the first 3 queen albums.

If they had done this many people would now complain, that they repeated the same formular again and again. As you can see above with people complaining about "A Day at the Races" being a copy of "A Night at the Opera". Depending where you live Queen are already seen as one of the greatest rock bands of all time. And considering, that their active career lasted for nearly 20 years while always having chart hits and best selling albums I think they somehow did something right.
BTW Zeppelin's Robert Plant is performing tomorrow in Cologne and his concert had to move to a smaler place, cause they didn't sell as many tickets as expected. See how much being member of "the greatest hard rock band of all time" means....

 

I love this early period of Queen. I don't have the albums but I made myself a killer compilation of my favourite tracks. I alternate between that and the BBC tape. "Modern tiiiiiiiiihmes!!!!.......Rrrrrock 'n' rooouuull!!!"

 

Completely agree with everything you wrote, except that I then rate Innuendo a lot, and also like a fair bit of "Miracle" and "Made in Heaven".

Glad someone else agreed about "Magic"- it would have made a nice EP.

 

Sheer Heart Attack would be my favourite. The previous two I rarely go back to. News Of The World still sounds decent, and I like Innuendo quite a bit. A Day At The Races so-so, and I must be one of the few who finds A Night At The Opera disappointing. The rest I don't bother with.

 

I agree that Innuendo is the best of the latter (post-Works) albums by a long margin. I liked A Kind of Magic a lot at the time, but it's really just a couple of great tracks and a ton of filler. The Miracle is just too light for me. It needed more tracks along the lines of Khashoggi's Ship/Was It All Worth It, as opposed to Party/My Baby Does Me.
Innuendo may have Delilah and All God's People, but they're complemented by Hitman, Headlong, The Show Must Go On and the phenomenal title track, and - due to its relatively lengthy duration - the batting average of the album is much stronger than the previous two. As Freddie's swan song, it's more than respectable.
It's funny how opinions can change, though. About twenty-five years ago, I went through a phase where I regarded Jazz as my favourite. Bizarre.

 

I see some parallels between Queen and Genesis in that both have their early period which is really cherished by their fanbase, Queen were quite proggy though obviously not as much as Genesis, Ultimately they both reinvented themselves as creators of snappy pop singles in the 80s, the likes of which divided the fans then and now, but both bands created a lot of 'later classics' to sit alongside their older ones. I would say I prefer 80s Queen over 80s Genesis though - I think they moved further away from their original sound than Queen did. However, both bands may not have survived had they not basically got more commercial, though obviously in Queens case they were having hit singles anyway in their early days with quite odd stuff - Bohemian Rhapsody being the key example.

 

I like the first three Queen albums, especially Queen II, but they are far from my favorites. I think the later Queen albums are seriously underrated on this forum.

 

I think the later albums are unfairly dismissed in general - but I can see why people don't like them, as they veer into some very different territory. Though I favour the awesomeness of the 70s work, I still get a lot of enjoyment out of 'Hot Space' and 'The Works' as much as 'Sheer Heart Attack' or 'Queen II'. In fact, if I was just tinkering around on an afternoon I would probably go for one of their 80s albums over Queen II or something as it's a bit of a less demanding listen, even though Queen II is my favourite.

'Hot Space' has down the ages been regarded as Queen's lowest point, but it's really not, it's still progressing their sound and has some great songs and performances. I remember when I was younger being in the fan club and there was a 'Top 10 worst songs' poll in one of the magazines, and a few Hot Space tracks featured in it 'Body Language' and 'Cool Cat' if I remember correctly and maybe 'Life is real'. I love 'Cool Cat', it only features Freddie and John but has a great early 80s summery vibe, a bit like lounging at the bar on holiday music sandwiched between Sade and The Style Council...not something you want everyday but in context it's great. My least favourite Queen album is probably 'The Miracle' just as there is some real filler on it and this is a more 'technology-led' album than anything from before. I still enjoy it though...

One thing to mention too is how different Freddie's voice becomes in the 80s, partly because of his starting to smoke which thickened up his voice, but also his tendency to belt out a lot of the higher register stuff in his powerful chest voice over the falsetto which he would have done in his earlier days. To my ears his voice early on was at times quite feminine and sweet and later became quite aggressive and macho - add to that all his ad-libbing and 'bop-de-dop' scat style delivery he embraces later on (especially live), and his voice is really something completely different, the timbre really changes.

 

I think the problem of "Hot Space" was and is the artificial sound of the drumcomputers. How could they do that when having one Roger Taylor on board?
Listen to all those songs in their live-versions with real drums (I don't think they ever played so many tracks from one album as they did from "Hot Space") and they are lightyears ahead, especially "Staying Power".

 

mercury's voice changing in the 80's also had to do with taylor no longer being able to hit those crazy high notes and cover notes mercury struggled with.

 

I really can't stand the Shouty Years. (Anyone else find Freddie's vocal on the otherwise-lovely Who Wants To Live Forever totally WRONG?!)

I listen to My Fairy King, and can only feel heartbroken at the terrible loss of a truly great vocalist.

 

i love "Cool Cat." i stuck it on a "spring mix" CD for a friend, and they were like "that song is Queen? get outta here! i had no idea they did stuff like this!"

my perspective has always been that Queen, out of all the popular post-'60s rock bands, took up the mantle left by the Beatles more than anyone else. this is because they were an inventive band that wasn't afraid to take (potentially ridiculous) chances, but they still retained the ability to do all of that within their own unique framework.

to me, Hot Space is the last time Queen really took that kind of chance, in a White Album-ish sort of way. and i really think they got genuinely closer to soulful pop with "Cool Cat" than the Beatles did with their various studio-only-era pastiches.

 

Sorry to be resurrecting an old-ish thread, but I was listening to some of these early Queen albums and wanted to put in my two cents.

I really like the first album, despite the fact that it is pretty patchy. The songs have different styles, even sections of songs sound good and others are meh, but this band was just getting started and they were just trying to find themselves I'm sure

Keep Yourself Alive and Liar are great rockers. Doing All Right is a cool, albeit bipolar, piece of work but I was shocked when that heavy guitar came in from nowhere the first time I heard it. Gave me chills and still does. That guitar pumps me up! Great King Rat is good, and My Fairy King is a roller coaster of a song. I love this one personally, and I love the screaming at the beginning. The Night Comes Down is okay, Modern Times Rock 'N' Roll, another good straight forward rocker. Son And Daughter I think is cool because they're kind of going into Sabbath territory here, something that was rare for Queen. Jesus is another okay track, and Seven Seas of Rhye... is well...not much to say about that one.

I like the second album and SHA too, but I wanted to make a case for the first album, as I feel like it doesn't get the acclaim it deserves. Yeah, it's spotty and unpredictable, but that's what makes it great. Everything here is at least a little bit interesting, and that GUITAR. Imagine what the hopefuls who bought this album when it first came out thought when they heard May ripping it. This album really is an epitome of "modern times rock 'n' roll!"

 

Yeah, Loser in the End is...a loser, in the end. Definitely does not belong on the album...Sorry, Roger, if you can't cut it on the A-team, then you should get benched. Democracy isn't always a good thing...

 

I think it's fair to say, that not so many people heard that album when it first came out. Most people will have heard it after discovering "Sheer heart attack" or "A Night at the Opera" and then becoming interested in their beginnings.
If you really like that first album so much, you should try to find the "Smile" EP "Ghost of a Smile" with the original version of "Doing all right".

 

Queen II is great, clearly their best.

 

You've nailed it perfectly chum. Queen 2 is a masterwork. Thought that 'Night At The Opera' was ok-ish, but a bit patchy. After that, all downhill. I was loyal. Kept on buying, but there seemed to be less and less on each album that reminded me of their greatness. Freddie mincing about dragged up on the 'I Want To Break Free' vid was the end for me. Not funny. Tragic end to a classic band. I blame the other three. They let him have too much control over the reins. I was lucky enough to see them live on Bonfire Night in '74 on the Queen 2/Sheer Heart Attack tour. Glorious. The only 3 I play still are the first 3. Only last month the wife and I played SHA very loudly on our drive over The Snake on the way to Manchester airport. That cleared any dawdling sheep out of the way, I'll tell you....

 

I also love the first three Queen albums certainly my favourite era of the band-I saw them live in '79 arguably still the best gig I've ever seen....

 

Which CD releases of the first four albums have the best SQ? I'm wondering about the 1991 releases I'm seeing on Amazon... The only Queen albums I have so far are the DCC Night and Day, and the MFSL News.

 

For 1 and 2 it's the latest remasters on Island, same goes for A Night at the Opera, but this is identic with an earlier "jubilee" remaster. For "Sheer Heart attack" avoid the Island remaster and search for any EMI version.

 

The first time I heard:

"Keep Yourself Alive" - Queen,
I knew this was something different and good, all rolled into one.

 

It's great that we get to hear Queen II live very soon since they played a lot of songs of that album when they did the march gig.

 

I would hold off on that, because from what I've read around here those 1991 issues on Hollywood Records are within the bottom of the barrel of Queen reissues. I could be wrong but I'm giving you a heads up. I personally think the original UK Mercury's are just fine

 

After watching a documentary on Queen on TV just recently, I became interested in 'm (of course I knew all the big guns & hits). Would love some Queen on vinyl (starting with the first one), which releases are the one to go for? Browsing on discogs, prices are more than reasonable. Queen is not very hot among collectors it seems?

 

Their first 3 or 4 are fantastic. But I would remove 'The Loser in the End' from II. That song IS a loser.

Brighton Rock from Sheer Heart Attack is a killer track..........