegated the five demos to their own disc. One disc was devoted to alternate versions, and another to the backing tracks (read: no vocals) for the album plus “Mad The Swine”. Previously released BBC sessions took up another, and the sixth contained nine songs from the previously released Live At The Rainbow ‘74 album, plus two songs from 1976 and two more from an early gig in 1970 when they were still called Smile. (A two-CD version consisted of the remix and sessions discs.)

Queen Queen (1973)—3
1991 Hollywood reissue: same as 1973, plus 3 extra tracks
2011 remaster: same as 1973, plus 6 extra tracks
2024 Collector’s Edition: same as 2011, plus 36 extra tracks