Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

Queen
Queen tabs Queen discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

Queen guitar tabs

CD reviews

News of the World

Queen - News of the World Audio CD

A fair review of the Queen "News of the World" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Queen reviews here, or go back to the Queen tabs.

Band: Queen
Title: News of the World
Rating:

Release Date: 1991-02-12
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: We Will Rock You 2: We Are the Champions 3: Sheer Heart Attack 4: All Dead, All Dead 5: Spread Your Wings 6: Fight from the Inside 7: Get Down, Make Love 8: Sleeping on the Sidewalk 9: Who Needs You 10: It's Late 11: My Melancholy Blues 12: We Will Rock You [*][Mix]

An Under-Appreciated Classic
Severely stripped down, Queen did away with a lot of the operatics and novelty songs on this outing- the closest to one of those familiar lightweight Queen tracks being John Deacon's latin-tinged Who Needs You. Released after the magnificent one-two punch of A Night At The Opera and A Day At The Races, this particular album underwhelmed some on its initial release. This is a band flexing their musical muscles, with the songs sounding like they were largely recorded live in the studio with overdubs done afterwards, rather than the albums before that sounded like the songs were largely pieced together bit by bit.
The album begins with the now overly-familiar We Will Rock You, an instant classic, and a ballsy way to start an album. It would signify that this was a more basic Queen- rockier, edgier; abandoning all the studio trickery employed on the previous albums. I wasn't around at the time, but I can only imagine that Queen were tiring of being criticized for hiding behind overdubs, and wanted to present a more natural, harder side of themselves. If you have heard A Night At The Opera, and liked Sweet Lady, you will find plenty here of that nature to whet your appetite. We Are The Champions follows- an overly theatrical Freddie anthem, that has since become ubiquitous. If you're new to this album, the first real surprise (other than that wonderful album cover) will be Sheer Heart Attack- a Roger Taylor belter that is pure punk. Racing along at break-neck speed, the song is wonderfully nonsensical and contains truly great lyrics.
All Dead All Dead follows before Spread Your Wings slowly unfurls itself before the listener. A John Deacon ballad about escaping ennui- it is an under-appreciated Queen classic. As anthemic as anything else they ever released, it is a shame that this song kind of got left by the wayside somewhat. Freddie delivers a wonderful vocal here, and Brian's guitar-work is as illuminating as ever. Fight From The Inside is a standard Roger rocker, but you can hear that his songwriting is developing nicely at this point. If you dig this particular track, then you should go and investigate his solo albums, Fun In Space and Strange Frontier- they are full of little gems like this.
One of only three Freddie compositions on this album, Get Down Make Love comes next. Dirty, sweaty and filled with innuendo ("You say you hungry, I give you meat"), it is slightly off-kilter with the rest of the album, and is all the better for it. A real Queen curio, that you will either fall in love with or despise. It was later covered by Nine Inch Nails, but this is by far the better version. Brian's bluesy Sleeping On The Sidewalk is the album's most inconsequential track. By no means a bad song, but clearly filler- Brian recounts life on the road as a struggling musician over a simple backing. The aforementioned Who Needs You makes a brief appearance before. . .
It's Late. The standout track on the album. In my opinion it is the most under-appreciated song in the whole Queen canon. Penned by Brian May, it is an epic guitar-heavy song about love gone bad. Freddie's voice is magnificent here as he towers over this track with such command; his phrasing is wonderful- his ad-libs are perfect as always. This really is the highlight, on an album filled with highlights.
The lights go down as Freddie sits down at the piano for his beautiful, self-penned, My Melancholy Blues. The album ends as it began- stripped down and honest. Y'see, this is Queen's last truly honest album, up until the melancholy-drenched Innuendo, anyway. Here the songs seem to mean something; be it dealing with being under the spotlight or trying to survive within a crumbling relationship. Lyrically, the songs would become more generic after this outing. I don't have a problem with that myself. I never really looked to Queen to dazzle me with their words- though I do miss the wonderfully inventive lyrics of those early Queen records.
I have lived with this album for many years now. I first heard it as a teen, and fell in love with it immediately. It's a far more concise affair than the follow-up album, Jazz. This would be in my top five Queen albums, alongside Innuendo, Sheer Heart Attack, A Night At The Opera and Queen II. If you're a fan of the heavier Queen songs, then give this album a try. If, on the other hand, you prefer the more outrageous efforts, then go for Queen II, or A Night At The Opera. But this really is worth the price of admission for It's Late alone. .

Another strong release from their classic era
Like the next albums, Jazz, and The Game respectively, the best songs were released as singles although there are some great deep cuts. News of the World is another strong album from Queen's best era from 1975 to 1980. You can't go wrong with the one-two punch that opens the album. "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" are timeless anthems that will played long after we're gone. And on that note, the morbid piano ballad "All Dead, All Dead" is also a great track as is "Spread Your Wings", which should have been another huge hit. Like most Queen albums, diversity is fair game as you got the raging punk of "Sheer Heart Attack", the moody piano ballad "My Melancholy Blues", the mellow Middle Eastern feel of "Who Needs You" and the bombast of "It's Late". The remaining songs ("Fight from the Inside", "Get Down, Make Love", "Sleeping on the Sidewalk") continue the diversity and are decent but not as good as the cuts before or after them. All told, another strong album from Queen at a time where they could do little wrong. .

It's great, it's great, it's great but not too great!
It was 1977, the year we got Star Wars, and of course We will rock you and We are the champions. This album is the stuff of legend. Both of those legendary songs are on this album in all their original glory. I think some people overlook some of the other great gems on this album, like Get Down Make love, All Dead All Dead, Spread your wings, Sleeping on the sidewalk, It's late, Who needs you, Fight from the inside and My Melancholy Blues. These songs are all classics and deserve no less praise then the best of Queen because they are classic rock songs, and best of all they utilize the vocal talents of Brian May and Roger Taylor, which you don't hear that often. .

Their Last Semi-Heavy Album
" Don't get me wrong, as I still like their pop hits, but I much prefer their heavier stuff. I was always attracted to Queen's earlier work as it was heavier than when they "became famous. I think this was their last heavy album before they went full-bore pop.

The thing is that this is mostly a mellow album. It starts heavy with Rock You and Champions, then starts to fade into a very mellow middle. Sheer Heart Attack is sort of heavy, but is sometimes hard to follow. Right at the end, things pick up again then drop down into mellow with the final cut.

These aren't so much complaints as just descriptions of what is going on here. I still like the album. I like it more because outside of the first two songs, it is not a commercial undertaking. The songs are not the catchy pop tunes they are so famous for. That scores points in my book.

If you like Queen, I don't even have to describe this album, but for those of you that have never heard any of their full albums, this is a good place to start. Highly recommended.
.

Another direction
' NOTW doesn't get the respect it should by rock critics with songs like 'sheer heart attack' 'it's late' and 'spread your wings' being so brilliant. News of the world was Queen's 6th album and another great one, and put them on even another level of popularity with the songs 'we will rock you' and 'we are the champions. Also, 'my melancholoy blues' is one of my personal favorites. Queen were on fire in the 70's.

You can see a complete list of all Queen discography, or go back to the Queen tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.