QUEEN

Hello, this is my first review! I am a regular visitor of the site and finaly I have made the decision of write something, so, you have to understand that it has to be a very sepcial one, my favorite album from my favorite band: Queen II. For some people the authentic master piece of the Queen camp, it is one of the Queen albums that could be defined as progressive music, it has a lot of prog elements, the way the music is written, the quality of the compsition, Freddie´s voice is incredible and concept of the white and dark side of Queen is unique. Primitive Queen is what you can find here, "White Queen" and "The March of the Black Queen" are of course the main highlights of the album. The 2011 remaster has a beautiful version of White Queen (As It Brgan) (live at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1975), for me, this is a very nice example of what Queen would become, Brian May´s solo is just incredible and some how reminds me that true guitar heroes are the ones that play the instrument whit passion and feeling the music (David Gilmour is another excellent example).

Queen II is a real Rock Gem, an album that influenced a lot of the most respected musicians in the rock scene (not necessarily main stream) including Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), Arjen Lucassen (Ayreon), Cristopher Jhonson (Therion) among others. (I choose these because I also love their music). So, if you think Queen is just "Radio Ga Ga"," We are The champions" or "we will rock you" you have to listen to this album and you will find what Queen were capable of during the early 70´s!

I really would like to waive the flag for the first album of Queen. It's kind of funny I most regularily return to this album, since it showcases more of the hard rock-Queen rather than the flamboyant later opuses. Well, that's pushing it a bit, don't you think? After all, the trademarks of the future Queen to be are all very evident here, from the progressive hard rock to the amazing harmonies and the very special sound of a band totally confident in themselves and the music they make.

Apart from the rather dull "Modern times rock'n'roll" there's actually not a bad track on here. There are dreamy tracks (My fairy king), hard rock (Keep yourself alive), prog folk (Jesus), ballads (Doing all right) and pure prog (Night comes down). In my opinion not many Queen albums have been this consistent and focused. Funny enough, as I wrote, because later albums are all more cherished by most people and definately more famous. I truly recommend this album, maybe not if you are looking for the more classic stuff but certainly if you're interested in their (not so) humble beginnings.

Review originally posted at www.therocktologist.com

This is another DVD concert I experienced in the Auditorio Nacional, beside a nice amount of Queen fans from all the ages, with a huge screen and a wonderful sound. Though this DVD is a concert in almost all its entirety, there are moments where we can see Queen sightseeing in their tour at Hungary, so it is like a brief documentary of the life of an artist days before a show is given in a certain city. So it is nice how the editor of this video decided to intercalate those images and experiences from the band, with the concert.

I would have loved to see Queen on concert, what a pity I am too young and could not see them when they visited Puebla, a city near Mexico City long time ago, I am sure it was an unforgettable experience. A experience that produced me goosebumps while watching the concert, since they were a band that really knew how to penetrate the audience deepest whims and make them accomplices of their music. Mercury and co. seemed happy all the time, enjoying what they were doing, singing and playing with great attitude, humor, enthusiasm, power, so the audience can feel pleased, I, as a watcher, am pleased.

Songs not that known such as "Tie Your Mother Down", "In the Lap of the Gods" or "Tear it up" began the show, like a warm up for the people's throats before they exploded singing tunes of most popular tracks such as "A Kind of Magic" or "Under Pressure" which followed the show. What I really loved is that Queen chose a challenging setlist with songs of different mood and mode, I mean, they turned the concert from happiness to melancholy, from hard rock to ballads, from love to despair. They were always changing so the concert did not really follow an obvious line, they surprised people with an exquisite combination. An example of this was the combo "Now I'm Here" ? "Love of My Life" ? "Tavaszi Szél Vizet Áraszt", the last one a traditional Hungarian song that excited the crowd.

The performance in general was wonderful, the four members doing their best and as I mentioned above, enjoying their time. With "Bohemian Rhapsody" the concert reaches its pinnacle, and then it will not fall until the very end, so band and audience have full battery, their energy don't end. In total we can watch and listen to 23 songs, with "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", "Radio Ga-Ga" and "We are the Champions" (just to mention some) in the last part of the setlist. So if you like Queen, then you will totally love this concert, and have a huge smile at the end, or like me, with a smile, yes, but also with the regret I could not see them live.

Enjoy it!

Queen II reflects the side of Queen that is least known to the pop audience, but made the basis for their later sound. You can recognize here everything they would become known for with the classic rock audience: heavy bass, melodic vocals, aggressive drumming, catchy melodies and a great variety of topics, from society questions to mythical scenes to average lovesongs.

This is really a very strong album with solid rock songs and original songwriting. On itself it might qualify for Heavy Prog, with a mix of Rush, early Pink Floyd and early Led Zeppelin, all from approximately the same period, making this a true product of its time.

Procession is no more than intro to the album, leading fluently into Father to Son, the strongest song on the 'White Side' in my opinion, a catchy hard rock song. The next song, White Queen is much more dramatic, in more of a pop format. Next up is Some Day One Day, the last song of the four written by Brian May. This is a more relaxed song, which is very useful for the balance of the album. Especially the spacey acoustic guitars are beautiful here. The Loser In The End is a blues rock song written and sung by Roger Taylor. In my opinion one of the weaker tracks.

After that, we start with the famous ´Black Side´, where Freddie Mercury worked on some brilliant proto-metal. The first song is Ogre Battle, possibly the hardest and most hectic music Queen have ever produced. Extremely loud bass, high pace rhythm and wild screams all around make this the big surprise of the album. But it´s not stopping there, because next up is The Fairy Feller´s Master Stroke, which might be not as heavy, but equally hectic. This song fluently runs into the short and calm Nevermore.

From there the album jumps into the highlight of the Black Side, `The March Of The Black Queen´. This is song is probably the most popular of all Queen songs to progheads. That´s because it´s an explosive piece out of every proportion, with heavy guitars, complicated structures, many surround sound effects, sweet pianos and all this running through each other at high speed. As said in an other review, this song is a real earlier Bohemian Rhapsody, although it is a lot more uncontrolled, making it less accessible for the mainstream audience. That makes this the forgotten masterpiece of Queen.

Then there is ´Funny How Love Is´. I do not like this song. It is repetitive and quite annoying. It doesn´t really fit with the rest of the album. Luckily, there is still another treat waiting at the end. The hit of the album is another brilliant song with vivid piano and catchy melodies. ´The Seven Seas Of Rhye´ is yet another masterpiece.

This is a strong album, probably the strongest by Queen and a real must-have if you liked their mainstream work. Still some poor songs take down the rest, making this just less than a masterpiece. Still excellent.

An often overlooked Queen album (aren't most of them?). A loose concept album where the first side of the album is meant to have brighter lyrical imagery with all songs written by guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, while the second side contains darker songs all written by lead vocalist Freddie Mercury. As usual the vocals on almost every track on the album are handled by Mercury with the symphonic overdubbed backing vocals of May and Taylor.

The lyrics are also full of fantasy and medieval themes to help give the album even more cohesiveness, with the exception of The Loser in the End (a Roger Taylor song that while good, shouldn't have been on this album). Most songs also lead into the next on the album or fade out appropriately, so the whole listening experience flows excellently.

Particular highlights include the soft near-acoustic Some Day One Day, sung by Brian May and one of his best songs, Ogre Battle, possibly the heaviest song Queen ever recorded and one of the band's definite best songs that you won't ever see on a hits compilation. Same goes for The March of the Black Queen, a 6-minute epic with constant shifting dynamics that predict Bohemian Rhapsody. And Seven Seas of Rhye, one of Queen's better-known songs, and for good reason.

Many of Queen's albums don't work too well as an album and just feel like a collection of songs (which I still enjoy, don't get me wrong), but Queen II is one of their few albums that avoids that problem. If you are at all interested in this album or are a general fan of Queen or other 70's rock, then I certainly recommend Queen II to you.

The beginning of the end. The release of 'The Game' signalled a marked departure in style from the preceeding albums that had established Queen as recording artists. Only the two tracks that bookend the album ('The Game' and 'Save Me') retain Queen's vintage trademark sound, the remainder being composed of a mixture of styles shoe-horned into a pop format and sprinkled with synth faerie-dust or click-track disco handclaps. What raises 'The Game' above Queen's subsequent releases is the overall quality of the sound and songwriting. 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' and 'Another One Bites The Dust', whilst being a world away from Queen's vintage sound of yore, are nevertheless well- crafted musical vignettes that have become classic songs in their own right.

So what of the rest of the album?

'Rock It', 'Sail Away Sweet Sister' and 'Coming Soon' retain just enough of the vintage Queen structures to elevate them above the status of filler. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the remaining two tracks. 'Dragon Attack' is a flimsy funk riff used as a playground for Queen's new synth- toy, but even this sounds like a classic when compared to 'Don't Try Suicide'. This wretched piece of music plumbs not only the song-writing nadir of the album, but possibly Queen's entire career.

The verdict? This album marks the end of an era, but retains enough of Queen's vintage quality to hoist it above the shoulders of the subsequent Queen pop albums it set the blueprint for. Just.

"The Game" is the 8th full-length studio album by UK rock act Queen. The album was released through EMI/Parlophone in Europe and Elektra/Hollywood in the USA in June 1980. "The Game" was a great commercial success upon release and generally received favorable reviews too.

Compared to "Jazz (1978)", "The Game" is quite different sounding. While the former featured quite a few hard rock tracks with edgy riffing, the latter is more of a sophisticated pop/rock album. Of course such a simple description of Queen´s music is somewhat ridiculous, as they are eclectic beyond eclectic and their music features so many different elements, moods and atmospheres. That´s also the case with "The Game", but it´s like they´ve toned down their most wild theatrical/progressive ideas and gone with a more commercial mainstream sound on this one. It´s starts out pretty interesting with "Play the Game" and "Another One Bites the Dust" is of course also a "classic", but there are not many highlights on the album. In fact I´d say that even though the musiciaship as usual are on a high level and the sound production and songwriting professional, most of the tracks on the album come off unremarkable to my ears. Sure "The Game" is a decent listen and there´s nothing offensively bad on the album, but I´m not feeling Queen´s usual burning passion on this one.

"The Game" is a step down from anything Queen released in the seventies. The few glimpses of excellence on the album are not enough to for me to rate "The Game" higher than 3 star (60%) rating.

"Jazz" is the 7th full-length studio album by UK rock act Queen. The album was released through EMI/Parlophone in Europe and Elektra/Hollywood in the USA in November 1978. Queen opted to bring in producer Roy Thomas Baker, who had handled the production on many of the band´s earlier releases, to co- produce the album.

...maybe that´s why "Jazz" is a pretty hard rocking release compared to "News of the World (1977)". Of course that´s not the entire story. Queen have always been an exceptionally eclectic band, and that´s also the case on "Jazz" (which btw has little to nothing to do with jazz music). Vocals and choir vocals to die for, high quality hard rock riffing (check out the fast guitar riffs in "Dead on Time", which almost cross into metal territory), catchy pop/mainstream sensibilities ("Fat Bottomed Girls", "In Only Seven Days"), experimentation ("Bicycle Race", "More of that Jazz") and just generally sophisticated songwriting that thankfully never sacrifice power or memorability.

Another thing that is great about "Jazz" (and most other releases by Queen) is the humour that the band´s lyrics and music are loaded with. I know some people might find tracks like "Mustapha" and "Dreamer's Ball" silly, but I think exactly tracks like that define what an inclusive and skilled band Queen are. The fact that they are able to pull off playing as many different musical styles as they do is admirable.

"Jazz" is another great album in a long line of great albums by Queen. I´m well entertained all the way through the album and the quality of the music is also high throughout. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.

I dusted this album off this morning and gave it a spin and was actually quite surprised on how much I enjoyed it. As a standalone, this album is much better than it is given credit for. Paul Rodgers is no Freddy Mercury, but he has a very good and distinctive rock and roll voice. With previous listens to this album, I do remember thinking that it was decent enough, but this really isn't Queen. I sat down with the lyrics book to listen to this album this morning, with the anticipation that this would be bad. I was pleasantly surprised. It seemed as though I would go into each song thinking that this will be bad, and then it would start to play, and it was like, "nope this song is good too". The standout songs for me were Small, Warboys, We Believe, and Some Things That Glitter. The song C-lebrity is oh-so-real commentary on reality TV, and pseudo C-lebrities like the Kardashians and Hiltons of the world, and it includes Taylor Hawkins from the Foo Fighters with some guest vocals. Unfortunately, the worst part of this album is the use of the Queen name. Even though it is Queen + Paul Rodgers, the lack of Freddy Mercury and John Deacon makes it a bit of a travesty to use the Queen name. I would really have to say that in a "blind taste test" I am pretty certain that most people would not have been able to guess that this was Queen, although I think that Brian May's guitar technique and sound does show up from time to time to add that bit of Queen touch. Overall, I think that this is a really good album, but it is non-essential. Really, the worst thing about it is the exploitation of the Queen name, but if you can get beyond that, the underlying music and lyrics are actually worthy of the Cosmos' love.

An interesting live EP recorded during the tribute concert honoring Freddy Mercury. I am not a fan of George Michael, but he does seem to be a vocalist most qualified to perform a tribute to Freddy Mercury. They have done a fine version of the Queen songs here. Lisa Stanfield has a beautiful voice and her addition in the duets adds a very nice touch to the songs. The inclusion of Papa Was A Rollin' Stone is kind of odd, as it isn't a Queen song, so it seems quite out of place. That being said, I have always been a big fan of this song, and I do enjoy the version that they provide here. This is a good release that I enjoy listening to from time to time, but honestly it really has limited appeal to any prog fans and really is more of a curiosity for fans of Queen. A nice little tribute, but really only worthy of a 2-star rating here.