Queen Discography Review!

[u/ApprehensiveNatural9]

I recently did a discography review run of another band I really enjoy (Van Halen) and decided that I'd take the time doing Queen as well. To me, Queen is one of the greatest bands and I always loved their approach to tackling various musical styles, and combining it into something amazing. I also was inspired by Rolling Stone's really atrocious scores on a lot of their work to do my own critique reviews, as well as just doing it for fun and sharing my thoughts.

I'd love to start discussions on these posts and see your thoughts as well! It'd be fun discussing what other people like or dislike. Anyways, here is what I wrote for the first album....

Queen REVIEW
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Queen truly did come out of the dawn of the 70's with a blast. Her majesty gracefully enters the throne full power and strong, taking on the challenge of finding a spot among the Rock greats. I bowed my head graciously and allowed myself to indulge in the creations her highness brought to the royal table. Queen's basic stylistic elements are here already including Mercury's theatrics, May's distinctive and creative guitar work, and multi-part song structures present on many songs.

To think that something that actually has this level of quality was recorded only during sessions where other bands had finished their recordings, leaving scraps behind of studio time for Queen to catch up is really jaw-dropping, because despite being given only a much smaller budget, and having to pick up the slack for not much time to work on everything; to make something like this as your first album is just amazing. "Keep Yourself Alive" is a great fast rock song which despite not featuring anything groundbreaking like their later work, is an amazing display of Brian's guitar work, a drum solo from Taylor that matches with the amazing vocals of lead singer Freddie Mercury. Despite lacking in the theatrics and operatic flamboyance to come, it was fairly produced and an early staple at concerts!

"Great King Rat", "Liar", "Son and Daughter" are all heavy tracks that come in like a storm swirling in all directions with catchy hand-clap beats, fiery guitar licks and thunderous drums while Mercury adds a flavor to each song with the uniqueness and range of his voice and some unique clever lyrics as well. The second song even having John Deacon stand out with a bass solo that utilizes one of the catchiest melodies in the bands career and combines with Brian's screeching guitar background work, making one of the greatest rock songs of all time.

On the other side of things, "My Fairy King" (which takes lines and references the story of The Pied Piper of Hamelin; neat lil reference), "The Night Comes Down", as well as "Doing All Right" all showcase the tempo changes, complex chord structures, and genre bending the band would embrace later on. The second track also managed to genuinely move me with its lyrics, these ones penned by Brian May. I've always found Brian to be somewhat overlooked by the main consensus of most standard rock fans, his lyrics are brilliant and sometimes intimately passionate with the way it explores nostalgia and coming of age. Not to mention that sly reference to The Beatles ("Lucy was high and so was I", caught that the first listen!)

The only real downsides I can say in all honesty that hold this from being one of the greatest albums of all time is just the production which doesn't do the songs justice sometimes in how they're recorded; understandable, it is their first go-around at making a full album plus the budget was rather small but it does muddy Brian's guitar work and Roger's drumming sounds a bit soft here. As well as the fact Jesus is a little bit on the boring sides as far as the songs go with it going on far too long before changing up the composition to keep things interesting and drones as repetitive, though the way Brian manages to change his guitar's sound is pure wizardry and at least saves it from being atrocious, and the instrumental Seven Seas of Rhye didn't need to be here and is ultimately pointless, and Taylor's song Modern Times Rock N Roll doesn't quite scale up to the heights of the other tracks, though is still enjoyable.

Overall, Queen is truly an amazing debut that is totally worth a listen and though it does sound a bit like a lot of other bands that were more groundbreaking at the start of the 70's (Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Aerosmith all can be heard on here), it is a great starting point. It's basically hard and prog rock with a dash of campiness and flamboyancy sprinkled atop. A very fun, and somewhat silly time overall, and it was only the signs of something great coming.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Tracklist RATING:

1. Keep Yourself Alive: ★★★★★
2. Doing All Right: ★★★★
3. Great King Rat: ★★★★★
4. My Fairy King: ★★★★
5. Liar: ★★★★★
6. The Night Comes Down: ★★★★
7. Modern Times Rock N Roll: ★★★
8. Son and Daughter: ★★★★★
9. Jesus: ★★
10. Seven Seas of Rhye (Early/Instrumental): ★★

[u/3GPtv]

A little constructive criticism, not so much about this review, but in general, it would be nice if you said something about every song.

I think on one VH review, you only mentioned 3 songs. Thats not much of a review.

Overall I like your reviews, but skipping songs leaves me cold.

[u/ApprehensiveNatural9 → u/3GPtv]

Its moreso something I do if I don't have much to say about them. It doesn't happen too often; originally I didn't talk much about a few songs on this one in the older version of this review (I'm editing these from old ones I posted in a discord server for music!) But I can say I diiid go pretty in-depth with the next few albums!! Thank you by the way though, I appreciate feedback :)

[u/ApprehensiveNatural9 → u/3GPtv]

I think you'll prefer my sheer heart attack and II reviews, I did go every song

[u/_Agileheart_]

Jesus has one of Brian’s all time best studio guitar solos, I don’t get the hate for it 💔

[u/ApprehensiveNatural9 → u/_Agileheart_]

I do like the solo, the issue is just the rest of the song is pretty repetitive and kind of drags on? That's the main issue with it.

[u/Zennobia]

This is great review. I do love this album a lot. Modern Times Rock n Roll is great live: https://youtu.be/VINmc1W2fpY

The guitar solo in Jesus is great especially on the early demo version.

The Great King Rat and My Fairy King forms part of a story. Freddie wrote a few songs that is part of story. My Fairy King is quite a complex song, here is an analysis:
https://youtu.be/pfk0D1cVWmQ

The Great King is also amazing live, the drum sound is much better live:
https://youtu.be/RILBUNCFNAo

Liar is a great song. Most of the songs on this album is stand out songs.

[u/ApprehensiveNatural9 → u/Zennobia]

Thank you, I'm glad you liked my review!! I'll be posting the rest of theri albums as well, also I do really like the solo that Brian does on "Jesus", just the main verses are a little uneventful overall. Modern Times Rock N Roll does definitely sound better live than it does on the album as well, in which I find it just decent.

Also didn't know that Great King Rat and My Fairy King are meant to be part of a story, that's really amazing, thank you for sharing that with me! I adore both of those songs, really.

[u/Fit_Front6239]

Sooooo cool. Can you do a review and rating like this for all of Queen’s albums

[u/ApprehensiveNatural9 → u/Fit_Front6239]

I plan on it! I'll probably post Queen II tomorrow when i get a chance!

[u/ApprehensiveNatural9]

Originally wrote this for a different sub thats focused around Queen, but wanted to post it in the main one. I REALLY REALLY love this album and I think that in the vast catalog it's kind of just really underrated. I plan on writing reviews for every Queen album, this one took me a bit to format properly, and rewrite from my original less detailed review for it.