Modern times rock'n'roll (Queen) (LP 3567 - 3573)

Queen  Queen (CD, Universal Music Records, 1973, 2011 reissue) ***  

Queen  Queen II (CD, Universal Music Records, 1974, 2011 reissue) ***  

Queen  Sheer Heart Attack (CD, Universal Music Records, 1974. 2011 reissue) *** 

Queen  A Night at the Opera (CD, Universal Music Records, 1975, 2011 reissue) **** 

Queen  Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl (2CD, EMI Records, 2004) **** 

Queen  Greatest Hits (Vinyl, Elektra Records, 1981) ***** 

Queen  Greatest Hits II (CD, Parlophone Records, 1991) ***** 

Genre: Pop, rock, prog rock

Places I remember: Bookshop in Shanghai (China), Kings Recording (Abu Dhabi); Shona Walding collection, Marbecks Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Killer Queen

Gear costume: Don't Stop Me Now

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5

Active compensatory factors: Queen's debut album is a hit and miss affair. The good stuff is very good: Keep Yourself Alive, Liar, and the preview of Seven Seas of Rye; but the okay and miss stuff is in the majority.

Keep Yourself Alive was a great single in 1973 and I was keen on Queen after hearing it on the radio, but it didn't lead me to buy it, or the album. I only picked this and Queen II up while living and working in China ten years ago.

The album's songs blend genres along the way, even featuring some folk moves and all the religious stuff always takes me by surprise. All the basics of Queen can be glimpsed in these songs: Freddie's vocals, the multi-layered harmonies/ guitar riffs and the glam pomp are all here.

There are loads of ideas and they deserve credit for sounding like no one else, but as an album it's very inconsistent. That patchiness would be a trend for the next couple of albums as well.

Queen II is the most prog rocky of the first four studio albums. It has the prog pomp of Ogre Battle, White Queen, and The March of the Black Queen. Aside from those songs, the big moment is Seven Seas of Rye.

Their third studio effort, also released in 1974, was Sheer Heart Attack. Again, it was patchy. It has the imperious Killer Queen and Now I'm Here, but it also has some lesser songs and weird over egged moments - Brian May's solo section in Brighton Rock for instance. Along the way Bring Back Leroy Brown shows their love of vaudeville and sheer fun. 

I'm not that keen on some of the songs - Roger Taylor's ones on these early albums jar, and, In The Lap of the Gods doesn't work for me, and they do it twice on the album!

That said, their progression from Queen to Sheer Heart Attack is clearly evident. If only they'd done an album full of Killer Queens! Imagine that!

A Night at the Opera was their fourth studio album and my last in this list. It's the one with the monster on it. 

All along the way the sound had been centred around Freddie Mercury's layered vocals, Brian May's multi-tracked guitars and the great harmonies. Now they put all of those together for Bohemian Rhapsody, and an album full of pomp absurdity. And it works!

The album is an eclectic mix of pop brilliance (You're My Best Friend), vaudevillian high jinks, and hard rock (Death on Two Legs). It was a creative peak.

That's it for the studio albums. The rest of my Queen collection is made up of live and Greatest Hits compilations. 

Live at the Bowl is a concert on the Hot Space tour in June 1982 and the Bowl in question is the Milton Keyes Bowl (England). It's a terrific concert and shows Freddie in his element.

The two greatest hits albums are chocked full of all the cherry picked hits and are therefore an indispensible addition to any serious music fan's collection. They are remarkably consistent.

Where do they all belong? I should probably get a copy of A Day at the Races at some point. Only three bands in the Q section. Second one is up next - Queens of the Stoneage.