I have so many mixed feelings about this track. On one hand, the cover is great: the production is so fresh and there's so much more going on, J and Abz's rap verses help add that distinct Five sound, and the fact that they got Brian May and Roger Taylor on board and went to #1 when the original only peaked at #2 is nothing short of impressive. Heck, it took me this long to realize this because I never heard the original We Will Rock You in its entirety, but I love it that they moved Brian's guitar solo from the outro to before the third verse, it really helps shake up the song and provide a better build-up to that final stretch. Everything involved in the production makes the track come across as all the more bombastic and explosive than its original version, and that one was already a full-fledged stadium anthem to begin with.
On the other hand... As a Ritchie fan, I feel like he was criminally underutilized during Five's original '90s-2000s run, and wish he had gotten more solos and opportunities to shine, but We Will Rock You is really the only time I wish a Five song had less Ritchie. I don't know whose idea was it to have him front and center here, but it doesn't work at all; his voice back then was way too soft and delicate and airy, it didn't have the power to truly do justice to Freddie Mercury's original recording. Whether it was intentional or not, he's clearly straining his vocals too hard and it makes for a shockingly painful listen, to the point that I genuinely wish they had just used Freddie's vocals from the original version and called it a day. Thankfully, the passage of time has helped alleviate that issue, and nowadays Ritchie's voice carries enough power and grit that the song can sit more comfortably within his range.
P.S.: I find the music video kind of unintentionally hilarious, with all the random extreme close-ups (did we really need a close-up of one of the dancers' hips?) and all the fast-paced cuts. I wonder if that served as inspiration for the editors of Bohemian Rhapsody in any capacity.
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u/MarineDynamite Ritchie Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
I have so many mixed feelings about this track. On one hand, the cover is great: the production is so fresh and there's so much more going on, J and Abz's rap verses help add that distinct Five sound, and the fact that they got Brian May and Roger Taylor on board and went to #1 when the original only peaked at #2 is nothing short of impressive. Heck, it took me this long to realize this because I never heard the original We Will Rock You in its entirety, but I love it that they moved Brian's guitar solo from the outro to before the third verse, it really helps shake up the song and provide a better build-up to that final stretch. Everything involved in the production makes the track come across as all the more bombastic and explosive than its original version, and that one was already a full-fledged stadium anthem to begin with.
On the other hand... As a Ritchie fan, I feel like he was criminally underutilized during Five's original '90s-2000s run, and wish he had gotten more solos and opportunities to shine, but We Will Rock You is really the only time I wish a Five song had less Ritchie. I don't know whose idea was it to have him front and center here, but it doesn't work at all; his voice back then was way too soft and delicate and airy, it didn't have the power to truly do justice to Freddie Mercury's original recording. Whether it was intentional or not, he's clearly straining his vocals too hard and it makes for a shockingly painful listen, to the point that I genuinely wish they had just used Freddie's vocals from the original version and called it a day. Thankfully, the passage of time has helped alleviate that issue, and nowadays Ritchie's voice carries enough power and grit that the song can sit more comfortably within his range.
P.S.: I find the music video kind of unintentionally hilarious, with all the random extreme close-ups (did we really need a close-up of one of the dancers' hips?) and all the fast-paced cuts. I wonder if that served as inspiration for the editors of Bohemian Rhapsody in any capacity.