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QueenAlbums ReviewedQueen (1973)Queen II (1974) Sheer Heart Attack (1974) A Night At The Opera (1975) A Day At The Races (1976) News Of The World (1977) Jazz (1978) Live Killers (1979) The Game (1980) Greatest Hits (1981) Hot Space (1982) The Works (1984) A Kind Of Magic (1986) The Miracle (1989) Innuendo (1991) Greatest Hits II (1992) Made In Heaven (1995) Queen Rocks (1997) Smile (pre-Queen) Queen(1973)After bassist and vocalist Tim Staffel quit trio Smile, he recommended his flatmate and arts student Freddie Bulsara as his replacement to join astronomy student and guitarist Brian May and dentistry student and drummer Roger Taylor. After a lengthy audition process, electronics student John Deacon was hired on bass, forming the Queen lineup that would endure until Bulsara, who adapted the stage name Freddie Mercury, passed away from AIDS in 1991. Rather than touring, the group retreated into the studio for a year to hone their distinctive sound, with intricate multi-tracked backing vocals, May's guitar leads (he created his guitar tone by using a 10 watt amp for recording) and Mercury's dynamic presence as front man. While the group's style didn't evolve too much over the years, apart from to remain in step with prevailing trends, they always presented a fair bit of diversity; of the two dominant writers, Mercury tended towards show tunes and May tended towards hard rock, while Deacon and Taylor had less distinctive styles and wrote in more of a pop/rock vein. This approach to writing meant that the group's albums tended to be incoherent; lyrics aren't the group's strong suit, and most of the time it seems they're just pulling out the first thing that comes into their heads, rather than writing anything particularly heartfelt or profound. Because of the range of writers, lyrical subjects and styles, none of their albums necessarily hang together perfectly. But that's the negative side; the writers all had a good sense of melody and a distinctive palette of sounds to work with, and their albums almost always have a handful of really good songs - few other groups with a twenty year tenure have such an even distribution of radio hits throughout their discography, as radio listeners are just as likely to be acquainted with 'Killer Queen' from 1974 or 'Bicycle Race' from 1978 as they are with 'A Kind of Magic' from 1986 or 'The Show Must Go On' from 1991. And their albums strike a nice balance between innovation and accessibility; even though some of their material could be categorised as progressive rock or metal, they're not difficult for casual music listeners to grasp. While they'd develop their ideas more fully with the help of studio technology over subsequent albums, as their recording became increasingly elaborate, a lot of the group's basic stylistic elements are already place on their 1973 debut. Mercury's theatrics, May's distinctive guitar sound, and multi-part song structures are all present and accounted for, at least on the stronger tracks. It's Mercury who's writing the most interesting songs here; May's 'Keep Yourself Alive' is a competent rocker that's a worthy addition to the group's compilations and 'Doing All Right' (originally recorded by Smile) and 'The Night Comes Down' are pretty, but they could have potentially been written by plenty of other generic seventies rock bands. On the other hand, Mercury's work points the way forward for the band; the dramatic and dynamic 'Liar', the campy 'Jesus' and the mini-epics 'Great King Rat' and 'My Fairy King' all foreshadow what was to come for the group. It's somewhat unfair, however, to talk about this debut as a transition to greater things, as it's a very solid record in its own right. At this early stage, Queen are positively brimming with musical ideas. It is telling that the best-remembered song from the album, 'Keep Yourself Alive', is also one of the least interesting; it's as though the group haven't yet learned to present their most innovative ideas in a commercially accessible form, something they would become adept at later. Mercury's already pushing the group into pseudo-mystical territory with tracks like 'My Fairy King', and while 'Jesus' is more Jesus Christ Superstar than hymn, it's still surprisingly reverent from the man who'd venture into much more decadent territory with his writing. 'Seven Seas of Rhye' is only an instrumental fragment here, and the full version would appear on Queen II. Taylor contributes the album's weakest song, 'Modern Times Rock 'N' Roll', which somehow manages to be messy and generic at the same time. Queen is an impressive debut - at the very least it's far removed from generic seventies hard rock - and it's really interesting to see how Queen made their idiosyncrasies even more extreme after this promising start. 
Queen II(1974)Kezza, who kindly lent me this (and the rest of his entire Queen discography) to review, commends Queen II as his favourite album ever (according to the Allmusic guide it's also a favourite of Billy Corgan). While I wouldn't go that far, it is my favourite Queen album. It's their most pretentious and self-indulgent effort, but in the case of Queen this isn't an insult - they're playing to their strengths, and this album captures them at the height of their creativity. It's also their only serious attempt at a concept album - although arguably A Night At The Opera has a unifying concept of diversity - with May and Mercury getting a side each, with May's known as the "White Queen" and Mercury's as the "Black Queen". Mercury in particular goes on bizarre flights of fancy, coming up with fruity song titles like 'Ogre Battle' and 'The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke' and writing campy multi-part songs to match. May's material is less over the top, but his writing is less generic than on the debut and he's also exploring mystical themes. All of this is somewhat irrelevant though; this is Queen's best album because it's full of great melodies, nice instrumental passages (Mercury's never impressed me that much as pianist before but some of his work here is terrific, while he also uses a harpsichord occasionally) and Queen's two best songwriters are at the peak of their powers. Indeed, calling this pretentious might be going too far; it's wacky but it's hardly inaccessible or avant-garde. The easy target for worst song on the album is Taylor's 'The Loser In The End', which is tucked at the end of May's side. It's not so much bad (it's certainly a huge improvement on 'Modern Times Rock 'N' Roll') as it is out of place, heading in a more generic hard rock direction and not fitting in with the baroque prog feel of the rest of the record. The highlight from May's side is 'White Queen (As It Began)', meandering through possibly the most gorgeous melody that Queen ever wrote. 'Some Day One Day' is another gorgeous piece, while the opening overture 'Procession' is also surprisingly effective. It's Mercury's material that's the highlight though - all of his tracks are linked into a single medley, and most of the songs are multipart in themselves - so the overall effect is like a dazzling operetta. Apart from 'Funny How Love Is', which makes full use of Mercury's early pure vocals, the rest of the material is straight out brilliant. The closing 'Seven Seas of Rhye' (the full version, rather than the sample on the debut) sounds like a hit despite its eccentricities, with a frenetic piano riff and huge chorus hook and 'Nevermore' is a gorgeous short piano ballad. 'The March of the Black Queen', 'Ogre Battle' and The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke' are all multi-part magnum opuses - they're all vastly entertaining, calling in Queen trademarks like operatic vocals and searing guitars into full effect. This second half is fantastic, and if the whole album was of this calibre this would be an easy five stars. As it is, the first side isn't nearly as striking and Taylor's contribution is enough to disrupt the continuity of the rest of the album. Even so, Queen II beats out A Night At The Opera as Queen's best album in my opinion, and most of these songs are completely overlooked, so if you've started with a compilation and want to look further this is a great place to start an exploration of Queen's discography.
 Sheer Heart Attack(1974)A Night At The Opera gets most of the acclaim, but the previous year's Sheer Heart Attack is similar in approach and quality. Queen's second album of 1974, after May was struck down by illness and was unable to tour, it lacks the grandiosity of key Opera tracks like 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and 'The Prophet's Song', but it's more even than its more celebrated followup, filled with inventive rockers and enjoyable ballad fragments. Like Opera it's full of segues, flowing together as one piece, although it lacks the self-conscious eclecticism that formed the concept of Opera. But in terms of quality it's in on an even footing with Opera; the most obvious downside is that a few of the short linking piano ballads lack distinction, and only get by on mood. Sheer Heart Attack also marks Deacon's songwriting debut, contributing 'Misfire', which is competent enough; out of the Queen writers, Deacon was always reliable to turn in workmanlike compositions that sometimes tended towards sappiness, but always showed a great deal of effort. The first single and Queen's breakthrough hit was Mercury's 'Killer Queen', and it still stands as one of their best tunes, with witty lyrics about a femme fatale ("Gunpowder, gelatine/Dynamite with a laser beam/Guaranteed to blow your mind/Anytime") and an inventive music hall arrangement. Mercury's other key track is closer 'In The Lap Of The Gods...Revisited', an eminently likable anthem, while 'Bring Back That Leroy Brown' is a far more literal take on English music hall. There's also experimentation on the first 'In The Lap Of The Gods' where they slow down the tapes so that Mercury's lead vocal is dropped to a weird sounding baritone. May contributes the mini-epic 'Brighton Rock' (apparently a rough synopsis of the Graham Greene novel of the same name) and the infectious stop-start 'Now I'm Here', while the minimalist 'She Makes Me (Stormtrooper in Stilletos)' is strangely effective. Confusingly, Roger Taylor's song 'Sheer Heart Attack' was planned to be part of the album, but wasn't finished on time and didn't surface until 1977's News Of The World. His only contribution 'Tenement Funster' is actually pretty entertaining, and is easily his best effort yet. The group composition 'Stone Cold Crazy' is almost frenetic enough to be classified as proto-punk. This might not be objectively Queen's best album, but it just flows really well together to create a relentlessly entertaining package, and terrific songs like 'Killer Queen' and 'Now I'm Here' are scattered within. And check out Mercury on the cover photo; he doesn't have a moustache yet, but he looks like he has a very hairy badger stuffed down his shirt.
A Night At The Opera(1975)Queen have always struck me more as a great singles band, than particularly talented at putting entire albums. Theatricality almost always outweighs real emotion of Queen songs, while there's always an apparent and sometimes incongruent tension between the campy balladry of Freddie Mercury and the hard rock inclinations of guitarist Brian May on their long players. This contrast, complicated further by simpler song-writing contributions from drummer Roger Taylor and bassist John Deacon, destroys the emotional authenticity of Queen's records, and their idiosyncracies are better captured in snapshots that allow their creativity to shine through. Their 1981 Greatest Hits collection is one of the best compilations in the history of popular music, demonstrating Queen's penchant for creative arrangements and pompous grandeur. A Night At The Opera, their 1975 breakthrough album, is an exception to this rule; not because it manages to overcome the incompatibilities of Queen as creators of coherent albums, but because it renders these objections irrelevant with its sheer quality. The loose concept of the album as a night at the opera, segueing between the different songs in the show and ending with 'God Save The Queen', helps to excuse the lighter hearted tone of most of the songs. In fact, many of these songs are among Queen's best known and best loved; the record ends with Queen's most instantly recognisable track, the monolithic 'Bohemian Rhapsody', but not before it goes through Deacon's hit single 'You're My Best Friend', the jaunty folk of ''39', the full blown progressive rock of 'The Prophet's Song', concert favourite 'Love Of My Life', vaudeville romp 'Seaside Rendezvous' and the dramatic 'Death On Two Legs'. Delivered with an unstoppable pomposity and canvassing a wide variety of styles, it's hard not be impressed by the group's boldness. The album's famous for the master tapes of 'Bohemian Rhapsody' wearing through with a ridiculous amount of vocal overdubs, but the a capella section of 'The Prophet's Song' and the voices imitating instruments of 'Seaside Rendezvous' are equally as daring. The classic Queen formula is perfected here, fusing the group's unique vocal style with May's creative and virtuoso guitar playing, and never developed too much further from this point. A Night At The Opera is laden with great songs and is charged with confidence and an original vision; all the requirements for a five star album, but it's unfortunately handicapped by a few weaker songs; Taylor proves himself as a weak link with the silly 'I'm In Love With My Car', while May fails to impress with the tuneless 'Sweet Lady' and the morality tale 'Good Company' (although he creates some impressive guitar textures in the latter). It's stopped short of premium level by some throwaway material, but it's is an amazingly entertaining record, capturing Queen at the peak of their showmanship and daring.
A Day At The Races(1976)A Night At The Opera was a difficult act to follow, and Queen sensibly returned with the more direct and less ambitious A Day At The Races. Queen haven't lost any of their grandeur, but the effect is less unified than previous; the gap between Mercury's ballads and May's rock songs is far more pronounced than on its predecessor. If anything, it's Mercury who drags the album down; the operaticisms of ballads like 'Take My Breath Away' and 'Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy' seem more forced and lack the natural charm and vigour of songs like 'Seaside Rendezvous' and 'Death On Two Legs'. While it has some brilliant songs, it's their least entertaining record yet; too many of the songs are languid, and 'Tie Your Mother Down' is the only convincing rocker. It's May who provides the backbone to the record; the hard rock of 'Tie Your Mother Down' gets the album off to an memorable start, while his vocal on 'Long Away' is more emotionally convincing than any of Mercury's songs. 'White Man' isn't Queen's best song, but it provides a much needed dose of energy mid-record, while 'Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)' provides a suitably grand climax, with half of the lyrics in Japanese. His jaunty solos often provide a much needed spark to the less interesting pieces like 'The Millionaire Waltz' and 'Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy'. Mercury does provide the album's centrepiece, the showstopping gospel of 'Somebody To Love', one of the few times on the album where the full group harmonies are utilised. As far as I'm concerned, he didn't put a foot wrong on Queen's first four albums, and songs like 'Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy' are the first Mercury compositions that I don't actively enjoy. Again, Deacon's contribution is passable, while Taylor's 'Drowse' is poor. Following the vividness of A Night At The Opera, A Day At The Races can be somewhat dull and languid. It captures a group still at the peak of their powers, but it's just not as exciting and as engrossing as its predecessor.
News Of The World(1977)I guess the critical viewpoint of A Night At The Opera as Queen's high point makes sense when you consider that every Queen album up to that point became increasingly intricate and complex, while News Of The World is another step towards simplicity from the relatively stripped back A Day At The Races. It's noticeable that no one's really trying to create an epic piece; Deacon and Taylor are writing a larger proportion of the songs and becoming more accomplished in the process, while Mercury's songs are straight piano ballads apart from 'Get Down, Make Love', a successful attempt at groove based writing. Meanwhile May, the only member who's consistently able to communicate emotion in his material, seems to have gone through a difficult breakup, and as a result his songs are more direct than ever. Of course, in 1977, the year of punk in the UK, this was a sensible approach, and it's to their credit that Queen managed to retain popularity through this era by putting aside their excesses and recording a relatively straightforward album. Deacon's 'Who Needs You' even nods towards reggae, an increasingly important force in British music during the late seventies, and Taylor's 'Sheer Heart Attack' is abrasive enough to stand next to the punk from the era, while only 'We Are The Champions' and the choruses on 'It's Late' really explode with the majesty of past and future Queen recordings. It might seem far fetched, but it's not impossible that The Clash borrowed some ideas from the disjointed guitar rhythms of 'Fight From The Inside' for 'The Guns Of Brixton'. Until 1980, Queen had a policy of no synthesisers on their recordings (which in hindsight they should have maintained), and some of the noises that May coaxes from his guitar in songs like 'Get Down, Make Love' are nothing short of phenomenal. News Of The World opens with the double A-side of 'We Will Rock You' and 'We Are The Champions'; if you've attended a major sporting event since 1977, you're probably acquainted with these already. Because they're so familiar, and because they're out at the front of the album, they don't really seem integrated with the rest of News Of The World, where none of the songs enjoy a particularly high profile in the Queen catalogue. Most impressive on the album is Roger Taylor, who writes two great songs, turns in a great drumming performance, and plays guitar and bass on his compositions, including some terrific interplay with May on the excellent 'Fight From The Inside'. May's centrepiece is 'It's Late', a rare Queen song that communicates more verbally than it does musically, as an eloquent relationship eulogy. His emotional vocals on the gentle 'All Dead, All Dead' are as effective as always, while 'Sleeping On The Sidewalks' is the closest that Queen ever got to straight blues. Mercury's 'Get Down, Make Love' is surprisingly effective, utilising a repetitive verse to create tension before the climactic chorus. Deacon's the least appealing writer on the album - he always seems like he puts a lot of effort into his compositions but this time around they don't turn out very interesting; 'Spread Your Wings' in an anthem that doesn't really ring true. Still, News Of The World is one of Queen's most consistent albums. Due to the stripped back approach it probably doesn't stand up to repeated listening as well as their earlier peaks, but with its engaging mix of styles it shows that Queen could still deliver a solidly crafted album even when stripped of the pomp and flamboyance that characterised most of their other work.
Jazz(1978)I was holding out high hopes for this album, given that its infamous double A-side of 'Fat Bottomed Girls' and 'Bicycle Race' consists of two of my favourite ever Queen tracks, but the remainder of the album is somewhat disappointing in comparison. While some reviews praise Jazz for its diversity, it just seems as though Queen have run out of ideas and they're pulling in previously untapped genres as window dressing. Most of the songs sound like they're outtakes from previous albums (thematically May's 'Leaving Home Ain't Easy' is from the same mould as News Of The World's 'All Dead All Dead', and from the debauchery fest of 'Fat Bottomed Girls' it seems as though he'd already moved on), inferior version of previous songs (the waltzy 'Dreamer's Ball' in particular seems like a retread) or just plain generic ('Jealousy' and 'In Only Seven Days', pretty ballads from Mercury and Deacon respectively). The four aforementioned songs are my favourites from among the album tracks, which says something in itself. Queen were remarkably consistent throughout the seventies, but here they're running short on ideas - to their credit they still have their taste intact and there aren't really any bad songs, although Taylor's drum machine driven 'Fun It' breaks both of these generalisations and is a bad omen of where Queen would go in the 1980s. May's generally Queen's most consistent songwriter, and he's underused here, only contributing four of the thirteen songs, two of which are ballads. This lack of hard rock means that Jazz lacks impetus compared to their other seventies albums, and only 'Fat Bottomed Girls' and 'Dead On Time' (a frenzied May riff looking for a song) feel cut adrift among a whole bunch of mid-tempo sludge. The transition from the winsome golden throated young Mercury to the flamboyant showman Mercury is complete here; what he's doing is interesting most of the time, but songs like 'Don't Stop Me Now' and 'Let Me Entertain You' just leave me cold, while the Eastern experiment of 'Mustapha' doesn't really ignite and gets the album off to a shaky start. Deacon's 'If You Can't Beat Them' is another of his disposable self-help anthems (joining 'Spread Your Wings' and 'Friends Will Be Friends'). Taylor's contributions here are both misses; 'Fun It' is turgid and dated, while 'More Of That Jazz' is a good vehicle for Taylor's gravelly voice and the collage of highlights at the end is a neat concept, but the song itself is dispensable. As of 1978, Jazz was Queen's worst album to date, lacking the spark of previous releases; even so it's recommended for fans since it contains a batch of competent overlooked songs. Maybe the band themselves realised that the stripped down sound of Jazz and News Of The World had run its course, and made a conscious attempt to modernise their sound on subsequent albums.
Live Killers(1979)Queen missed a golden opportunity with this album by neglecting to name it Live On Two Legs. Almost twenty years later Pearl Jam (despite not having a song named 'Death On Two Legs') named their live album exactly that, and it was so successful that it allowed them to saturate the market with hundreds of live albums. 1979 was a logical time in Queen's life span to release a live record, with seven albums already under their belts, and the resulting double album is a good summation of the arena rock orientated material from their seventies albums, concentrating on material from A Night At The Opera and News Of The World. Recorded over the Jazz tour of Europe in early 1979, there's a certain degree of pragmatism over what songs are selected - Queen are aiming for a rawer rock sound than their studio records and more aggressive material like 'Sheer Heart Attack' and 'Tie Your Mother Down' is featured. Favourites like 'Fat Bottomed Girls' and 'Somebody To Love' that relied on huge layers of harmony are neglected, while the more ambitious and less commercial material from their first two albums is skipped over with the exception of 'Keep Yourself Alive'. A lot of Queen's material did change somewhat for stage, and it's definitely interesting to hear variations like an improved version of 'We Will Rock You' with a full band arrangement that opens the show, and Freddie Mercury's lead vocals on '39' and challenging the audience to a high singing contest in 'Now I'm Here'. 'Killer Queen', 'Bicycle Race' and 'I'm In Love With My Car' are compressed into a short medley, and 'Brighton Rock' is extended into a 12 minute guitar marathon. And some songs that were bland on the studio recordings work fine here; 'Let Me Entertain You' is much more dynamic and even 'Spread Your Wings' is acceptable. It's nice to have an insight into Queen on stage in their prime, and how different aspects of the group are accentuated on the stage. In some ways I'd rather they'd taken the purist approach and released an entire concert as a whole rather than picking out highlights from the tour. Like most live albums it's hard to know what to rate this; I'd definitely recommend picking up their seventies studio records before you get to this, but it's pretty enjoyable all the same.
The Game(1980)After Jazz documented a group that was beginning to run out of ideas, Queen began to modernise their sound with The Game. This set the precedent for the rest of the 1980s, where Queen became trend-followers, diluting the brash and massively popular cult band that they were during the 1970s. With The Game, Queen explored new wave styles, stripping down their sound for minimalist and funky songs like 'Another One Bites The Dust' and 'Dragon Attack'. For the first time synthesisers are used on a Queen album, although they're not very intrusive at all. Despite these changes it's hard to view The Game as a major transition point in Queen's discography - ballads like 'Play The Game', 'Save Me' and 'Sail Away Sweet Sister' would have fit comfortably onto any seventies Queen album, and it's a pretty characteristic album in many respects. The most identifiable song from the album is Deacon's 'Another One Bites The Dust', standing out as the most assertive and aggressive song that the bass player ever wrote for Queen, using a funky bass riff and gangster imagery that's markedly different from his usual soppy balladry. May's 'Dragon Attack' is arguably one of his lesser Queen songs, but its minimalist arrangement is effective all the same, repetitive and brooding with an excellent drum solo. Other contemporary acts like The Clash and Elvis Costello were paying homage to fifties acts in sound and image at the time, and Mercury's 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' (written in the bath, and featuring Mercury on acoustic guitars) does the same. The other most noticeably new wave influenced track is Mercury's 'Don't Try Suicide', which sounds reminiscent of The Police playing English music hall - it's not one of his better moments to say the least. Taylor also misses out with his two contributions; he's making an effort to push Queen into new musical territory, and they both showcase his gravely vocals, but he forgets to write melodies for either. Deacon's 'Need Your Loving Tonight' has an upbeat Brit-pop arrangement, but it's horribly generic. The three remaining ballads are all excellent; 'Play The Game' is a strangely subdued opening to the album, but it's one of Queen's best ballads all the same, especially the middle eight. 'Sail Away Sweet Sister' features a tender May vocal, and while 'Save Me' is overly bombastic, its elegant vocal melody is excellent nonetheless. The Game is uneven and apart from the singles and May's contributions there's nothing too impressive here, but those make up more than half the record in any case, and I can't imagine any Queen fan wanting to pass this up.
Flash Gordon(1980)This B-movie soundtrack isn't necessarily unpleasant to listen to, but if I'd bought it at full price I'd be feeling somewhat jipped since Flash Gordon is pretty short, interspersed with a pile of cheesy dialogue and sound effects, and only contains two full fledged Queen songs. From my low brow perspective, I'm sure it's more fun than sitting through some boring second-rate pseudo-classical score, but it still ranks as one of Queen's weakest records. 'Flash's Theme' is the most well known piece from the album, making the following year's Greatest Hits album, and it's quite effective, feeding off a laughably simple and repetitive bass line. The other song, 'The Hero', is also written by May, and it's a solid and aggressive rocker - if you're a Queen fan but don't feel like splurging full price for this, it's definitely worth acquiring illicitly somewhere. Unfortunately, most of the remainder of the album consists of reprises of the above two songs or [insert name of random Queen member] doodling on a synthesiser, creating sub-Eno ambient textures. Even at its worst, it's not unlistenable or anything - its eighteen tracks are crammed into just over half an hour, meaning that it never really loses momentum, while the dialogue interspersions help to keep the pace up, even if they destroy its shelf life. Mercury does show a flair for cheesy soundtracks, and his 'Football Fight' and 'Battle Theme' both cram interesting melodic ideas into their short running times. This record does succeed in its aim of creating appropriate backdrops for a hokey movie, but without getting into a philosophy of art argument here, I'd take a mediocre regular Queen album over a well-realised Queen soundtrack any day. With Christmas approaching, however, it might be the ideal gift for the eight year old in your life.
Greatest Hits(1981)Although Queen managed to squeeze out some pretty strong albums, especially towards the beginning of their career, this fourteen track LP compilation of their most famous songs remains their masterpiece, placing highlights such as 'Bohemian Rhapsody', 'Another One Bites The Dust', 'We Are The Champions', and 'Fat Bottomed Girls' all in one place. It does more or less skip over their early records, but that's understandable since they're not as hit-focused as later, and it's difficult to imagine a more quintessential Queen compilation than this.
Feedback: Kerry Logan of Lower Hutt writes Hot Space(1982)Queen alienated most of their American fan base by dabbling in disco on this record. While most of their seventies material has aged relatively gracefully, on first listen much of Hot Space is laughable, making the easy listening violin versions of contemporary Christian standards that my mother was listening to at the time seem appealing in comparison. Lyrically, it's also one of their worst efforts too; apart from Mercury's Lennon tribute 'Life Is Real' and May's love song 'Les Palabras De Amor', most of the songs seem to be clutching in thin air for subject matter even more than usual, lacking the ridiculous charm of their seventies work and just ending up naff. But while this album's superficially unappealing, especially the disco-based material that dominates the first side, substantively at least they're exploring new territory and don't exhibit any real decrease in creativity. Still, there's no reason why anyone in their right mind would prefer this to any of Queen's seventies albums since it's handicapped with a horrendous bass tone and terribly dated sound affects (is that flatulence during 'Calling All Girls'?). Getting the bad news out of the way, Mercury's 'Body Language' is arguably the worst song Queen ever recorded - like 'Get Down, Make Love' stripped of all energy and humour. Taylor's two songs are also misses; they're oversimplified and bland, and not terribly interesting. But the rest of the record's pretty much up to Queen's usual standards - on the disco side May's two songs deliver gratifyingly head-banging choruses, Mercury's horn-laden 'Staying Power' is too overtly camp to be a Queen classic but it's entertaining all the same, while Deacon's 'Back Chat' is perhaps the most successful of the disco pieces, employing an infectious bassline. The second side's more conventionally Queen like, but lacklustre in places; 'Life Is Real' lacks a knock out melody, but is heartfelt all the same, while the Deacon/Mercury cowrite 'Cool Cat' is an interesting exploration into R+B. Which leaves the album's two best songs; May's 'Les Palabras De Amor' is one of Queen's best ballads, featuring a nice swirling synthesiser line. The bombastic Spanish chorus is asking for trouble, but it works fine. The Bowie collaboration 'Under Pressure' seems tacked on since it was included on the previous year's Greatest Hits, but it's excellent nonetheless. Hot Space is often regarded as the weakest Queen album, and due to the dated textures this is understandable, but given a chance it isn't lacking too much in creativity. Still, there's no reason to prioritise Hot Space when Queen have plenty of other albums that aren't so embarrassingly locked in the early eighties.
The Works(1984)After a couple of weaker efforts, Queen rebounded with the stripped down and direct The Works, a return to mostly tried and true Queen territory. Mercury's dropped the macho-sexual preoccupations of the previous albums and is back to idiosyncratic show tunes and fifties style rock and roll, May's back to riff rock and Taylor and Deacon are limited to one song per album and both come up with memorable pop tunes, the two most immediately identifiable songs from the record. The end result can be simplistic, an impression not helped by the lacklustre production job, but it's arguably the most consistent record that Queen ever created. In the age of MTV it's overtly; with the exception of 'Machines (or 'Back to Humans')' it's possible to imagine any of these songs as singles. It's possible to argue that a lot of The Works is safe and predictable, and it's one of the few albums where Queen didn't attempt to branch into new areas, but after a couple of weak albums some re-entrenchment was probably necessary, and this record does a good job of balancing the traditional Queen sound with the musical values of 1984; the only remnants of Queen pomposity are the semi-operatic ballad 'It's A Hard Life' and the slightly progressive nature of 'Machines'. It's difficult to pick highlights on such a consistent record. 'It's A Hard Life' is probably the high point simply because it's closest to the traditional Queen spirit with its dramatic introduction, excellent lead vocal and memorable instrumental section, but 'Radio Ga Ga' and 'I Want To Break Free' are two of Queen's best know singles, 'Hammer To Fall' and 'Tear It Up' are effective rockers, Mercury's fifties excursions are fun ('Keep On Passing The Open Windows', originally intended for the movie version of John Irving's The Hotel New Hampshire), and the acoustic closer 'Is This The World We Created?' is gently thought provoking and moving. Some of this does run towards genericism; without Mercury's distinctive vocal 'Radio Ga Ga' could be the work of a faceless synth pop band while 'Tear It Up' could be a generic hard rock group. Still, it's an achievement to still be a cutting edge band and commercial force (except in the States) a decade into their career; while this record might be short of the inspiration of Queen's best albums, it's solidly crafted product nonetheless.
A Kind Of Magic(1986)It's hard to view A Kind Of Magic as a coherent statement since its origins largely lie in The Highlander soundtrack that the group contributed songs to, as well as opening track 'One Vision' which was originally featured in the film Iron Eagle. The result's one of Queen's most commercial and least unified efforts; despite a few standout songs, it'd be difficult to argue that A Kind Of Magic isn't one of Queen's weakest records. It's a bad sign when the song writing credits are dominated by Deacon and Taylor, with May only getting two songs and Mercury only one sole credit. Because the songs are from movie soundtracks it'd be a reasonable assumption that the songs are even less emotionally resonant than usual, but May's 'Who Wants To Live Forever' is possibly the closest thing to a tear-jerking torch song in the Queen catalogue, and Deacon's string of sappy ballads in the middle of the album are aiming for an emotional response. Elsewhere, Queen are deflating themselves with the "gimme gimme gimme fried chicken" that ends 'One Vision' and the movie voiceovers that relegate the otherwise kickass rocker 'Gimme The Prize' to guilty pleasure status. The only two songs here that rate among Queen's best are the opening group composed anthem 'One Vision' and May's 'Who Wants To Live Forever'; a gorgeous ballad where May sings the gentle first part before he is eclipsed by Mercury, a choir and huge percussion and strings. On the second tier, Taylor's title track is one of Queen's less intricate hits but it does feature some of May's best guitar leads with a terrific "magic" tone. 'Gimme The Prize (Kurgan's Theme)' wastes a great May riff on a song that's thrilling but doesn't hold up outside the context of the movie. It could be interpreted as a Neil Young tribute when the "it's better to burn out than to fade away" voiceover is followed by a guitar line that (albeit with some imagination) could have been derived from 'Old Man'. Elsewhere, none of the record's particularly impressive - Mercury's 'Princes Of The Universe' starts with a catchy a capella section but the rest of the song never ignites, Taylor forgets to write a melody for 'Don't Lose Your Head' and the three Deacon-Mercury ballads are mushy, uninspiring and among the group's worst ever songs. A Kind Of Magic might be the worst studio album Queen ever made, but there are still a few really great songs scattered among it, and for the worst album in a twenty year career it's nothing to be too embarrassed about.
The Miracle(1989)The period between 1986 and 1989 was difficult for Queen, with May suicidally depressed after his marriage breakup and Mercury being diagnosed with AIDS. After spending most of the 1980s avoiding sounding like Queen, the group found inspiration in adversity and bounced back with The Miracle, embracing their past successes. It's difficult to find parallels for the epic scale of the multi-part title track or the rock anthem 'I Want It All' on a Queen record, without going right back to the mid 1970s. On the other hand the band are still trying modern technology, and using it better than ever before - the synthesisers in songs like 'Scandal', 'Was It All Worth It' and 'The Invisible Man' are used effectively, even though other songs like 'Rain Must Fall' would have benefited from a more organic treatment. In terms of raw creativity, this is the most interesting Queen have been for a long time - they're not playing it safe like on The Works or following trends like on Hot Space, but brimming with fresh ideas in the knowledge that their days as a band are numbered. The Miracle isn't among their top echelon of albums since some ideas are awkwardly presented at times, but there's no lack of effort on Queen's part. Strangely, the most awkward material opens the album, the duo of 'Party' and 'Khashoggi's Ship' which are almost pointed in either deflating rumours about Mercury's health and/or re-establishing the band as forty year old party animals. They're both decent riff rockers, especially the latter, and there's a sensational segue between them, but they get the album off to an uncertain start. The album's corrected by the one two punch of the epic title track, with an excellent coda which opens out when the instruments switch over late from a dissonant instrumental section, and rock anthem 'I Want It All' with a wailing lead riff from May. It's Taylor who's the big difference on this record, suddenly late in his career he's writing excellent songs consistently, and he contributes the singles 'The Invisible Man' (characteristically modernistic, with memorable voiceovers introducing each member of the band) and 'Breakthru' (more conventionally Queen-like, with an excellent a capella introduction), as well as the pleasantly melodic but awkwardly presented 'Rain Must Fall'. As well as 'I Want It All', May's other contributions are also excellent - the prickly 'Scandal', more jaundiced than his breakup songs from News Of The World, while 'Was It All Worth It' is awkward lyrically especially the conclusion ("yes, it was a worthwhile experience"), but works fine musically with a huge arrangement and does have some emotional pull. The only other downer is the bland Mercury/Deacon cowrite 'My Baby Does Me', which fails to do anything but provide room for some more nice May guitar work. Like A Kind Of Magic, The Miracle isn't particularly coherent and it is awkward at times, but nonetheless Queen hadn't sounded this inspired for a long time.
Innuendo(1991)Even more than The Miracle, Innuendo is a reinstatement of the grandiose Queen of old. The Euro-pop production gimmicks that marred their eighties albums have gone, and this is arguably the most unified sounding and best produced album that the group ever created. Instead of comparing the group unfavourably to their seventies triumphs it's now a case of them creating new benchmarks. 'Hitman' isn't their best rocker they've ever done, but it's arguable the heaviest. 'The Show Must Go On' might be the most emotionally powerful song in the entire catalogue. The title track isn't as self-consciously epic as 'Bohemian Rhapsody' or 'The Prophet's Song', but the group have never sounded so effortlessly huge and majestic - the song reportedly emerged from a group jamming session. The bookending tracks, 'Innuendo' and 'The Show Must Go On', do set a near impossible standard for the rest of the record to live up to, and it fails to meet them - despite the unity of sound, a few of the individual songs feel underwritten, not surprising as the group were battling against time with Mercury's ill health in an effort to complete it. Like the last record, most of the strong material comes from May and Taylor - Mercury's songwriting is still pretty unfocused, writing songs dedicated to his cat, while it's May who writes the seemingly autobiographical closer 'The Show Must Go On'. As much as it's overplayed, it's still one of Queen's most effective pieces with the cartharthic, dramatic chorus and the gorgeous bridge: "My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies/Fairy tales of yesterday, will grow but never die". The title track is a multi-part epic with a majestic vocal from Mercury, with Yes guitarist Steve Howe guesting in a mid song flamenco section. As well as claiming responsibility for the lyrics of 'Innuendo', Taylor contributes the nostalgic ballad 'These Are The Days Of Our Lives', which controls its sentimentality and is one of his best songs. May contributes the excellent rockers 'Headlong' and 'I Can't Live With You' - the latter is somewhat choppy in this version, and the Queen Rocks retake is an improvement. Up against these highlights, the rest of the album is a little bland, but it's still all pretty solid - 'Don't Try So Hard' is a typically workmanlike Deacon song, 'Bijou' is a pretty instrumental from May, while even Mercury's cat tribute 'Delilah' has its moments. The group does steer a little too close to genericism with the rocker 'Ride The Wild Wind', while Mercury's 'All God's People' is unmemorable despite its large scale arrangement. Still, Innuendo is the best Queen effort since News Of The World way back in 1977, and it's impressive that the group could come back so strongly after a string of worthwhile but inconsistent records for their final recordings.
Greatest Hits II(1991)Not surprisingly this is nowhere near as good as its predecessor; the songs on the first, near perfect, compilation were drawn from eight albums, while this seventeen song compilation is taken from four weaker late period albums. Still, buying Greatest Hits II is a good option as it summarises four albums that are mostly decent, but none of which are quite essential. After its wonderful companion album this album is a disappointment, but there are plenty of great moments and Queen fans can't go too far wrong. There are a few weird track choices - personally I'd throw out 'Friends Will Be Friends' and 'I'm Going Slightly Mad' is favour of 'Les Palabras De Amor' and 'These Are The Days Of Our Lives', but it's still a pretty solid overview nonetheless.
Made In Heaven(1995)After Mercury's death in 1991, it was a reasonable assumption that Queen's studio output was complete, so it was a surprise when the other Queen members announced the release of an album of material that Mercury had been working on before he died. The group spent the intervening time polishing up the final tracks that had been captured during Mercury's lifetime, at times using backing vocalists to insert verses that weren't complete when Mercury passed away. Given the circumstances, it's not surprising that a lot of the songs seem incomplete - while it's certainly a legitimate release of Queen's last recordings, about half of the material does feel underwritten. Made In Heaven is much softer around the edges than any other Queen album, with a succession of ballads with almost adult contemporary production values, although May does liven up proceedings with some aggressive solos as well as hard riffing in the title track. Still, it has an essence of emotion that no other Queen album captures, especially in the soothing 'Mother Love', the last song Mercury recorded, as well as more obviously manipulative material like the flashbacks to Mercury singing 'Going Back' and the mournful ballad 'Too Much Love Will Kill You'. To their credit May, Taylor and Deacon manage to craft a coherent album out of a few good songs and some scraps (some of the songs were pulled off Mercury solo records and given the Queen treatment), but Made In Heaven still ranks among Queen's lesser albums. On the superior half of the record, there's the showstopping 'Let Me Live', following the gospel stylings of 'Somebody To Love', and using outside voices for the first time on a Queen album with the female backing singers. Taylor comes up with the single 'Heaven For Everyone'; its Utopian message is sappy (but then, so is the rest of the record), but in terms of pop melody it's the strongest piece on the album. May's 'Too Much Love Will Kill You', originally featured on his 1992 solo album Back To The Light, does feel emotionally manipulative in the circumstances, but it's still an excellent melody regardless. Mercury's title track is suitably grandiose thanks to the aggressive May guitar riffs that provide it with spark, while 'Mother Love' is simple and affecting. One past these highlights, the remainder of the album is rather unimpressive - songs like 'My Life Has Been Saved' and 'It's A Beautiful Day' are generic, especially by Queen's standards, and it's hard to imagine them making the cut if the group had time to complete the record properly. Still, if Innuendo was a grand finale to Queen's studio output, Made In Heaven serves as a worthwhile coda. While it's not a great record, it does have its moments and it's more or less an obligatory purchase for Queen fans.
Queen Rocks(1997)These specialised compilations are actually a pretty good idea, although few bands have a big enough catalogue to pull it off. It's a fair bet that there's a demographic of rednecks who adore Brian May's headbanging Queen hits like 'We Will Rock You' and 'I Want It All' but freak out at some of Freddie Mercury's more flamboyant pieces and scoff at John Deacon's fruity love songs. Accordingly, this collection concentrates on the more rocking and anthemic facet of Queen; it's no surprise than 15 of the 18 of the songs are written by May. It draws evenly from throughout Queen's career, covering every album except The Game (why 'Dragon Attack' isn't here instead of 'I'm In Love With My Car' is anyone's guess) and Made In Heaven (which is logical, since that one had zero rock on it). For Queen completists it also contains less choppy and much improved version of Innuendo's 'I Can't Live With You' and a new Brian May song 'No-One But You (Only The Good Die Young)', a bombastic but emotionally effective rock ballad. This set does have a limited appeal, as it leaves off way too many key tracks to be a one stop shopping solution, but individually most of these tracks are terrific.
Greatest Hits 3(1999)On the other hand, this compilation is a travesty. While it does include a couple of songs that should have been on the second volume ('These Are The Days Of Our Lives', 'Las Palabras De Amor') and material from Made In Heaven, the rest of the album is just random solo projects and lame collaborations that have no business being there. The three greatest hits volumes all get sold in one package - it'd be pretty straightforward to make a superb Queen triple disc set, but the existing compilation isn't anywhere close. Instead of the first disc covering nine albums, the second covering four and the third covering one, it would make a whole lot more sense if they started from scratch, spreading it out more evenly and included overlooked material from the first two albums and key seventies album tracks. I've never actually heard this in its entirety, so I can't fairly give it a rating, but suffice to stay it's possibly the worst album ever released with the Queen name on it. Ghost Of A Smile(1997)Queen In Nuce(1995)The origins of Queen lie in Smile, a group formed by May and Taylor along with vocalist and bassist Tim Staffell, in the late sixties. Staffell and May had previously been in another group together, 1984, and recruited dentistry student Taylor, who had been lead singer for his previous groups. While the group were never full-time professionals, they did open for bands such as Yes, Family and Pink Floyd, as well as recording six songs which are collected here. According to the liner notes the group's speciality was performing epic live covers of currently popular songs, throwing in as many time signature changes as possible. From the six tracks collected on these two albums, it's difficult to form an impression of the group; they range in style from the prog cliché territory of 'Earth', the awkward May-sung stuffed animal saga 'Polar Bear', the semi-instrumental 'Blag', the bouncy 'Step On Me', and the cover 'April Lady', as well as 'Doin' Allright' which surfaced on Queen. There are occasional glimpses of Queen in May's guitar tone and the layered harmonies - in essence Smile are of more interest to Queen historians than in their own right. Of these two albums, Ghost Of A Smile is the stronger, an official release with liner notes by Staffell (who was working alongside Ringo Starr on Thomas The Tank Engine at the time, as a model maker), and much better sound quality than Queen In Nuce. As well as the six Smile tracks, it also features two tracks that Mercury and May supported obscure singer Eddie Howell on, the entertaining two parts of 'Man From Manhattan', possibly the single best thing on either of these albums. The bootleg Queen In Nuce replaces these two tracks with the single that Mercury recorded as Larry Lurex in 1973; the sixties standards 'Going Back' (incorrectly attributed to Dusty Springfield) and 'I Can Hear Music'. These tracks showcase Mercury's gorgeous early voice, although the backing tracks from May, Taylor and Deacon are awkward at times. The early Queen outtake 'Mad The Swine' is substituted for 'Doin' Allright'. Listening to Queen's debut album, it's evident that it was Mercury's early compositions that defined the group's style; Smile are a very competent college band with a surprising degree of virtuosity, but it's difficult to imagine them breaking big in the way that Queen did. I don't want to rate these albums, but I wouldn't worry too much about them except as a mildly interesting historical footnote. |
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Written 2001-2007, Graham Fyfe
