Queen Vinyl Reissues For 2015 (including boxed set and turntable)*

Digital mix?

 

sry, mastering.

 

Well, at least they look nice. There's that.

 

How many times can the label, Brian, Roger, and John re-release the same fifteen albums over and over again? No magic will manage to fix the sound issues on Queen and Queen II or the over-production on A Kind of Magic. Just leave well enough alone. And the prices they are asking? It's sad.

 

Queen, and especially Queen II were a couple of the better 2011 re-remasters. Queen II in particular sounded better than ever before.

 

Unless they can get Steven Wilson to remix the first two albums BUT but i don't think that will happen because:

1. The Multitracks for Queen I are missing
   
2. There was so much overdubbing that the multitrack tapes have been said to be in poor condition for Queen II

 

They sound okay, but I honestly don't think it can get any better. And it feel like such a major cash-grab now. New boxes with regal designs, the Queen Orb, the fact that the prices are steep. The fact that the Hollywood releases are still just as expensive. I feel a bit like they're taking advantage of fans.

Part of the charm of those first two albums is that they suffer from the context of their own time. Queen I was a very naively recorded LP with thousands of production flaws-- a far cry from the very polished pop of The Miracle and The Game. And that's part of why I love it. If you play Queen I through A Day at the Races, there's a lovely progressed in sound as well as musicianship. I don't think it needs to sound pretty.

The overdubbing of Queen II means that the tapes were in poor condition during the recording process. The March of the Black Queen in particular. It's akin to Duran Duran's Seven and the Ragged Tiger in a way. That album, overproduced in a very bad way, only sounds worse the more it's fiddled with. That remaster EMI put out a few years ago was absolutely atrocious. I'm actually of the opinion that the cassette and original CD sound best because they weren't trying to re-invent the wheel. The 2011 remaster of Queen II is, in my opinion, the best it's gonna get. And the best it should get. Otherwise, we're going to end up with the 2007 remaster of Duke, and does anybody really want that?

 

Yeah, the Queen orb was a bit vulgar.

 

I've never heard it expressed that way. I'm going to use that.

 

I guess the back catalog had to be re-released with the new record label in 2011. I think I recall Roger (and possibly Brian) complaining about the Queen Forever album, they weren't too happy with it.

 

Queen Forever is a joke. As are Deep Cuts 1 - 3, Stone Cold Classics, and Absolute Greatest.

I became really disillusioned with Queen after the pricing structure of Live at the Rainbow. It was already a niche product. And they knew die-hards were dying for that live rendition of The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke. So, they only included it on the deluxe 2CD and the 4-LP vinyl set, which were the most expensive options.

 

I don't agree with this - If you have the 3 greatest hits albums and the 3 Deep cuts volumes you do have the basis of a a good queen collection. Obviously there are still some deeper cuts which have been left off and SHOULD of been on there over of the ones choose. "You & I" comes to mind.

Forever was a joke. The 2CD version was pointless and doesn't have a theme or a nice flow to at all. The 1 CD is in keeping with the theme (to a degree) of the softer side of Queen and works well next to Queen Rocks. However i wish they did something better to make use of those new tracks.

 

I think that Deep Cuts could have been released as one double-disc set with only the strongest material on it. There was no need to do 3-discs. The only thing I like about it was getting the stand-alone version of "The March of the Black Queen" and "Ogre Battle."

And Forever still drives me nuts. I hated that sappy, over-produced version of "Love Kills." I get that Roger and Brian want to sweep Freddie's dance legacy under the rug, but that version was just so tasteless. It had none of the bite of the original.

 

The real mess was There Must Be More To Life Than This. Freddie's original was miles in front. I remember an interview with Brian and Roger where they said they had a better version (or similar words), but the Jackson estate rejected it. The new version that we got had Freddie's voice turned down way too much in comparison to Jackson's. I guess that's the only way the Jackson estate would let the single be released - by having Freddie's vocals tamed.

 

And you just know that, if they saw that song's release, both Freddie and Michael would be throwing a diva fit like we've never seen.

 

Have you heard this version - http://yourlisten.com/Klaus_Zimmerman/there-must-be-more-to-life-than-this-gold-mix

The whereabouts of this are unknown (whether its official or not) but its sublime.

 

The vocals are better on that version. I'm just not sold on Jackson's voice on that track in general.

 

Where did you get this info? Some years ago Keep Yourself Alive was featured in the Rockband / Guitar Hero game series. If you are not familiar with these, the games include separate "stems" (drum, bass, guitar, vocals, etc.) and the only way to get them is from the multitracks. So at least the multitrack for Keep Yourself Alive was not missing a few years ago. And you can most probably listen to these on "stems" Youtube.

 

No point in arguing over compilations. The die-hard fans have all the albums, b-sides and whatnot anyway, and have no need for compilations. Every great band has more compilations put together than actual studio albums, simply because the label wants to reach a new audience, and therefore new money. That's simply the system. Those compilations were not compiled for us fans. At least, that's how I look at it.

 

Rockband/stems exist (I think it's actually a 16 track file) online for Bohemian Rhapsody as well.

 

Liar was remixed from scratch back in 1991 for US reissue campaign.

Modern Times Rock'n'roll and Keep Yourself Alive were remixed as instrumentals in 1998 for The eYe pc game and Karaoke Hits.

 

Ok i must of mis-read the information i read over on the Queen official forum.

 

I find it extremely telling that after 54 pages there is very little discussion in regards to the sound quality. These vinyl reissues didn't exactly knock our socks off!

 

The Queen II cover looks nice. That's my only positive comment.

 

Well. They look pretty and cost a lot. That's all there is to say really. With Queen, just get the 2011 CDs and be done with it. It's not going to get any better.