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Queen

Queen - Queen Audio CD

A fair review of the Queen "Queen" 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: Queen
Rating:

Release Date: 1991-06-17
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Keep Yourself Alive 2: Doing All Right 3: Great King Rat 4: My Fairy King 5: Liar 6: Night Comes Down 7: Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll 8: Son & Daughter 9: Jesus 10: Seven Seas of Rhye 11: Mad the Swine [#] 12: Keep Yourself Alive [#] 13: Liar [Remix][*]

Best LP
The vocals, harmonies and guitar work are a hard rockers dream. This is by far Queen's best LP. Go for it!!!!.

A Beginning - Queen Shows Its Stuff
Their sound will change and evolve, and as they become more aware of what they want their sound to be, so too will the audience, and they will be more open to this new band. Rarely is a band's first album one of their best works ever. In Queen's case, their first album was not their best work. However, at least for me, it ranks up their as one of their better works. While their eponymous debut leaves a lot to be desired, Queen sparkles on this record as a group that's not afraid to experiment on their first outing. On the poorer moments, the music is OK, but on the better moments, the music is nothing short of wonderful.

The album kicks off in a rocking fashion with "Keep Yourself Alive", a piece that would become the template for hard rock a la Queen. The guitar work on this song is nothing short of incredible, so much so that the dynamic opening has placed high on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the greatest guitar moments. It is followed by a softer piece, "Doing All Right", that was written by Brian May and Timothy Staffel, the bassist of Smile, the band May and Taylor had previously been in. It's airy, glam feeling is deceptive, though; in the space of a minute it changes from soft pop to folk rock to a screeching heavy metal section, only to change again several more times; a true demonstration of the many facets of the band.

The other two pieces by May follow suit, albeit with one song being the lighter piece and the other the rocker. "The Night Comes Down" shows off May's rarely-heard acoustic guitar skill with a solo at the opening and closing. Filled with mysticism and reminiscence of childhood, it is probably the gentlest and tamest moments on the record. Far different is his final contribution, "Son and Daughter", which starts off almost like a blues song, but then changes to a glam-metal esque rocker that would be popular at live shows. In between these two songs is Taylor's sole composition, "Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll". This is not the same Taylor who wrote "Radio Ga Ga" and "A Kind of Magic"; this is a younger, more rebellious Taylor whose abrasive rocker about the musical revolution could be considered the first punk rock song, with its fast nature and simple, straightforward lyrics.

Freddie Mercury's pieces are some of the best moments on the album, featuring a mix of heavy rock and a more experimental facet. "Great King Rat" combines these two styles beautifully. The lyrics are an animal all to themself; while starting off with the story of a dead hobo, they transistion to words that are anti-religious, warning all: "Don't believe all you read in the Bible". This attitude finds its counter-part in "Jesus", which tells the story of the Messiah's journey throughout the Holy Land. It is ironic that Mercury, an Indian and a Zoroastrian, would be writing about Christianity, but the lyrics are good and the music is interesting.

His best work on the album comes in tracks 4 and 5. "My Fairy King" is the first of several songs to deal with Mercury's fantasy world of Rhye. With the beautiful multi-tracked vocals and the operatic instrumental interludes, this piece seems to be one of the main ancestors of the band's smash hit, "Bohemian Rhapsody". ". . . Rhapsody" also owes its origins to the following track, "Liar", a rocker that constantly shifts time signatures and dances on a fine line between prog rock and metal. Both songs show Mercury at peak condition and demonstrate his versatility at lyrical and musical composition. Concluding the album is a short instrumental of what would become the band's first big hit, "Seven Seas of Rhye". There is little that is different from the final version, other than the lack of vocals, and it serves to relieve any psychological tension built up when listening to this thrill ride of a record.

The bonus tracks are at best decent, offering little more than a perspective of the band's early recordings. "Mad the Swine", a Mercury composition, is a lightweight glam rock piece about a good samaritan/missionairy who comes to the people with food, drink, and the word of God. I personally found it extrememly boring to listen to, and after the first time listening to the album, it will undoubtedly be skipped over by listeners. The "Long-Lost Take" of "Keep Yourself Alive" is an interesting alternate version of the opening song, with parts never heard before that showcase the band's creative skill. The last song, a remix of "Liar", is not all that different from the original, with naught but a touch of electronics mixed into the drum passages and behind Mercury's vocals.

Overall this record is quite enjoyable and shows what the band would become in future years. Much of the glam rock sound would be dropped by the band on later albums, so this album captures the band at its earliest stylings. To understand the Queen sound, this is the album to start with. Noted, this album is NOT for those who preferred the band's more commercial sound. "Queen I" is more akin to a mix of Deep Purple, David Bowie, and ELP, and is not palatable by all. However, I strongly encourage it for those who are interested in all eras of Queen.

Best Queen album, period!
I was never to be the same. This album was my first exposure to Queen. This was the standard by which hard rock would be held from now on. Two thousand albums and cd's later, and that is still true. There were no hits on this album at the time. Most of the people I know heard this album after one of the other, more popular, Queen albums. Queen turned into a pop - top 40, act, after the commercial success of News of the World. Some of the later stuff was designed strictly to produce top 40 hits, and cash in on the disco craze. This seems to be the Queen most people know, but it is not the Queen they started out to be.

Stunning Debut
Each member contributes lyrically and musically to the selection, and the vocals are perfect harmonies. This disk was a showcase of the magnificance of future Queen productions. Brian May's guitar layers sound almost like syntesizers, prompting the liner notes (and on subsequent releases)"No Syths". The songwriting moods change throughout, including the May penned hit "Keep Yourself Alive" and the dramatic moods of Mercury's "Liar", which begins to showcase his ability to draw from diverse sections and construct a song that works. I particularly like "The Night Comes Down", appreciating the mood changes, the flaminco guitar influenced part that starts the song, and the actual chord structure that plays upon a D variation. Great stuff, but not necessarily their best work.

Growing up Queen (3.5 stars)
The pomp and grandiosity that would become Queen hallmarks are largely absent, however Freddy Mercury's distinct voice and Brian May's original guitar tones are in evidence throughout. The debut album from Queen contains a few of the elements that would eventually define the band, but is very much a generic early 70's Prog-rock/metal album. The legendary excess and theatrical flair is a mere tease at this stage, with Queen's vocabulary still in a formative period.

The key tracks are the ones usually plucked for the many Queen anthologies, "Keep Yourself Alive" and "Liar. " The Kings and medieval themes prevalent in the era are available on "Great King Rat" and a tease of Queen II is offered when the album closes with "Seven Seas of Rhye. " For the most part, the show is May and Mercury's, with a quick peek at Roger Taylor's vocals on the otherwise forgettable "Modern Times Rock and Roll. " The band has not quite gelled and the Queen everyone knows and loves emerged in full on the second album then really detonated on Sheer Heart Attack and A Night at the Opera (both superior albums).

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.