I'm still undecided which album to vote for at the moment.

^This

 

There's always one.

An anonymous PA member voted for "Hot Space" but I don't blame them for keeping quiet about it.

 

 

"You Don't Fool Me" is my favourite song on the album.

that's the least interesting song on that album.

It's not the final album anymore, there is the Queen+Paul Rodgers album - The Cosmos Rocks (2008).

 

"Hot Space" picked up another vote while I was posting Queen's "Made in Heaven" video. I wonder though if the "Hot Space" album still would have picked up two votes if I hadn't mentioned it in my introduction.

Fresh music has jaded me to it's charms over the years, but every time I return to it... It shines.

Bearing in mind how many votes the Queen II album has received so far in this poll, I'm going to give the album another listen before I cast my vote. I was going to vote for "A Night at the Opera" but now I'm not so sure.

 

I didn't include the Paul Rodgers albums in the poll, because as far as I'm aware, Queen haven't recorded any studio albums with Paul Rodgers. The only Paul Rodgers & Queen albums I know of are the Live albums.

 

I like Disco too and I like the single "Under Pressure", but I couldn't possibly consider "Hot Space" to be a better Queen album than the classics, "Queen II" and "A Night at the Opera. Although "Hot Space" is certainly a listenable album, it would be at the bottom of my favourites list if I ranked all of the Queen albums in order.

 

Thanks! That's the first time I've come across that album. It has to be worth a listen, bearing in mind just how good the Live "Return of the Champions" DVD is with Queen + Paul Rodgers.

 

Still am.

The only band I couldn't get into out of the five bands you mentioned were ELP. They'd lost me after the first album. It was the "Seven Seas of Rhye" that really got me hooked onto Queen.

 

least favourites are The Cosmos Rocks and Jazz

Well, for me is Queen II clear choice. Amazing album. Queen at their best (and this one could be called progressive album for sure!). In fact I love it for sooo long... and it remains as good as I've heard it 35 years before. Procession (great Brian May guitars orchestration), Father To Son or charming White Queen are on the white side of the LP and they all are superb, but when starts black side, then it's the real proper ride - from Ogre Battle to 2,5 minutes long progressive music heaven of The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke, the short beautiful rest with Nevermore and at last the best song Queen ever did - The March Of The Black Queen. Funny How Love is there only to calm down before final Seven Seas Of Rhye (probably the first Queen big success).

Yes, I know  A Night At The Opera is their opus magnum (and yeah, it's really good), but for me Queen's peak is on Queen II. BTW even as I like Queen's 70's records the most, I have nothing against poor little Hot Space. In fact it was almost pure disco, but they could do it with success too. And as the years go by it is maybe even better it was in 1982. Comparing to some so called music done today I'm tempted to say it shines brightly :-)

well said!

I don't think Queen II is overrated. Maybe here on Progarchives its rating is higher but it's because it's Queen's most prog record IMO and this is prog rock fansite. Standard music listener (even casual Queen listener) usually knows almost nothing about it. Small amount could know Seven Seas but that's all.

ANatO is considered Queen best effort and in fact it is true. They develop their music making those three albums and here they've done almost perfect record. I consider it Queen's most polished album with great variety of material which - strangely - holds really good together. Anyway - even as I love ANatO - Queen II is higher on my scale.

Speaking about News Of The World and Jazz - I like both these record a lot - more than a little bit boring A Day At The Races (they tried to repeat ANatO success but there's missing something). But the true is Queen did their best on the first four albums.

omphaloskepsis wrote: I'd be curious to hear from the folks to voted for Hot Space.  Please enlighten me.  Was it the single Under Pressure that swayed your vote?   Did the immediacy of the disco energy convince you?

That has 3 votes and News of the World none?? Never ever thought I'd see the day Hot Space was considered the better album lol.. but the majority has spoken.

It looks like Queen's "News of the World" album has been underrated here at ProgArchives too, seeing as it hasn't received any votes so far.  

A Night At the Opera all the way. It's one of the best rock albums ever made in my estimation, and without doubt their most cohesive work.

Interesting btw. to see 3 votes for Hot Space. I though most people hate that album.

I have a feeling that three surprise votes may have gone to the Hot Space album because I said at the beginning of the thread I didn't expect anyone would vote for it.

To my mind, the worst Queen's album is definitely The Miracle. The Game as the whole album looks to me very poor, although it contains numerous hits. 

I can easily understand that somebody votes for Hot Space. I actually like all the tracks except Staying Power and Body Language on it. I would not call it the best, but it is in my Top 10, I'd say. It's, once again, the question of the limits of great music. If it sounds pleasant and unique enough, I like it. 

I personally find Hot Space OK, even Body Language which actually fascinates me quite a lot even though the over-sexualized lyrics and vocal performance puts me off somewhat. But one needs to accept the album on its own premises to enjoy it. It's a more of a pop and dance album than a rock album, and there is a lot of inspiration from black music like soul and funk. Some songs sound a bit uninspired (Dancer, Back Chat, Put Out the Fire), but there is also a catchy pop tune like Calling All Girls, and of course Under Pressure. Cool Cat is quite an underrated track. Still, it's not an album I listen to very often.

My ranking:

1. A Night At The Opera (my all time favorite album featuring my all time favorite song)

2. Queen II

3. News Of The World

4. Sheer Heart Attack

5. Innuendo

6. The Miracle

7. A Day At The Races

8. Queen

9. A Kind Of Magic

10. Jazz

11. The Works

12. Made In Heaven

13. The Game

14. Hot Space (I imagine very few people on a prog site will agree with me, but Hot Space, despite being their worst full fledged studio album, is also a ton of fun and wildly underrated. The Game only beats it out due to a wildly consistent 1st side and a top 10 closer)

15. Flash (this is nice)

Yes!!!

Backlash via overexposure is lame. ANATO is great.

I have a very strange relationship with that Flash Gordon movie. My close friends and I watched it (being massive Queen fan I forced it on them because they'd never heard of it), and we all agreed it was bad. However what we couldn't agree on was exactly how bad. For me it went from boring bad, to so bad it's good, then so much more bad that it's bad again, and I believe it almost stuck the landing for being so much more bad it's somehow good again just before the ending. And I love sci-fi adventure stuff. Glad you like it though!

 

That's amazing! My ranking of Queen albums is pretty much the same as yours.

This is what I think in general (part 1).

Queen (1973). It somehow sounds a bit like a demo, probably because they didn't have as much studio time as with their subsequent works. The trademark layers of guitars and vocal harmonies are missing, or just more basic. Also, the songwriting is a bit mixed, and some songs lack a clear melodic focus ("Jesus", "Modern Times Rock'n Roll", and the otherwise much praised, but in my estimation rather overrated "Keep Yourself Alive"). One could say that the album has an aura of spontanity about it which the later, more elaborate productions are missing. In any case, the basic elements are there, the musicianship is excellent, and you can hear right away what band it is. No other guitarist truly sounds like Brian May. And of course Freddie's vocals are superb as always, but he somehow sounds a bit cautious to me, maybe because the melodies tend to have a smaller range, or because he is still in the process of fiding his sound. In any case it's an enjoyable listen with many good ideas. Favourite tracks: "Doing Alright", "Great King Rat", "Liar".

 Amazing! We have great taste in Queen!

Actually I'm in the camp that it's so bad it's good and for once I really enjoyed Queen's musical soundtrack for the film which is so campy it suits the style of the film. Why they got a football player to star as lead is a mystery to me. He is so bad.

I like the film and even saw it at a theatre (plus later 'Flesh Gordon' but that's another story!) . Its a lot of fun , never had a problem with the lead performance (Sam Jones) and I remember him popping up in an episode of a popular sci-fi show in the 00's but it escapes me what it was ..quick google

yes Stargate SG1  in 2002.

Apparently he played Football in the US Marine Corp but was turned down by the Sea Hawks . His first film was not Flash Gordon but the Blake Edwards comedy 10 where he beat Arnie and Kurt Russell for the role.

And there's "Life Is Real" - the greatest ballad of those based on the minimalist riff. 

Possibly Queen's most underrated ballad. It gets a bad rap essentially just for being on Hot Space.

 

There's nothing worse than a bad rap.

Queen II. Their proggiest album, so it's no surprise many have it as their favourite here. Personally I do like it a lot, but I think they have made much more accomplished albums. The album is a giant leap forward in terms of production, and we get the trademark Queen elements such as the layered guitar parts, vocal harmonies, creative stereo pan, and so on. But at timees I feel the music has a bit too many ideas for its own good ("The March of the Black Queen" is probably the best example here), also it sometimes sounds like they haven't entirely matured as songwriters yet. I think they reached a better balance between complex production and compositional craftmanship on A Night at the Opera.

Many songs on Queen II are however considerably stronger than those on Queen. "Some Day One Day" is a great folkish song, Roger Tayor's "The Loser in the End" is a big improvement from "Modern Times Rock'n Roll", "The Fairy-Feller's Master Stroke" is probably Mercury's best song on the album - very strong composition - and "Funny How Love Is" shows them from a more poppy side with its harmonic and melodic sequencing. Lyrically I can't really relate to the fantasy universe. I don't know what to do with white and black queens, ogres and fairies, so on Queen II the music is clearly the main attraction for me.

Bad rap in a Queen thread? There can only be one culprit...

 

Sheer Heart Attack (1974)

 

 

A Night at the Opera (1975)

 

Aye.  I would have seen this tour, but Brian May became ill with hepatitis and had to drop out.  Kansas substituted instead (they opened for Mott the Hoople in Chicago).  

I like Kansas and they were excellent, but to have seen Queen on this tour....gawd!  I did see them on "Night at the Opera" and a subsequent tour, but Queen II is their masterpiece IMHO.  

At least because Brian got sick SHA managed to come out the same year. 

 

A Day at the Races (1976)

 

 

News of the World (1977)

 

 

Jazz (1978)

 

 

The Game (1980)

 

 

Flash Gordon (1980)

 

 

Hot Space (1982)

 

 

I'm not keen on either of these two Queen albums, but I've included them here anyway for the sake of completion.

 

The Works (1984)

 

 

A Kind of Magic (1986)

 

 

 

Innuendo (1991)

 

 

Just one more album to go now to complete the Queen albums discography

 

Made in Heaven (1995)

 

 

You're right. There's only three 5-star Queen albums for me:- Queen II; Sheer Heart Attack; & A Night at the Opera.

Queen II is in my top 3 albums ever (at least regarding pop/rock) with Dark Side of the Moon and Close to the Edge.

ADATR is vastly underrated (though there's also a lot of people who consider it a classic, so who knows). I think it's below Queen II but virtually at the same level as ANATO, I think if it had been released first instead of second from those two maybe they would be regarded differently.

The Millionaire Waltz, Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy, Somebody to Love, Teo Torriate, You Take My Breath way, You and I, etc. I Really love that album.

I love it too. I finally found it on vinyl the other week and at last my 70s studio album collection is complete. I think the biggest difference between the two is maybe that A Day At The Races is decidedly more love-obsessed. Seriously, like nearly every song on it is a love song (or a sex song in regards to Tie Your Mother Down). I wonder if maybe it gets dismissed by some fans for that reason.

I would rather have that VH-1 special on Queen, that showed the last song Freddy played and sang, apparently just weeks before he passed away ... it beats any album hands down!

A nice band, and we had the first couple of albums, but when it came to the 10CC cover, I didn't dislike it, but by then my interest was all over Europe and not as much in English or American bands, most of which were already re-hashing their material. QUEEN were a fine band, and even better in concert ... and reminds me of that one concert where George Michael sang on a tribute to Freddy I think it was ... and he was magnificent and probably should have been the only possible replacement for Freddy, but I'm not sure that GM was up to someone else's legacy! He already had his own to deal with!