Queen Album: “Queen”

It is far too easy when discussing QUEEN's first LP, to throw tons of adjectives around describing the album's brilliance. I was quite stunned the first time I heard this album. As a rabid metal fan, I was skeptical about Queen. I considered them pompous, glammy, and too commercial. That was BEFORE I listened to the first three Queen albums(Queen, Queen II, and Sheer Heart Attack). It is unfortunate that there are only two or three songs off the first three LP's that really get any steady airplay. I think it is for this reason that many metal heads are unaware of how awesome early Queen was, and particularily, how rad Queen's debut was. Brian May's guitar work on "Queen" (1973) is arguably the most exciting post-Hendrix guitar work of the 70's. May's guitar is layered and blended, infusing classical, jazz, funk, and beautiful acoustic passages, over molten metal fretwork. It is easy to hear May's influence on Tipton and Downing(Judas Priest), Roth(Scorpions), Schenker(UFO), and Y. Malmsteen. Mercury's vocals are equally dynamic and always enthralling, as he weaves complex tales as well as pure rock lyrics. There isn't one weak moment on Queen's debut, thus making it essential for all rock fans. One could spend decades listening to this debut. It offers infinite enjoyment. So if you are a rock fan, take a chance and buy this album. If you are a metal head but do not yet own Queen's debut, get it quick, as you are missing out on probably the SINGLE MOST INFLUENTIAL METAL ALBUM OF ALL TIME, rivaled only by the innovations of early Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, and Led Zeppelin!!! So roll a joint, sit back, crank it up, and enjoy some 'modern times rock 'n' roll' !!!!

I own many Queen cd's, and this was probably the one I appreciated the least out of my Queen collection. But some 2 years later, I started listening to it more after wearing out Q2, Sheer Heart Attack and A Night at the Opera. It started growing on me big time. "Keep Yourself Alive", was the hit of the album, but honestly is my least favorite of the disc. "Doing All Right", is soft/heavy, and beautiful. "Great King Rat", is regal Queen at their finest. "My Fairy King", is probably my favorite or second favorite on here, as it shows Queen at the progressive rock leanings, as they began to develop and mature as the years went on. It mixes Hard Rock, Classical, and Opera like influences and you can hear Freddie's flamboyance throughout. "Liar", another great track and as well as "fairy king", is more like a complex epic. "The Night Comes Down", is soft. "Modern Times...", is a 2-minute fast paced heavy rocker sung by Roger Taylor. "Son & Daughter", is a glam-heavy metal song with Freddie's androgynous and venomous vocals. Great stuff. "Jesus". Great Tune. It sounds theatrical and as if it came from a broadway musical.

Overall, this was a great start for Queen, and it gave hints at what the band would become later on.

thanks.

Queen's debut is one of those truly original recordings that can never be duplicated. Even for Queen, this is truly original, as they quickly departed this unique sound for bigger and better things. Don't let this fool you, though. For 1973, this is a wonderful CD with excellent songs and musicianship. Looking at the opening track, Keep Yourself Alive, we have a guitar driven tune (with a very unique strumming sound) that rocks all the way through the end--including a keep-up-the-tempo drum solo from Roger Taylor that quickly solidifies him as one of rock's foremost drummers. The songs are exquisite: Doin All Right, a cover of the original Smile song that Brian May recorded along with Taylor and bandmate Tim Staffell. The Night Comes Down, and Jesus, are both heavy rockers that unfortunately were left off Queen sets after the album was released, never to be played again. Liar, a staple for many years for Queen, is a 6-minute operatic rocker that paved the way for the Bohemian Rhapsodies of the future. My Fairy Queen is perhaps the most interesting song on the CD, a piano-vocal driven operatic tune that is simply good fun to listen to. We also have a snippet of Seven Seas Of Rhye, a song that eventually appears on their second release, Queen 2. Modern Times Rock and Roll is a Roger Taylor penned fast rocker that lived in their sets for a few years, and Son and Daughter, another constant in the early Queen sets, gave home to Brian May's guitar solo until Brighton Rock appeared on their third album. The best song here, however, is Great King Rat, which is the most progressive song on the CD, and actually appeared on and off in Queen sets through the 80's.

Queen's debut is a must for all Queen fans, plus fans of early Queen when they were still trying to decide which direction to take their music.

You might take a bit of time to get to appreciate the genius of this but this is certainly a masterpiece and I love it . My favourites are upbeat rocker 'Keep Yourself Alive' , the beautiful 'Doing Alright 'the brilliant 'Liar' the sad and imaginative 'My Fairy King and Roger Taylor's 'Modern Times Rock 'N Roll -classic 1970's hard rock at its best. We would see more examples of by Taylor in subsequent albums ..These are all masterpieces which should have got much greater recognition than they did .

There are also numbers with some rather nasty verses such as 'Great King Rat and 'Mad The Swine ' which we would see toned down in the later albums , and 'Son and Daughter' is rather strange . Jesus sounds like Queen's tribute to Gospel music and is actually quite memorable with it's melodic choral chant. Nevertheless all of them are important in studying the development of the band.

It definitely worth getting.Listen a few times and you'll love it .Its one of the best rock albums of all time.

Queen's break into the music world was a quiet one. Even though they were already working together for over two years, and were fairly successful as a live act, they haven't yet made their break in the record business. The one single they released, 'Keep Yourself Alive', never charted in the UK; neiter did 'I Can Hear Music' released under the name Larry Lurex, or 'Earth', released two years earlier by the band Smile (consisting of Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor, and lead vocalist Tim Staffell). In an unusual and bold move, Queen chose to release an album before having a charting single to promote it. The album did rather well, but didn't create much of a fuss either; it charted at number 24 in the UK and 83 in the US, and was awarded a gold record. Quite an impressive fit; after all, it had some tough competition. It was released in 1973, a year in which classics like Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side Of The Moon', Deep Purple's 'Machine Head' and Bowie's 'Ziggy Stardust' were dominating the charts.

It would take Queen two more years and three more albums to release their first chart-topping album and single and base their stand as a supergroup. Retrospectively, though, listening to their debut album reveals great talent and promise at this very early stage of their career. The 'Queen Sound' isn't quite there yet, and the songwriting still needs some polishing; but musically it's one of their best. Instrumentaly, it's already clear that Queen were one of the best bands to appear in several years. Brian's guitar was and remains one of the finest, though his style wasn't yet very developed; drummer Roger Taylor supplied a fantastic, solid beat, and John Deacon (called Deacon John for some reason) gave a heavy, powerful bass. And most importantly, Freddie Mercury's voice, one of the most beautiful in rock music.

The album's weaknesses, of course, are quite clear. The unique sound and style that made 'Sheer Heart Attack' and 'A Night At The Opera' is still very vague, and is only hinted on songs like 'My Fairy King'. The production values are very low, making some of the songs sound pretty bad. The remastering fixed most of the problems, but not all of them, like the drum sound. More importantly, there is a lack of teamwork here. Brian and Roger are still Smile, Freddie does his own stuff, and John is hardly a member of the band. The songs, though, make up for that. Unlike most of Queen's albums, this debut is purely rock, and is greatly influenced by the heavy metal and psychedelic rock masters of the late 60s. Brian's wonderful heavy rocker 'Son And Daughter' has a lot of Hendrix in it, and the lighter 'Keep Yourself Alive' shows some signs of Led Zeppelin, as does Roger Taylor's brief 'Modern Times Rock n' Roll'. Freddie wrote 'Great King Rat', one of his very few real rockers, and more importantly 'Liar', a rock epic which remains one of Queen's finest songs. Other standouts are 'Doin' All Right', a fantastic remake of a Smile song written by May and Staffell, and 'The Night Comes Down', a half folk-rock, half psychedelic tribute to the love generation. One of my favorite moments in Queen's recording career is the sudden move from Brian's nostalgic, 60s sounding 'The Night Comes Down' to Roger's 'Modern Times Rock n' Roll'.

A fantastic debut album all around, a standout in Queen's career, even if it is slightly rough around the edges. A great album to be enjoyed by all rock fans, and worth the purchase if only for the brilliance of 'Liar'. It's great. Buy it.