Album Description
Heavyweight vinyl LP repressing of this original classic 1976 album from British Pomp-Rockers Queen. The album packaging includes every detail of the original release in it’s original LP format. All the unique content of the original album is faithfully reproduced. Features the hits ‘Somebody To Love’, ‘Tie Your Mother Down’, ‘Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy’ and more. EMI. 2009.Amazon.com
Both regal and raunchy, Queen was at the height of its powers in the mid-70s, riding the soaring vocals of Freddie Mercury, the ringing guitar crunch of Brian May and the band’s shameless theatrical flourishes. Coming so quickly after the band’s A Night At the Opera opus, this 1976 album works hard at repeating the sa… More >>
A Day At The Races
Queen have never been a band for the quiet, subtle approach, but on this album their material can’t sustain their usual overblown , bombastic approach. While they managed to (just about) get away with this on ‘A Night at The Opera’, here its deadly.
All Queen fans will, no doubt, have this album, but casual buyers need to beware – there are others that are more rewarding. Of course, those of you living in a republic may decide you don’t need any Queen at all – you have my strong sympathies.
Ultimately, this album, and Queen in general, is barge pole material. Rating: 1 / 5
or not far from it…. But seriously (another good album) a work of great contrasts and probably, Freddie and Brian at their absolute best. From the incredible ” I’m love with my car” to the elastic snapping (honest guys) “Love of my life” tihs is THE best album by THE best band sine the Beatles.
If you don’t love this one you are either brain dead or you like Pop Stars BUY ******** Rating: 5 / 5
This is a gorgeously produced album, but has too many filler songs, a problem with most of the Queen catalogue. However, this disc does include two of Queen’s greatest songs. Their best pure rocker by a wide margin is “Tie Your Mother Down,” which was written by Brian May but wisely he chose to let Freddie sing it. This cut ranks with the best of the Stones or Aerosmith’s rockers. The other classic is “Somebody to Love,” a six-minute anthem of loneliness and need. Freddie sings this beautifully and the long drawn-out end is still climactic and riveting. “You Take My Breath Away” is a good ballad, and “Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy” is always fun to listen to, the vocals here are particularly good.
Most people consider this an inferior follow-up to the ambitious “Night at the Opera,” but this is still a solid effort with two outstanding songs. Rating: 3 / 5
This album marks the beginning of the end for Queen. Whatever is left of their greatness is still apparent in a few places, but overall, this album is a disappointment. The elements that made Queen so intriguing are still there – the soaring harmonized guitars, the grandiose operatic choruses, the piercing vocals – but the music suffers from lack of originality and creativity, at times sounding tired and even banal.
The tongue-in-cheek attempts at English Music-Hall are interesting, but lack the brilliance of those found on “A Night At The Opera”. “Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy” for instance, has its strong moments, just as “You And I”, although it soon becomes rather predictable.
“Tie Your Mother Down” is an excellent all-out hard rocker with a surprising symphonic introduction by Brian May, but otherwise rather indistinct.
“White Man”, “Long Away” and “Drowse” add nothing of any significance and seem to recycle old ideas heard elsewhere before, and the overly sentimental “Teo Torriade” is predictable and even corny, when the chorus is sung in Japanese(?!!) and supplemented by what sounds like a children’s choir(?). The song’s saving grace is the lovely ethereal guitar fadeout, which reminds me of Anthony Phillips’ guitar work.
“You Take My Breath Away” has some excellent a capella chorus with stylish piano accompaniment, but is a bit to saccarine for my taste.
Little remains of the campy, theatrical pomp-rock that Queen is best loved for, except on “Somebody To Love”, a tongue-in-cheek ’50’s parody and the whimsical “The Millionnaire Waltz”, arguably the two strongest compositions on the album.
The greatest and most original contributor to this album in my opinion is Brian May, whose guitar arrangements are stunning to say the least, but unfortunately too short. Had he been allowed to stretch out a bit more, I think the album would have been a lot more interesting.
It seems that Queen was caught in the same commercial trap that destroyed so many other good artists, including Elton John, whose “Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy”, coincidentally released around the same time, would share almost exactly the same criticism as “A Day At The Races”.
To give this album credit, it contains many absolutely gorgeous choral passages and atmospheric guitar orchestrations and may be worth picking up just for that, but sadly, it falls short of the classic status due to the overall inconsistency and lack of originality of the compositions. It’s a must only for a die-hard Queen fans, and Art Rock afficionados are advised to skip this one, or at least first get the earlier albums. Rating: 3 / 5
This album lacks a lot of the creativity that A Night At The Opera had. Rating: 3 / 5