A DAY AT THE RACES

I first heard Queen while listening to Radio Caroline in the early Seventies, it was Seven Seas Of Rhye, I was delighted about Freddy Mercury his great voice and sparkling piano and the exciting electric guitar work by Brian May. Soon I became a huge fan of their harder-edged art-rock sound, for me their first album is one of the greatest rock albums of all time, it can compete with Uriah Heep, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath! The album A Day Of The Races had to solve the same problem as Mike Oldfield with Tubular Bells or Pink Floyd with Dark Side Of The Moon, how to make successor after a worldwide successfull and acclaimed album? Well, in my opinion they did very well, this is a very varied and tasteful record: a great and catchy guitar riff in the propulsive rocker Tie Your Mother Down, romantic piano in the mellow You Take My Breath Away, exciting shifting moods in The Millionaire Waltz (with that very distinctive guitar play by Brian May) and pleasant piano, vocal harmonies and bass in the swinging You And I, of course Brian May gives it an extra dimension with some fiery guitar runs, what a killer guitar player, so much R&R! My highlight is Somebody To Love, (of course) it has not the level of Bohemian Rhapsody but it's a great, very typical Seventies Queen song: the vocal harmonies, the piano sound, the tension between the tender and bombastic parts and the eagerly awaited, always top notch guitar solo by Brian May. A year later I witnessed Quee live during their News Of The World tour but that was also the last album I bought from Queen because they gradually lost their harder-edged side, for me it became too much pop-oriented.