QUEEN II

I would rate this the third best Queen album behind A Night at the Opera and Sheer Heart Attack. It contains some of the formative ideas for each album, but is divided into two distinct parts, which makes it less cohesive.

Side one, the White side, is more glam rock to me. It highlights the capabilities of the band as musicians, and the songwriting abilities of all the band members but John Deacon. These, however, aren't the reason to listen to this magnificent album. Queen is a band noted for their professionalism and versatility, as well as being able to adapt to many genres. So Side 1 isn't all that prog. The only song on here I yearn to listen to again is Father to Son. It feels like a hybrid ballad/proto-metal song, maybe a precursor to The Prophet's Song. Definitely a great track.

Side 2, however, is a creative tour-de-freakin-force if ever there was one. It's like someone took a bizarre, highly intelligent and creative individual and set them loose in a recording studio and said "write what comes into your mind without exception, without constraints." That person would be Freddy Mercury, and if you ever had the impression that he was just some buck-toothed, campy freak who rode to stardom on the backs of great musicians you must listen to these songs.

The entire remainder of the original album was authored by Mercury. It starts with Ogre Battle, which opens with the end of the song playing backwards. Then tears into one of Queen's more violent riffs. Very reminiscent of their first album. It ends with a gong and an amazing high-pitched vocal harmony, which then blends into the whimsical keyboards of The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke, a humorous innuendo on Freddy's part, supposedly based on a painting, which no doubt was all innuendo itself. This song is fantastic and is one of Queen's most overlooked songs. The lyrics are rolling off the tongue, while painting the mythological picture of the song. My favorite line is: "Oberon and Titania are watched by a haridan. Mab is the Queen and there's a good apothecary man....come to say hello." This song segue's into Nevermore, a short piano ballad/love song with whispers of Poe.

Then, one of the greatest songs ever written....The March of the Black Queen. It is epic for Queen, though only 6 minutes long. It goes through many stages, just goes throughh them much more quickly. It is a precursor to the better known Bohemian Rhapsody. I don't know how to describe the song. Listen to it. Then see if you can describe it. Good luck. The song ends with a fast pace and a vocal flourish and segues into Funny How Love Is, a nifty little song, with a simplicity which sets it off from the surrounding bombast. it has a unique sound for Queen, almost a wall of sound effect, and it comes off as a song that could have caught on as an anthem had it been marketed such. The album finishes with Seven Seas of Rhye. This song was actually a single. Hard to believe that something this complex could have been a single. But then again, so was Bohemian Rhapsody.

Song ratings: Procession/father to Son 9/10 White Queen 8.5/10 Loser In the End 5/10 Some Day One Day 7.5/10 Ogre Battle 8/10 Fairy Feller's Master Stroke 10/10 Nevermore 9/10 The March of the Black Queen 11/10 Funny How Love Is 9/10 Seven Seas of Rhye 8.5/10