A NIGHT AT THE OPERA

An album that shows once again Freddie Mercury's fascination for the Opera, his tendency to multi-vocal arrangements expressed in a very theatrical way and his awesome and incredible talent.

This is really a CD to listen and follow since the first to the last track and enjoy the orchestration and cohesion this British musicians achieved. Following the album series that make the whole world turn to them, Queen really reaches an excellent connection reflected in the quality of this release. These guys explore through symphonic and hard rock passages wonderfully finished by the sweet voice of Mr. Mercury, adding the strength of Brian May's guitar, the solid groove in the drums by Taylor and a pretty decent job in the bass by Deacon.

"Death On Two Legs" is a song that makes you jump off your seat and feel every single guitar riff, each verse, and each one of the moments perfectly harmonized by each band member. Without a doubt, this is one of the best moments of this album.

An extremely happy song with the shape of a Broadway musical show is the one that follows this work; "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" has a great performance by Brian May, who still shows his writing ability on each part of the album and it's perfectly stylized by Freddie's voice.

"I'm In love With My Car" was written by Roger Taylor and shows the versatility of every single Queen member. It's about the passion this last one feels for the cars and dedicated to John Harris, one of the early Queen's roadies. "You're my Best Friend" breaks a little bit the line marked on the previous tracks, even though it's a very poppy and cheerful theme that brings some rhythm to the album

In a very folk way with a simple acoustic guitar, Brian May introduces this song written by himself with some pretty intricate lyrics with astrology allusions; that was Brian's major before his entrance to music industry. 39' is spiced with the particular voice that turned this band into a legend.

"Sweet Lady" has the romantic style adding some Hard Rock influences and takes the guitar power back and the soundness on the drums.

"Seaside Rendezvous" is full of French expressions that bring the romanticism Mercury wanted since this language was considered the language of love. Voilá!!!

If you thought that 'Bohemian Rhapsody' was the only masterpiece in this album, you were wrong. The Prophet's Song is one of those tunes that could only be made only one band in the world, and Queen knew nobody could ever imitate that kind of chorus. Similar to the opera section in 'Bohemian Rhapsody', this song was made by a cappella chorus layers put one after the other in a recording studio.

"Love of My Life" is a pretty blue song, very calmed and soft that lack of success as a single, even though is one of the most emotive track this band has written. The voice full of melancholy longs that love that has already gone and will never back again. The musicality achieved in this track is sublime, one of my favorite ballads of all times.

A song that does not need introduction, the most played, listened, covered and well-know Queen's song. "Bohemian Rhapsody" is an excellent song that continues the structure built by "Prophet's Song".

"Good Company" reflects that Queen was more than a simple rock band, where they adopt the Hawaiian style adding a moving taste to this release.

The only song that wasn't written by any of the members of the band to be featured on an studio album. This song shows the patriotism and pride that Queen had for their homeland.

After finishing my review, the indecision and doubt drown my mind. This is a very digestible album, it really catches you since the first listen, but I don't consider it a masterpiece of progressive music, but this doesn't stop it of being a gem of Rock & Roll History with great progressive elements added to the mix. Definitely this is an excellent addition to any collection. I'll give it a 4 stars rating.

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