A Night At The Opera [VINYL]

Queen is one of those bands that everybody knows. Whether it's the hairy rockers head banging to "Tie Your Mother down" or the everyday, low IQ individual who only knows their greatest hits, Queen is one of the most well known bands to come out of England.The one thing that a lot of people do not realize about Queen is their extreme musical diversity. They do not just play the catchy rockers you get in the bargain bin greatest hits collections. The band have a habit of mixing things between heavy rock, pop, folk and even jazz. The overly talented foursome were not only great musicians but all had unique vocal abilities that benefited when the group sang together in strange, mesmerizing harmonies. All these weird and wonderful talents were used to their greatest of abilities over the years, however they never topped the fantastic, overly bombastic and quite charming " A Night At The Opera"."A Night At The Opera" is known for giving us two fantastic singles. The sweet, charming Deacon classic "You're My Best Friend" and the now Wayne's World favourite"Bohemian Rhapsody". These two songs aside, no one ever talks about the other songs on the album. For example, the eight minute epic "The Prophet's Song". Rumoured to be about The Great Flood, this song is Queen's longest track and easily their most progressive. It is a dreamy bit of work with some of Brian May's best guitar playing. How about the great folkish "Good Company?" The point is that taking any song off this album as a single is just blasphemy. The album runs from one track to another like it was a concept album and the variety of the music itself is just immense. Unlike a lot of bands at the time, this record is not straight electric guitar, bass and drums. There are many assorted instruments featured like Ukulele, harp and the ever faithful piano.The album was produced by Roy Thomas Baker and Queen themselves. They did a splendid job of giving the music a wonderful warm feeling. The album is full of life, the music is superbly written and it has the words "timeless" written all over it.This version I am reviewing is the 2011 remaster album. In this remaster the sound has had a fair kick in the backside. "A Night At The Opera" has been given some fantastic treatment and like the rest of the remastered albums, it is easily the best I have ever heard it."A Night At The Opera" is a Hard Rock classic that very little people every speak about. Considering how much the album sold, it is amazing how many people never mention this album as a direct influence. Though there are moments when you can hear what could be rock band The Darkness in Queen. A band that has had a lot of comparisons with Queens 70's material and rightfully so."A Night At The Opera" is a fantastic album that must be owned by pretty much everybody. There is such a wide range of musical diversity that there is not much to complain about. The only people that would not buy into this album are the kind that don't buy into hype or the simple narrowed minded types that want an array of hits. How many times can someone listen to "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Don't Stop Me Now" without their accompanying albums... seriously?!

Great album!

It's great to hear Queen & Freddie Mercury once again. Its a beautiful cd with a few new songs that are not on the main albums.

Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1970, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury (lead vocals, piano), Brian May (guitar, vocals), John Deacon (bass guitar), and Roger Taylor (drums, vocals). Queen's earliest works were influenced by progressive rock, hard rock and heavy metal, but the band gradually ventured into more conventional and radio-friendly works, incorporating further diverse styles into their music.Before joining Queen, Brian May and Roger Taylor had been playing together in a band named Smile with bassist Tim Staffell. Freddie Mercury (then known by his birth name of Farrokh "Freddie" Bulsara) was a fan of Smile, and encouraged them to experiment with more elaborate stage and recording techniques after Staffell's departure in 1970. Mercury himself joined the band shortly thereafter, changed the name of the band to "Queen", and adopted his familiar stage name. John Deacon was recruited prior to recording their eponymous debut album in 1973. Queen enjoyed success in the UK with their debut and its follow-up, Queen II in 1974, but it was the release of Sheer Heart Attack later in 1974 and A Night at the Opera in 1975 that gained the band international success. The latter featured "Bohemian Rhapsody", which stayed at number one in the UK Singles Chart for nine weeks; it charted at number one in several other territories, and gave the band their first top ten hit on the US Billboard Hot 100. Their 1977 album, News of the World, contained two of rock's most recognisable anthems, "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions".By the early 1980s, Queen were one of the biggest stadium rock bands in the world, with "Another One Bites the Dust" their best selling single, and their performance at 1985's Live Aid is regarded as one of the greatest in rock history. In 1991, Mercury died of bronchopneumonia, a complication of AIDS, and Deacon retired in 1997. Since then, May and Taylor have occasionally performed together, including a collaboration with Free and Bad Company vocalist Paul Rodgers under the name Queen + Paul Rodgers which ended in May 2009. Since 2011, May and Taylor have collaborated with vocalist Adam Lambert under the name of Queen + Adam Lambert. In late 2014, Queen will release a new album, Queen Forever, featuring vocals from the late Freddie Mercury.The band have released a total of 18 number one albums, 18 number one singles, and 10 number one DVDs. Estimates of their record sales generally range from 150 million to 300 million records, making them one of the world's best-selling music artists. They received the Outstanding Contribution to British Music Award from the British Phonographic Industry in 1990, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

Excellent value for money, brilliant band.

classic