NEWS OF THE WORLD

The first thing that meets the eye is album cover; this one is modification of an well-known illustration by famous science-fiction illustrator, Frank Kelly Freas. It's probably the only good cover in entire band's discography.

When the cover is examinated enough, we can start doing the same thing with the music:

At the beginning we have boring crowd-pleaser "We Will Rock You" and anthemic football-championship's baby "We Are The Champions". They are both leaning one onto another, and they are both forged to please the masses. And they both succeeded in that task. Despite the fact that "We Are The Champions" is a crowd-pleasing piece, it was done very well. However, these two song are so overplayed on thousands of radio stations during the years that I am not intending to do any deeper analysis.

"Sheer Heart Attack" always makes me smile; this is in fact the heaviest, the loudest, the punkiest and most furious song that QUEEN ever did. The same superlatives apply not only within the boundaries of QUEEN's catalogue! The song is unique in its own brutality and charm. Somewhere in the middle of the song (just before the brief drum solo) dissonant feedback noises start to torture your ears. The song ends abruptly. I mean, really abruptly. I'll try to demonstrate it: I will finish this review in the same manner, just for an illustration. Anyway, I like it because that total opposition of fade-out is emphasising the noisiness of the song itself - like the voices are still screaming in your head while you are actually hearing the silence.

After the silence, mellow piano chord starts "All Dead, All Dead", lovely ballad with beautiful vocal melody, one of the best Brain's vocals in band's career. The song starts being somewhat spoiled after the moment when bass and drums came in. However, it's a pleasant listening.

"Spread Your Wings" is another excellent ballad in unmistakable band's style, but nothing more than that.

The next two tracks are not only the highlights of the album, they are actually masterpieces themselves: "Fight From The Inside" and "Get Down Make Love". The first one is not really prog at all ( all songs mentioned above neither), but it's incredible. Raw, almost grungy sound with Roger screaming his lyrics out. All of the Roger's songs from the seventies contains some sort of agony within and this one is the best example.

"Get Down Make Love" is a mixture between hm...blues, glam-rock, avantgarde and electronic experimentation. Pure art, worth all the album's stars alone. I know for a dozen debates about how band actually managed to produce all those sounds: someone said that Brian May was using Eventide Harmonizer effect ( in 1977 ? ); someone sad that band betrayed their own "no synths" policy by using Theremins, and the only obvious fact is that band used Brian's guitar and Freddie's voice for sure.

"My Melancholy Blues" will appeal to listener with jazz tendencies, this is a piece with self-explanatory title, with traces of 50's easy-listening style and no guitars.

The longest track on the album ( clocking at six and

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