SHEER HEART ATTACK

Where to start, right? If this third Queen album (although there were good albums later, with great songs, throughout the 70s, is the last one for me in which they were a freer band, without commitments or ties, without the responsibility of looking for a hit, or speculating as to what was wanted from them) begins with circus-like background music, foreshadowing that we are going to witness magic, and in Brighton Rock Freddie Mercury (one of the greatest singers of all time, without a doubt) gives us the first lesson, changing in a matter of seconds from a high falsetto to a deep imposition!

Soon after, they're joined by Roger Taylor on drums, an incredible drummer, though not as famous as he deserved, in other words, one of the best in a decade where the bar was set very high, full of drummers not only technically excellent but also with their own sound. Bryan May on guitar, already mature from his youth, bringing sweetness and rusticity when needed, psychedelia, hard rock, classicism... and the list goes on! John Deacon on bass, concocting such an important but subtle work, is like Mike Rutherford of Genesis, who was just as good as Chris Squire but, being less pyrotechnic, made himself less present, but he's there, when you break down the listening instrument by instrument.

What makes this album special, among many things, is that each track is distinct; it starts differently; it's multiple albums in one, which isn't easy to achieve. It has so many ideas...and they're developed! Killer Queen becomes intimate and with a certain wisdom, a present piano that enters the mix...plus, the production work, where they alter the voices, is worth noting...with the first references to 19th-century genres, to which they would become so attached during this first, rich period.

Tenement Funster is the song that Roger Taylor, of Zeppelin heritage, composed and sang on every album, always glamorous, epic rock 'n' roll, with a speed that would become the album's trademark. A fast, expressive album... as accurate as the title. Premonitory and magical once again. We can't accuse them of not having warned us.

Flick of the Wrist begins with a classical piano attack, followed by a diabolical, twilight chorus... in another change of register. This whole series of songs were glued together, without respite, Lily of the Valley, a gospel ballad par excellence, dark English gospel, which gives way to Now I'm Here, tight rock 'n' roll executed with a looseness that flows like a spiral of smoke towards the sky... and from heaven we descend to hell, to ascend with the music, again the choirs playing, the voices altering, manipulating us like Gods from Olympus. Because this is In the Lap of the Gods. Immortal theme... fruit of inspiration. Stone Cold Crazy is fast-paced like punk, without being punk, before punk came out, but it was too fast-paced to be simple rock 'n' roll... it was something else, and suddenly the guitar comes out of the speaker and gets into your ears... and the drums sound like a tank chasing it and following in its footsteps.

Dear Friends is that warrior's repose, that almost anticipated elegy, preceded by the joyful Misfire, almost a song of happiness, because the sun rises and everything changes again. At times, everyone is together, an indecipherable mass of sound, and at others, each person contributes separately like members of an orchestra. "Bring Back That Leroy Brown," one of my favorite moments, playful and danceable! A ragtime with swing from the 1920s! Freddie sings as if everything were tinged with black and white...and that's what happens every time you listen to it. The power of great bands to take us on a journey with them wherever they wish!

She Makes Me (Stormtrooper In Stilettos), with the beautiful voice of Bryan May, whose contribution is equally important not only to the music but to the spirit of Queen. of this wild, unpredictable Queen, who took us from the Opera to the dangerous slums where Jack the Ripper roamed. In The Lap Of The Gods...Revisited and the end arrived, melancholic, somewhat jazzy, but always with a lot of feeling and strength, it seems that the whole life was contained in a song of three minutes and forty-six seconds, isn't it? And those classical piano notes, and that strumming guitar, to which the chorus joins... a theatrical atmosphere again, so affectionate to this long-haired Freddie who is the one who carried out the magic, that hits us like a sheer heart attack.

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