A DAY AT THE RACES

I've always loved Queen's albums more for their variety than anything else. Which is possibly why this one has always been the album out of all of their best albums from "Sheer Heart Attack" to "Jazz" that rates the lowest. Yes it has some great tracks on it, but I miss the variety more than anything on this album, and it was just recently that I have realized this.

The best songs on here are "White Man", "Long Away", "Teo Torriatte" and "Drowse". The others I find too predictable for Queen and sounding too formulaic in Queens style and sound. There really isn't anything new in the remainder of the tracks, like they were copying what worked for them before. Since I consider the way they can take any style of music and turn it on it's ear and make it sound new and exciting the thing that makes them progressive, then that is why this album suffers in my opinion. Just pick up a copy of "Night at the Opera" and "News of the World", the albums that came before and after this one respectively. Listen to how much variety is on these albums and how each and every song sounds new and different and you'll see what I mean. Variety to a lot of people means inconsistency, but to me it makes the album exciting and unpredictable. That's my problem with this album. Not that it should be ignored, because there might be other reasons why you like Queen, but my reason is because of the way they made you never quite sure what was going to come next.

Anyway, there you have it. I call it good, but non-essential. But that's just my opinion and now I've told you why I feel that way. 3 stars.