QUEEN II

This is one of the hardest albums I've tried to describe. QUEEN II has an obvious tilt in the progressive rock direction but without completely immersing itself in the genre. It's sort of the halfway point between regular rock and progressive rock. I actually am slightly disappointed by this work only because I expected a masterpiece out of it; the writing of May and Mercury is real class.

I find Freddie Mercury to be the better songwriter here as he dominates the second half of the album and his things have a subversive fantasy element to them. Progsters will no doubt enjoy the mini-suite ''March of the Black Queen'' and the many avenues it takes throughout its journey with the Taylor sung section being the highlight. Yet, I find the two follow-up tracks to be even better with ''Seven Seas of Rhye'' to be a fitting, upbeat closer. Also of note is the epic- in-nature ''Ogre Battle'' and the harpischord-driven ''Fairy Feller's Master Stroke'' (includes some of Freddie's best vocals).

The front half isn't as strong save for the overall highlight ''Father to Son'', the heaviest QUEEN II will get. ''White Queen'' also has some prog kudos in development, but the two tracks (excusing the ''Procession'' thing) not sung by Freddie are rather anonymous, and they pale in comparison to tracks like ''I'm in Love With My Car'' that are to come.

Recommended for the prog fans as there is an overt progressiveness looming here. But there's some mysteriously missing here that doesn't make me fawn over the album like I should. Besides, I think A NIGHT AT THE OPERA spoiled me.