A NIGHT AT THE OPERA

Probably the album that represents the ''prog related'' collective. Queen is not a band one would typically think of when the words ''progressive rock'' come to mind, but A NIGHT AT THE OPERA has some of the perks that any good prog rock album carries. They key here is the number of styles Queen covers; it's not that they span the gamut from sea shanties to rock operettas to dramatic theatre rock to spacey folk to etc., but it's that Queen covers these styles so naturally that the multitude of genres covered is more of a positive, something that I cannot address to most bands that try this e.g. the Beatles.

In my mind, the theatrical opener is one of the best the album has to offer; ''Bohemian Rhapsody'' gets a little too much over-exposure and ''The Prophet's Song'' is prog excellence with subpar production. The rest is up to the discretion of the listener; the only song I find crap is the soppy ''Love of My Life'', but there are others like ''I'm in Love with My Car'' and ''Sweet Lady'' that are heavy pick-ups.