Queen

With Queen their heaviest and most progressive is just fine. A pop song such as "You're MY Best Friend" is as fine a pop song as say The Prophet Song. I think, along with ELO, Queen are the ultimate result of eclectic Beatle-esque influenced pop / rock. Some of the songs are just not rock at all and this may confuse rock fans. Although it would do the same thing in jazz if Be Bop fans heard swing on Miles' albums. But this is freedom for ya...

Seaside Rendezvous is more 1930s vaudeville than 70s rock. It's probably fit on Pepper more. And that is definitely not a 70s rock album, and I don't mean it's date.

I suppose one way of accepting these "odd" numbers on their albums is the same mindset that can be used to take the odd moments in Supper's Ready and understand that to be a great number.

Favourite Queen moment... the Jazz poster and banned video for Bicycle Race...  or the second album. Hard to tell the difference.

Tom Ozric wrote: Horizons wrote: I can't stand them. Heard many albums, even owned quite a few LP's of theirs at some stage, but what ^ said. Dunno what it is, but just can't get into them......

I feel the same way.....I like several of their 'radio hits', but the albums just don't appeal to me. btw....there was a discussion of campy and kitschy prog rock in another thread and imo they would certainly fit that bill.

Was a fan during their first 4 albums, lost interest after that.

Really liked Queen II the best of the bunch.  I remember the vinyl album was like twice as thick as a standard album for some reason.

ole-the-first wrote: It's a bit strange to see that discussions about Queen discography are rather scarce here, although it's among the 'biggest' bands on the archives, both commercially (competing with The Beatless, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd) and rating-wise (with two of their albums in Prog-Related top-5). Queen is one of my favourite bands of all time, forming my musical pantheon alongside with King Crimson, Steven Wilson and Peter Hammill.I find Queen's classic albums one of the most interesting releases of good ol' 70's, with Queen II peaking as one of my all-time favourite LP's. Their first five albums are very progressive (in all senses of that word), with a lot of experimentation and surprising eclectism (from music hall to ballad to opera to heavy metal, sometimes all in one song), and it's even very strange that the commercial success have found that band with Bohemian Rhapsody, one of their weirdest songs. Their first albums are full of sudden emotional and stylistic changes, with technically excellent playing and, starting from late 1974, superior production (the first two albums, unfortunately, are not that perfect in terms of sound quality).Although they turned very poppy in 80's, they still remained quite eclectic, and, unlike Rainbow or Uriah Heep, who turned into plain AOR bands, Queen still remained rather unpredictable even on their poppiest albums.My ratings:Queen I — 8/10Queen II — 10/10Sheer Heart Attack — 10/10A Night at the Opera — 10/10A Day at the Races — 10/10News of the World — 7/10Jazz — 8/10The Game — 5/10Flash Gordon — 4/10Hot Space — 7/10The Works — 6/10A Kind of Magic — 6/10The Miracle — 8/10Innuendo — 9/10Made in Heaven — 8/10

Oh wow, ole-the-first
I love Queen, great forum topic. I too think they are brilliant from the obvious bohemian rhapsody to love of my life/too much love will kill you, but not less either the silly songs like bicycle race and fat bottomed girls, love them all.    Also the fact that Queen produced many memorable tunes i.e. we will rock you... they used the drum tune so well here and made it into a tune too.... tum tum tack, tum tum tack, we will, we will rock you..... Freddie's vocals were incredible and heartfelt and Brian May produces the most memorable tunes too!

clarkpegasus4001 wrote:   I tend to agree with this. The first Queen album is pretty good too. The vast majority of Queen tracks are too poppy for me. Orge Battle is my fave Queen track, I love that intro and main riff!

I've always had a hard time getting into Queen.  A little too theatrical and campy for my tastes though I haven't heard Queen II which a lot of people recommend.  Maybe that album will change my mind? 

dr wu23 wrote: Never was a fan myself and I always thought they were a band that usually had 2 or 3 very good tracks on their albums and the rest of the songs were just so so..imo.

News Of The World was the last great album from Queen. The best vocalist of all time possibly?

Never have liked Queen or even seen what the big attraction was to their music, but I certainly won't be arguing with any Queen fans, because, while I don't enjoy their music, they do possess a certain musicality that is respectable.

I heard Stone Cold Crazy on the Classic Rock station yesterday. My alarm clock radio woke me up with it. I can't believe how heavy that song is. I got the feeling the DJ accidentally played the wrong track. I didn't recognize it at first cuz it's been a long time, but it sure woke me up.