Review Summary: An essential album from the era of Glam Rock music and one of the most diverse and enjoyable albums of all time!
Queen II may have held the breakthrough that Queen needed with its song "Seven Seas of Rhye" and established the fun jumping-around of different musical styles that the band would come to embrace, but this album would serve as their major breakthrough to the U.S. Coming just shortly after their previous album, by just a few months
Sheer Heart Attack would allow this magnificent foursome to flash their jewelry and spread their wings and fly away into musical royalty, being the first album where they had got it completely right.
This album has a lot to uncover in the mix, with the fantastic
"Brighton Rock" opening the album and being a perfect showcase of Freddie's insane vocal range where he sings both the female and male part of a duet, and hosts incredible Hard Rock guitar work from Brian May with one of his famous guitar solos frequently featured among the best solos of all time with its blistering speed, changeups in tempo that work incredibly well, and following directly into single
"Killer Queen" which would give listeners a clear listen into the band's theatricality and utter talent with pop hooks featuring some creative use of guitar and fun, catchy lyrics, clearly still holding up today as its heavily played on radio stations and served as the single that made the charts in the U.S.
But that's not all to love, there's a certain thrill to the excitement of Queen cementing their sound and the sheer diversity of the other songs too. For example, they do a medley with
"Tenement Funster/Flick of the Wrist/Lily of the Valley" which has the first song being a foot-stomping hard rocker with lead vocals from Roger Taylor and lyrics that are first of many he wrote as a testament to youthful rebellion, the middle song featuring extremely creative blending of piano and hard rock guitar riffs and clever lyrics that compare the wrongdoing manager it's aimed as a middle finger at to the devil, finishing off with a soft ballad that demonstrates the innovative keyboard work from Freddie and a delve once again into the fantasy land of Rhye.
"Now I'm Here" which caps side A was written while Brian May was in the hospital and is about the band's experience touring with Mott The Hoople, with double-tracked vocals that swish around from ear to ear as Freddie sings "Now I'm here/Now I'm there" almost as if he's dancing around you while Brian's riff rips through the speakers with a splash of excitement and hard rock goodness and fantastic development throughout the song to keep things interesting.
"Stone Cold Crazy" opens side B with a blast and is proto-Thrash Metal and features some incredible heavy, fast-paced in-your-face guitar chops from Brian May, amazing acapella verses with Freddie taking hardly any breaths, and is a song that influenced many thrash metal artists such as Metallica, who even covered the song. On the other end of the spectrum, you also have
"In The Lap of The Gods...Revisited" being Freddie's first attempt to write a song that the audience could sing along to that is another slower song with some fantastic jazz influence in the arrangement.
"Bring Back That Leroy Brown" takes an interesting turn to ragtime piano, and Freddie's lowest note hit on a record being a "C" in the second phrase, and a unique instrument being the banjolele. It is a tribute to the song "Bad Bad Leroy Brown" by Jim Croce who passed a year prior. John Deacon even gets a chance to shine on the delightfully poppy
"Misfire" which has some impressive guitar work done by him!
Now, the album is still not perfect as it does have a couple of weak links like
"In The Lap of the Gods" with beautiful falsetto from Roger Taylor but a weird effect that ruins Freddie's vocals and makes the song an odd number to include.
"Dear Friends" is something that sounds like a lullaby and while it has some interesting arpeggios it doesn't really hold up that well as a song and comes across as filler, and
"She Makes Me [Stormtrooper in Stilettos]" being obvious filler but a slow song about a soldier reminiscing in his final moments on his lost love of his life as sirens signal an ambulance arriving in the end but as evidenced by the slowing breaths they are too late. If it wasn't so repetitive it'd be beautiful but Brian's vocals make this pretty good.
Overall, it makes sense why this has been listed by multiple publications as one of the best albums of all time, and as a Glam Rock essential; it is truly one with a diverse span and incredible instrument work featuring lots of experimenting in styles similar to bands such as The Who, The Beach Boys, and others, and I definitely consider it such. The production is a MAJOR improvement from the past two albums too!
Track by Track:
1. Brighton Rock: ★★★★★
2. Killer Queen: ★★★★★
3. Tenement Funster: ★★★★
4. Flick of the Wrist: ★★★★★
5. Lily of the Valley: ★★★★
6. Now I'm Here: ★★★★★
7. In The Lap of the Gods: ★★★
8. Stone Cold Crazy: ★★★★★ 🎖️
9. Dear Friends: ★★★
10. Misfire: ★★★★
11. Bring Back That Leroy Brown: ★★★★
12. She Makes me [Stormtrooper in Stilletos]: ★★★
13. In The Lap of the Gods...Revisited: ★★★★★
