NEWS OF THE WORLD

The first thing that catches the eye with Queen's 1977 release, "News Of The World" is the awesome robot killer cover!!! Originally a painting by sci-fi artist Frank Kelley Freas, Roger Taylor found this and ask Freas if he could adapt it to have the members of the band on the cover!! There you have it, four bleeding band members being ravaged by a giant robot...excellent!!!!!

On to the music, which is mostly forgotten by the casual listener to this band. Everyone knows the world's greatest rock anthems "We Will Rock You / We Are The Champions" which open this album together and are still played back to back on rock radio...not to mention that you can't go to any sporting event without these being played...AND Queen closed every single show with these songs from 1977 until 1986, and are probably doing so on their reunion tour right now.

That's all folks! There aren't any other huge hits or radio friendly songs included here, and many of these tracks may not be known my most people. "Sheer Heart Attack" was Queen's answer to the growing punk scene, proving they could play any style of music they wanted without sounding lame! The screeching guitar noise in the middle is rather irritating though! "All Dead All Dead" and "Who Needs You" are the worst tracks on the album, although the reggae-ish "Who Needs You" has some great acoustic guitar work. "Spread Your Wings" is another great rock track, this time written by John Deacon, possibly his strongest ever writing credit.

"Fight From The Inside" and "Get Down Make Love" are two rather funky tracks, the former written and sung by Roger while the second is all Freddie's!! The lyrics on this song should be avaoided at all cost, heheheh, as Freddie gruntily invites someone into his bed! As a live track there was a really cool section in the middle where Freddie played with vocal effects and echoes while the lighting man provided a great accompaniment. These are followed by an excellent Brian May blues number "Sleeping On The Sidewalk" showing Brian's love for the the genre.

The album ends with a short and mellow piano piece (Roger plays the brushes) entitled "My Melancholy Blues", not a blues number by any means, and probably one of the Top 5 unknown Queen songs. The true masterpiece on this disc is the 6 and a half minute rock track "It's Late" which not only contains some basic rock moments but also elements of punk. This song just rocks!!!!!! There are parts for everyone to shine here, including the excellent guitar of Brian and Freddie's flawless vocals. Roger Taylor finds reserves of energy toward the end of the song where he kicks everything up a notch with some awesome drum runs. Even bassist John Deacon is easily recognized here, keeping a killer bass rhythm that remains one of his best!! THIS IS THE SONG you need to hear from this album, hands down!!!!

As with all Queen albums, this album sounds completely different than anything before it or after it. While the previous two albums were mixing rock / classical / pop / and moments of operatic grandeur, this album leaves the classical and operatic stuff behind while focusing on the hard rock and adding some blues, funk, punk, and even reggae!!!!! Queen were NOT the best at what they did...they were the ONLY ones that did what they did!!!!!