THE SINGLES COLLECTION VOLUME 1

Queen is one of my all time favourite bands and I have loved this band for over ten years now. This box set contains 13 discs which are CD versions of 13 of the band's 70's singles (there is also now a The Singles Collection Volume 2 covering the early 80's and presumable a third box set coming up covering the late 80's/early 90's singles).

The music featured here is mostly excellent and it is a nice package. I used to have quite a few of these singles on 7" vinyl. The problem is that if you have all of Queen's studio albums from this period, there is only one song here that you don't already have! If you happen to have the Hollywood Records version of Queen II, then you have that song too as a bonus track. This fact reduces this box set to a pure collector's item. You don't want to buy an expensive box set for only one additional song (that many already have anyway).

The sole non-album b-side featured here is called See What A Fool I've Been and is a bluesy, Led Zeppelin-esqe hard rocker. It is not particularly interesting even for me as a long time fan and it is certainly not up to par with the brilliant Queen II material (or any other early Queen material, for that matter).

If you don't have the studio albums from which these singles were taken, buy those albums! If you already have these studio albums, you really don't need this box set unless you are a serious collector. The value of this release lies almost wholly in the physical box itself as the content is clearly best obtained elsewhere.