Post-Lupin
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Immanentizing the Eschaton
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Post by Post-Lupin on Sept 21, 2016 9:49:37 GMT -5
"Flick of the Wrist" - with the piano intro and vocal effects, it should be the natural follower to "Killer Queen". "Tenement Funster" really shouldn't be there. This song is reminding me of an idea I had years ago when Muse's "Black Holes and Revelations" album came out; reviews I read compared Muse closely to Radiohead, but they were way closer to Queen. Damn, you're right! The only difference is that Freddie Mercury's badly kept secret was being gay, while whatever the lead singer of Muse's name is's badly kept secret was that he really does think the aliens are coming to take over the planet / is insane. Freddy was bisexual. It's literally Bisexuality Awareness Week, dude.
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Post by Powerthirteen on Sept 21, 2016 10:23:44 GMT -5
Damn, you're right! The only difference is that Freddie Mercury's badly kept secret was being gay, while whatever the lead singer of Muse's name is's badly kept secret was that he really does think the aliens are coming to take over the planet / is insane. Freddy was bisexual. It's literally Bisexuality Awareness Week, dude. He never told ME that!
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Post by Ben Grimm on Sept 22, 2016 17:20:40 GMT -5
Damn, you're right! The only difference is that Freddie Mercury's badly kept secret was being gay, while whatever the lead singer of Muse's name is's badly kept secret was that he really does think the aliens are coming to take over the planet / is insane. Freddy was bisexual. It's literally Bisexuality Awareness Week, dude. It's obviously not very effective, because I wasn't aware that it was Awareness Week.
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Post-Lupin
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Immanentizing the Eschaton
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Post by Post-Lupin on Sept 22, 2016 18:11:51 GMT -5
Freddy was bisexual. It's literally Bisexuality Awareness Week, dude. It's obviously not very effective, because I wasn't aware that it was Awareness Week. Bi Invisibility... it's a bitch to turn off sometimes.
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Post by Nudeviking on Sept 22, 2016 19:45:52 GMT -5
A Day at the Races (1976)
After A Night at the Opera I had to take a break from Queen. It had all gotten to be a little too much, but after a week and a half of listening to palate cleansing music (Tacocat, Sleater-Kinney, Earth Crisis and N.W.A.), I’m recharged and ready to get back into it. Today’s album is A Day at the Races. Hold on, that’s actually pretty clever Queen: following up A Night at the Opera with A Day at the Races. I think it would have been better if Night’s album cover was black and Day’s white instead of the other way around, but maybe Queen thought that was too on the nose. Anyway it's still pretty clever. Kudos to you Queen! Kudos and huzzah! Let’s see if this album lives up to the whimsy of the title. Pre-Existing Prejudices
Surprisingly to my knowledge I harbor no existing prejudices about this album. Looking at the tracklist for this album I don’t recognize any of the song titles, but this album is sandwiched between a pair of albums that produced Queen megahits, so it’s probably safe to assume that at least one of the songs on here ended up a classic rock staple that I have heard a million dozen times and am just unaware of the title of much like “You’re My Best Friend,” from A Night at the Opera. Songs"Tie Your Mother Down" This is a decent enough album opener from the "FUCK YEAH TIME TO ROCK!" school of album openers. I could have done with a little less hurdy gurdy, gong, and vaguely "Oriental" guitar bullshit before the actual song began but otherwise this was a fine way to begin an album. "You Take My Breath Away" What a terrible way to follow up a rockin' album opener about kicking all the ass like "Tie Your Mother Down." Melancholy piano dreck that features the Many Freddie Mercurys Choir® and when the guitar finally comes in it's That Goddamn Brian May Guitar Sound™. "Long Away" Holy fuck a different guitar sound! It sounds kind of like The Byrds. The solo uses the patented That Goddamn Brian May Guitar Sound™, but it's used pretty sparingly and pretty well integrated into the song. Overall a pretty decent mid-tempo jam. "The Millionaire Waltz" Literally a waltz. Why is there an actual waltz on this album? It seems kind of derivative of "Bohemian Rhapsody," to me and I wonder if they were like, "Guys, everyone loved 'Bohemian Rhapsody,' let's do another classical music aping piece like that! I'm sure everyone will love it." Even with the rockin' out interlude it's weird to think of them playing this at concerts alongside "Stone Cold Crazy," and stuff like that. "You and I" Middle of the album filler. I liked the too many toms drum fill and the parts that sounded like a late 70s or early 80s Sesame Street song but this was otherwise a pretty mediocre song. "Somebody To Love" Oh this song. I've heard this song before. A Korean insurance company used this song in a commercial a couple years ago and I heard it a bajillion times in that context. I had no idea it was a Queen song. It was just a garbage song in a commercial for a Korean life insurance company. Now it's a garbage song on a Queen album that reminds me of a Korean life insurance company. "White Man" I could imagine random grunge bands covering this in 1992 and not having it feel out of place in their set. It's heavy and grungy and has gruff vocals. I kind of dig this song and it will survive any sort of Queen MP3 purge that takes place when I'm done with all this madness. "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy" Goddamn it Queen! Why is your album sequencing so fucked up. "Yeah here's a quasi gospel song and now a hard rock power jam and now some kind of fucking old timey song that randomly has That Goddamn Brian May Guitar Sound™ for no goddamn reason." This is a garbage song that would have been terrible as a b-side. "Drowse" This doesn't sound anything like Queen. That's not a bad thing. The slide guitar part kind of reminds me of that Mazzy Star song, "Fade Into You." This is another song I'd probably keep in the event of a Queen purge. "Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)" Yay another piano based torch song (rolls eyes). The choruses are randomly in Japanese for some reason. And the vocals wrap up with an audience participation chorus. Fuck that nonsense. I hate audience participation vocals. They make me uncomfortable. It's one of the reasons I hate "Hey Jude," more than anything else in the world. I wonder if there's a term for a fear of singing along during the chorus of a stadium anthem. Final ThoughtsWhen did Queen cease to be able to put a tracklist together in a reasonable fashion? The song order on this album seemed so scattershot and random it was kind of weird since early on they did a pretty decent job of making an album feel like more than a random collection of songs. Here there's absolutely no flow to the album as an album. It's just really abrupt changes between hard rocking guitars and overly sentimental piano based torch songs with no rhyme or reason. As for the songs themselves I disliked the vast majority of them not because they were terrible songs, but because they weren't memorable at all. Everything sort of blended together into a grey mush of piano sappiness, That Goddamn Brian May Guitar Sound™, nostalgia for the 1900s, and the Many Freddie Mercurys Choir® harmonizing. The most memorable song off the album is probably "Somebody to Love," which I would wish I could forget. The weirdest thing about this album is the fact that one of the songs I most liked turned out to be a Roger Taylor song ("Drowse"). This still doesn't make up for "I Want To Fuck My Automobile" or whatever that garbage song from the last album was called, but I would like to retract my early statement about Roger Taylor being unable to write a song that I would ever want to listen to.
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Post by ganews on Sept 22, 2016 21:41:25 GMT -5
When Nudeviking was cold on "You're My Best Friend", I questioned his ability to love. Now that he's bagged on "Somebody To Love" I almost question his ability to feel anything.
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Post by Powerthirteen on Sept 22, 2016 22:10:55 GMT -5
When did Queen cease to be able to put a tracklist together in a reasonable fashion? The song order on this album seemed so scattershot and random it was kind of weird since early on they did a pretty decent job of making an album feel like more than a random collection of songs. Here there's absolutely no flow to the album as an album. It's just really abrupt changes between hard rocking guitars and overly sentimental piano based torch songs with no rhyme or reason. I guarantee you someone in Queen thought the Beatles' White Album was their masterpiece. Queen albums all have the same grab-bag approach, and similar tendencies to wander off into pastiches of "old-timey" stuff. Queen is like if the late-era Beatles had multiple McCartneys and no Lennon.
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Post by Nudeviking on Sept 22, 2016 23:47:22 GMT -5
When Nudeviking was cold on "You're My Best Friend", I questioned his ability to love. Now that he's bagged on "Somebody To Love" I almost question his ability to feel anything. I don't think I really bagged on "You're My Best Friend." Unless you are of the mind that years spent thinking it was a Partridge Family song is a grave insult. It's an okay enough light pop song, but not one I need in my record collection. I wouldn't turn off the radio if it appeared on the classic rock station I listen to while doing manly labors that guys who listen classic rock radio stations are required by international law to be engaged in while listening to classic rock radio stations. As for "Somebody To Love?" That I did bag on since it's a knockoff of an Aretha Franklin style gospel song by white British guys that makes me wonder if I need to buy life insurance. I suppose its arrangement is competent enough, but if I feel the need to listen to Aretha Franklin-esque gospel songs I'll listen to Aretha Franklin since none of her songs make me think of Korean life insurance companies.
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Post by ganews on Sept 23, 2016 10:14:22 GMT -5
A Day at the Races - another title explicitly lifted from the Marx Brothers, and part of the reason they got to meet Groucho right before he died "Tie Your Mother Down" - rock n' roller, all right by me. Tracks like this were probably a real tease to people who were huge fans of the first two albums and get nervous about anything farther out there. "Long Away" - pleasant, but I have no deep thoughts. I like Deacon's bass on this track. It's a nice blend of sensibilities from the band's output. "You And I" - more toms! Hey, the track progression on this album is actually making sense in a way that it hasn't for several albums now. "The Millionaire Waltz" - Powerthirteen's McCartney comparison rings too true. I like this less than previous ditties, probably because it doesn't have the same energetic whimsy or fun instrumentation. Oh wait, now the halfway point...and it's stadium Queen again...then some playful stuff...yeah, this does feel like a "Bohemian Rhapsody" also-ran. "Somebody to Love" - Still a great song; bombast but with real longing in it. And it actually fits into the lineup here! ( A Night at the Opera was full of great tracks but way scattered.) I think a lot of inspiration for Keane must have come from this track. If you're not into the chorus - which, the way, is comprised of Mercury, Deacon, and May - yeah, it's not for you. (Sorry Nudeviking, just giving you a hard time.) I like the quiet chant near the end. "White Man" - it looks like were going to return to rocking, and the intro is a smooth way to ease in. This song is mostly thump, then it slows down again on outro. "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy" - This is something of a ditty, but it's a much better song than others like it. They should have found a more suitable track that "White Man" to separate it from the others (I guess that's why the earlier track needed that outro), because it fits much better with the earlier tracks. Were people still unsure about Mercury's sexuality at this point? Probably, somehow. "Drowse" - Agreed that this is a really good song, Roger Taylor's best so far. They should have put this in place of "White Man" which wasn't a bad track but was a bad fit. "Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)" - the closer is a good place for a final ballad. I'm not listening at home to get the Japanese translation from Wifemate to see whether it's really ostentatious (at any rate, it is less so than this sort of shenanigans when they come from Sparks). Summary: The highs aren't as high, but I find this a much stronger and cohesive album than A Night at the Opera. I think that one really deserves the Beatles' White Album comparison, but "White Man" is really the only track that doesn't flow here. The ditties aren't so wacky, and A Day at the Races doesn't go over the top. I rate it their best album yet, if not their best randomized collection of tracks. If I could reboot this experiment for Nudeviking, I'd make him start here.
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Post by Nudeviking on Sept 25, 2016 19:32:26 GMT -5
News of the World (1977)People say the best way to remove a Band-Aid® brand self-adhering bandage is to rip it off quickly so not to drag out the agony. I was utterly ruined by A Day at the Race and A Night at the Opera and just want to get this done with. If I hadn't signed a contract stating I would listen to Queen's discography in chronological order I would have quit after the last one and declared my original belief that Queen is a mediocre band that isn't for me to be correct, but I did sign that contract, so I'm going to burn through the remaining Queen albums and get back to my life before Freddie Mercury & Co. took over. Pre-Existing PrejudicesI absolutely hate the song "We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions." This song is like 82% of my main beef with Queen the band. Is there a word for a fear of audience participation songs? Because if there is I have whatever that phobia is. I hate songs designed for a singer to be like, "EVERYONE SING IT TOGETHER NOW!" I hate "Hey Jude," I hate that "Na na na! Na na na! Hey hey hey! Goodbye!" song, and I hate "We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions." On a slightly less negative note, I like the Nine Inch Nails cover of "Get Down Make Love" that was the b-side to the "Sin" single. Whether or not my enjoyment of Trent Reznor's cover carries over to the original version remains to be seen. Full disclosure, I may have actually owned a copy of this album in my youth (at 9 or 10 years old) or at least borrowed it from a friend. I have a vague recollection of looking at the cassette fold out of this in my childhood bedroom. That being said, I really don't recall any of the actual songs except the two mentioned above, but there could be a couple instances of "Oh I remember this song," this time around. SongsI am once again working with some sort of 1991 reissue so there's a remix that closes out the album. "We Will Rock You" I hate this song so much. I have an irrational fear of audience participation songs and thus hate all these sort of songs. This one is even that good of an audience participation song. This is probably the worst Queen album opener yet. "We Are The Champions" Going into this I was under the impression that "We Will Rock You," served as an intro to this song and thus was not particularly high on it. Like I thought they were two songs that comprised a single track, but I was wrong and there is a very clear break between the two, so all things considered I dislike this less than I did a week ago. I still think the lyrics are kind of cliche but it's not a terrible song. "Sheer Heart Attack" Holy shit! This song is awesome. It's kind of punk and has an awesome roto-tom fill towards the end that's pretty much perfect. I would pay cash money for an album of songs that sounded like this. "All Dead, All Dead" And just like that all my excitement about Queen has disappeared. Boring post-Beatles Paul McCartney style bullshit. Again I don't think the songs placement on the album has done it any favors. Such a boring track coming after such a perfect rock jam only serves to make it more boring. "Spread Your Wings" The chorus to this isn't terrible and the Goddamn Brian May Guitar Sound™ is married pretty well to the piano riffage. I wouldn't skip this song if it appeared on a random shuffle. "Fight From the Inside" The beginning kind of reminds me of "Fame" by David Bowie. This song is also pretty good. It's kind of grungy. "Get Down Make Love" A decent weird rocker. The sound effects during the interlude are particularly good. If there's one complaint I have about the song it's that it's kind of repetitive. "Sleeping on the Sidewalk" Are you kidding me? A walking bass line? Shit blooooze about the music industry. Garbage. "Who Needs You" Flamenco guitar and maracas. Such a filler song. For a studio band like Queen they have a surprising amount of album tracks that feel like half finished song ideas. "It's Late" Mid-tempo riff rock. The chorus hits like a punch to the gut and I kind of dig it. The guitar solo sounds like Van Halen what with the finger tapping and all that. The end of the song has a tempo increase and howling. When all is said and done it's a pretty solid jam. "My Melancholy Blues" A Freddie Mercury jazz ditty. He's got a good voice for doing jazzy torch songs. It's kind of amazing how versatile Mercury's voice was. A lot of rock or pop singers probably couldn't pull off a knock-off jazz standard without sounding like an asshole, but Mercury manages the impossible. "We Will Rock You (1991 Remix Ruined By Rick Rubin)" This certainly is a Rick Rubin remix. I half expect Run DMC to show up or a Beastie Boy to implore someone to "Kick it!" The random record scratches and additional guitar of this version make it less of an audience participation song so for me it's slightly less objectionable than the original. Your mileage may vary. Final Thoughts
By and large I liked this album. There were a couple garbage filler songs but compared to A Day at the Races and A Night At The Opera there was a way better ratio of hits to misses. "Sheer Heart Attack" is without a doubt the best Queen song I've encountered thus far. It's weird that over the last two albums Roger Taylor has become the best song writer out of the four of them. His earlier work was such shit I thought it would never get better and yet here we get not only "Sheer Heart Attack" but also "Fight from the Inside." Anyway this is one of the better Queen albums I've heard and I probably will keep it when I'm done with this mad project.
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Post by ganews on Sept 26, 2016 9:56:43 GMT -5
News of the World
"We Will Rock You" - I too hate enforced participation, but I've got no problem with the song. It's easier to listen to the record than to see live, I suppose. I quite like the way May's guitar fades in.
"We Are the Champions" - Really better all over "We Will Rock You", but I guess Queen likes to start their albums with a rockier sound just in case no one listened to the previous several albums.
"Sheer Heart Attack" - This sounds like a weird artifact, and indeed it was started three years earlier for the album with that name. Cool, but very out of place. Will A Day at the Races be the only Queen album that makes sense? Those toms are indeed crazy.
"All Dead, All Dead" - I can't stop hearing McCartney either. (That sure would have been an interesting collaboration.) But give May some credit, it's about his pet cat.
"Spread Your Wings" - I'm wasn't very engaged until near the end, but even them it's rather a filler for me.
"Fight From the Inside" - Now this is a funky sound. Agreed on the "Fame"-like intro, the rest of the song (or maybe just Roger Taylor's voice) sounds like a Foghat B-side.
"Get Down" - Deeply interesting, full of wild effects, and more explicit than usual. I really like it.
"Sleeping on the Sidewalk" - I'm fine with bluesy rock in any form, because "authenticity" makes me roll my eyes. But I don't have the patience anymore to imagine alternative track orders that would make for sense.
"Who Needs You" - This album is more all over the place than anything yet from Queen, and that's saying something. When are we getting the vaudeville tunes this time? They're bound to come. I do like flamenco guitar though.
"It's Late" - Pretty cool. It's a nice combination of elements, and I like the speeded-up middle. Nice drum solo to finish.
"My Melancholy Blues" - Lovely vocals and piano, but I'm a little exhausted by now.
Summary I really tried to find a picture of the truck dumping goods into the 33 cent store from the Simpsons "30 Minute Over Tokyo". The caption would have been "Queen Assembles an Album". It would have been HILARIOUS. But there's no dialogue over that bit, so no Frinkiac. I thought after A Day at the Races the albums would make sense, but oh well. This doesn't have as many good tracks, and all in all is the least interesting to me so far.
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Post by Jean Luc de Lemur on Sept 26, 2016 15:25:18 GMT -5
This is my first exposure to something vaguely resembling Queen, and the first thing that pops into my head when someone mentions “We will rock you”:
Why do I remember this? Because it was on the VHS my dad taped of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode of “Unification, Part II,” and that tape was rewatched a lot by child me.
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Dellarigg
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Post by Dellarigg on Sept 26, 2016 15:34:42 GMT -5
When I properly listened to We Will Rock You, as opposed to paying no real attention to it on the radio or the TV, I was surprised by how good the actual 'drum' sound is (I think it's just them stamping on some wooden boards?) and thus I warmed to it considerably. And agreed, Sheer Heart Attack is pretty great - not just the tom fill, but the crunch of the guitars coming back in after it. My favourite of their albums, easily (though I count myself only a lukewarm fan).
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Post by Nudeviking on Sept 26, 2016 19:07:59 GMT -5
News of the World"We Will Rock You" - I too hate enforced participation, but I've got no problem with the song. It's easier to listen to the record than to see live, I suppose. I quite like the way May's guitar fades in. You are right about it being easier to listen to alone on a stereo than to hear it in a sports stadium or in a TV commercial that is trying to replicate the audience participation essence of a sports stadium, though those experiences still tainted the experience for me. Perhaps "We Will Rock You" can be rehabilitated. Aw, poor Brian May's cat. Not only are you dead, but the best Brian May could come up with as a tribute song was "All Dead, All Dead." There are tons of "inauthentic" bands that do blues that I don't object to. What I disliked about "Sleeping on the Sidewalk" was how cliche of a blues song it was. The music was pretty much what anyone would imagine if they were told to think of a blues song. Queen had some bluesy songs on their first and/or second album that were at least unique sounding. This one was just, "Yup, that's a blues song with a walking bass line."
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Post by Liz n Dick on Sept 27, 2016 11:22:37 GMT -5
Full disclosure, I may have actually owned a copy of this album in my youth (at 9 or 10 years old) or at least borrowed it from a friend. I have a vague recollection of looking at the cassette fold out of this in my childhood bedroom. That being said, I really don't recall any of the actual songs except the two mentioned above, but there could be a couple instances of "Oh I remember this song," this time around. I have not been listening along, and have no strong feelings for or against Queen. But I have a VERY strong feeling about this album cover, and love that you mention remembering looking at the cassette fold-out as a kid. For me, I have a visceral memory of being in a fairly early childhood home, when I was probably 6 or 7, and finding the cassette for this in my dad's office. Man, that robot was so fascinating to me. I would specifically go in there just to lose myself in that illustration. Of course, it never compelled me, when I got older, to listen to the album or anything crazy like that, but hey -- at least it gives me this incredibly intense memory of being a little kid in the semi-exotic space of my dad's home office. (He died over 20 years ago, so it's an especially fond intense memory.)
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Post by Nudeviking on Sept 28, 2016 19:38:00 GMT -5
BREAKING NEWS!
"Bohemian Rhapsody" appeared on my iPod whilst it was in the midst of a shuffle mode this morning. I not only did not skip the song, but found myself enjoying it. It's happened people...I've been indoctrinated.
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Post by Il sole sotto la terra on Sept 29, 2016 10:47:12 GMT -5
Useless trivia: The cover of "News of the World" is an adaptation of the cover of the October 1953 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, and was painted by Kelly Freas, who did nearly every Mad magazine cover from 1958-62, including the most iconic representations of Alfred E. Neuman.
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Post by ganews on Sept 29, 2016 10:50:12 GMT -5
BREAKING NEWS! "Bohemian Rhapsody" appeared on my iPod whilst it was in the midst of a shuffle mode this morning. I not only did not skip the song, but found myself enjoying it. It's happened people...I've been indoctrinated. Is this the real life?
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Post-Lupin
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Post by Post-Lupin on Sept 29, 2016 13:36:39 GMT -5
Like it or not, it's pervasive...
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Post by Nudeviking on Oct 4, 2016 19:31:55 GMT -5
Jazz (1978)
News of the World revitalized my waning interest in Queen after a pair of scattershot albums of what I felt were half-finished song nuggets. Will Queen follow up that awesomeness with another good album or will they return to albums that consist primarily of Vaudeville style ditties? Let's find out! Pre-Existing PrejudicesI think for the first time my existing prejudices are positive. "Bicycle Race" was my favorite Queen before I started this project and was the only Queen I had on my computer prior to downloading their discography. I also recall liking the song, "Fat Bottom Girls" well enough. Songs"Mustapha" This is a pretty okay song but for my money doesn't work that well as an album opener. If I were in Queen I probably would have put "Let Me Entertain You," on first and placed "Mustapha" somewhere in the middle. "Fat Bottom Girls" This is not what I remember this song sounding like at all. It's kind of 70s Southern rocky with that stomping bass drum beat that White Stripes used in like every single song. It's not bad at all and as far as larger ladies are alright songs go I prefer this to "All About the Bass." Freddie Mercury screaming "GET ON YOUR BIKES AND RIDE!" is probably the best part of the song. "Jealousy" Kind of a meh track. It's all pianos and boring lyrics about feelings and shit. The quasi-sitar sound Brian May gets out of his guitar is kind of cool I guess but the rest of the song is kind of lame. "Bicycle Race" Prior to starting this project this song was one of two Queen songs I liked, and though that number has increased somewhat I'd still rank this pretty high if I were to compile a top 10 list or something even if Freddie Mercury does declare his disdain for Star Wars. "If You Can't Beat Them" Decent riff rock. It doesn't really feel like a Queen song. The guitar doesn't use that Goddamn Brian May Guitar Sound at all and the guitar solo seems kind of like a Van Halen solo. "Let Me Entertain You" A decent 70s heavy metal jam about rocking the fuck out. This reminds me a little of their first two albums. I like this song and think it would have been a better album opener. "Dead on Time" Awesome rocking. The drumming is pretty good and the fury of the riff is awesome. I like the thunderclap and Freddie Mercury bellowing, "YOU'RE DEAD!" that closes out the song. "In Only Seven Days" The music reminds me "Ebony and Ivory," and the lyrics are stupid. Dud. "Dreamer's Ball" Kind of a blusey Vaudevillian slow jam. As far blusey Vaudeville style Queen slow jams go, this one's pretty okay. "Fun It" Disco. The drums sound really weird in this. Maybe it's a drum machine? I dunno. The guitar riff is pretty good disco sleaze. As far as British rock bands doing ill advised disco songs go Queen pulls it off way better than The Rolling Stones did. "Leaving Home Ain't Easy" Cheesy McCartney-esque slow jam. Probably the least objectionable cheesy McCartney-esque slow jam Queen's done yet. I can't tell if the female vocals are actually a lady or just some sort of processed dude vocals. "Don't Stop Me Now" Ohhhh...this song. Yeah I've heard this a billion times in movies and car commercials and shit. I didn't know that that was the title of this song. Anyway I don't like this that much. It's a decent enough pop song and I'd probably like it more if I hadn't heard it a bajillion and three times, but as it stands it was overplayed and kind of sounds like a theme song to a 1970s sitcom. "More of That Jazz" This song's pretty fantastic. It's got an awesome guitar riff and the choruses are really tight. I was really wrong about Roger Taylor apparently. Dude is dropping awesome tracks left and right. If I have one complaint about this one it's the reprise of the earlier songs that pops up. It's a fine thing to have it's just really jarring. If they'd crossfaded it in or something I think it would have worked better than it does. Final ThoughtsA weaker effort than News of the World but still a decent album for the most part. Nothing here was really terrible and even some of the songs I disliked ("Jealousy" in particular) had some cool stuff in them. That being said I think I might be losing my objectivity. I've listened to Queen more or less exclusively for a month (there were a few days of palate cleansing after A Night.../A Day...) and I'm pretty certain that some of the songs I think I enjoy now I would have shit all over a month ago...except "More of That Jazz." That would have ruled whenever I heard it.
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Post-Lupin
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Post by Post-Lupin on Oct 6, 2016 2:52:26 GMT -5
I adore 'Mustapha'. One of my top 5 Queen tunes. Can't agree that it fails as album opener, with Freddy crying out IIIIIIIIIIBRAHIIIIIIM!!!! like that.
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Post by Powerthirteen on Oct 6, 2016 10:36:15 GMT -5
"Fat Bottomed Girls" has some of my very favorite harmonies. I once sang a drunken karaoke version of it with slightly rearranged lyrics at a bachelor party.
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Dellarigg
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Post by Dellarigg on Oct 6, 2016 10:42:37 GMT -5
Fat Bottomed Girls is probably my favourite Queen track, but this album is where I begin to slip away from their discography.
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Post by ganews on Oct 11, 2016 12:17:52 GMT -5
Jazz"Mustapha" - This is very interesting, part prayer part nonsense. It's sort of a genetic branch off "Bohemian Rhapsody", but the full track has a great urgency in the performance. Very cool. "Fat Bottomed Girls" - A classic. It's got a natural opener for an album built into it, and for anyone else it would have been first in the tracklist. Queen probably just couldn't find a better spot for "Mustapha" and is accustomed to ordering things willy-nilly. Do any actual fat-bottomed girls proudly dance to this song? I've never seen it. The lyrics are celebratory, but they could also fit the old idea of the "good-time girl" with a reputation who will give a boy his first lay but wouldn't be acceptable for a long-term mate. And speaking of terrible ideas, when I was young and stupid I tried to fit this song and what I knew of Mercury's sexuality into a stereotype of big girls in high school dating boys who would go on to figure out they were gay in college, something I had seen happen several times (yeah dummy, Mercury didn't even write it). Side note: this song was packaged along with "Bicycle Race" as a single that featured a nude lady cyclist on the cover, something that was apparently a thing in England. To get by censors they painted a bikini bottom on her. ( NSFW-ish). "Jealousy" - Oh, that's not actually a sitar? That's okay, it actually makes me like the effect more. Of course the track doesn't flow ("Bicycle Race" is next), but we're used to that. "Bicycle Race" - I say CHRIST, it's one of the most fun songs every written. HOT DOG, the bike bell chorus could be super annoying but somehow it's not. JESUS, it's the most light-hearted since "Killer Queen". "If You Can't Beat Them" - Meh. Oh hey, this really sounds like "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" by Elton John from this distant future 1993. The guitar solo doesn't interest me. "Let Me Entertain You" - Interesting effects and changes elevate an otherwise straight-forward rocker. Don't care for the crowd-noise outro. "Dead on Time" - see "Let Me Entertain You". It's better, fast and cool, but it leaves me wanting a bit. "In Only Seven Days" - eh "Dreamer's Ball" - Time for a Queeny blues, slowed-down humdinger tribute to newly-dead Elvis. I like it. It should have been the last track. "Fun It" - The review just said "Fuck It". "You can't print that!" But seriously folks, I actually like this disco stomp from Roger Taylor alright. Except for that ultra-short whistle. I hate the coach whistle sound effect in music. "Leaving Home Ain't Easy" - This was a nice ballad. "Don't Stop Me Now" - More light-hearted fun. It's so sincere, it seems ripe for ironic juxtaposition, but the genuine feeling would just push through. Sean of The Dead didn't use it ironically; they just like the song, and well they should. "More of That Jazz" - Do we still need to be told not to disrespect rock n' roll like it's the 50s? Or is this a pushback against those saying rock is dead? The mash-up outro is...weird. Summary: another fine collection of songs from Queen that don't make sense together at all. I should stop commenting on that.
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Post by Nudeviking on Oct 11, 2016 21:24:47 GMT -5
The Game (1980)
It's time for another collection of Queen songs! Unbelievably we're now past the halfway point. I feel like I should have some big reveal planned here, but I don't really have much to say about this album or Queen in general before I get underway. I'm still kind of the mind that a Queen's Greatest Hits collection and a few stray non-greatest hits tracks here and there are more than enough Queen for me when this is all over with and think that the remaining albums are going to have to be pretty impressive to make me like Queen any more than that. Will this album do the trick? I don't know! Pre-Existing PrejudicesThere are two: one positive, one negative. Let's start with the good. I think "Another One Bites the Dust," is a pretty okay song and am of the mind that the bass riff it includes is one of the best in rock. For a time I knew how to play the aforementioned bass riff due to a high school battle of the bands thing. And now the bad..."Crazy Little Thing Called Love," is probably the thing I hate most about Queen...more even than "Bohemian Rhapsody." I think it's a shit song done in a shit style that for some reason was popular enough to become massively overplayed, causing my already minimal tolerance for it to evaporate like dew on a summer's morn. Songs"Play The Game" Yup, this sure is a Queen song. It occurs now to me that I've probably heard more Queen songs in commercials for Korean insurance, car, drug and telecommunications companies than I have on classic rock stations. This one showed up in a drug commercial I think...or maybe it was for insurance. That being said, I like the way they sing "it's alright," and "it's easy" or whatever. The laser sounds before the solo are pretty much on point too, but other than that I'm kind of meh on this. "Dragon Attack" I like the sleaziness of the guitar riff and the way it works with the bass line. The guitar wailing at the end of the song is great and reminds me more of Queen I and II which is alright in my book. "Another One Bites The Dust" I think I like Queen better as a bass heavy sci-fi noise funk band than whatever they were on A Night At The Opera. The bass riff here is probably one of the best bass riffs ever. "Need Your Loving Tonight" This sounds like Rick Springfield or some other 80s guitar pop rock dude. It's weird and sounds nothing like Queen. "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" I tried. I really did, but I still hate this song. I think it might be because I pretty much universally hate all that 50s nostalgia shit from the late 70s/early 80s. The fact that this is a mediocre song on top of that doesn't help things much. "Rock It (Prime Jive)" Again Roger Taylor is making me eat crow. Here's Queen doing their best The Cars impression. I like The Cars so I kind of like this song. "Don't Try Suicide" This is kind of a dumb song and the chorus sounds like a 70s sitcom theme song. I'm not really about this one. "Sail Away Sweet Sister" Were it not for the fact that this song seems to be an unrequited incestuous love ballad it would be completely unmemorable. "Coming Soon" Late 70s/early 80s sounding power pop. I'd be about Queen more if they sounded like this more often. Again the bass is kind of in the forefront here. "Save Me" Piano and boring bombast. I feel like Queen has had this exact song on almost every album I've listened to thus far. Right down the the Goddamn Brian May Guitar Sound, which he'd sort of moved away from employing for the bulk of the album. This kind of crap is what I think I most disliked about Queen. One wouldn't expect bombast to be boring and yet Queen somehow manage to pull it off. Final Thoughts:
This was kind of a mixed bag. It's not really good or bad. Most of the songs are just kind of there and a bunch more seem like Queen trying to update their sound to stay relevant which probably pissed die hard Queen fans off, but since I like 80s power pop and synth music I kind of dig those songs. This is maybe the first album where I feel like Bassplayer von Bassist (or whatever the 4th guy in Queen's name is) really earned his keep. The basslines in these songs (even the ones I thought were shit songs) are generally pretty great.
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Post by ganews on Oct 12, 2016 14:02:33 GMT -5
The Game"Play the Game" - Not much to say about the first half; sounds like Queen. Same for the second half, but that weird effect in the middle is interesting. "Dragon Attack" - Sweet bass line on a 70s rocker. Like that drum break. Ooh, then the bass really steps out front, then Brian May takes a turn. Nice. This should have been the opener. "Another One Bites the Dust" - That bass. John Deacon was such a stud. The surroundings are great too, the claps, the picking. More stomp, less disco than "Fun It" from the previous album, the obvious precursor. "Need Your Loving Tonight" - agreed with Nudeviking, but I can hear lots of 80s snippets besides "Jesse's Girl" "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" - I generally appreciate Mercury's ditties, and this is no exception. Actually, this is the best of the bunch. Plus more bass at the forefront and a different-for-Q ueen rockabilly guitar (Mercury played it!). Really, it's too bad so many great Queen songs were apparently licensed for Korean kommercials.
"Rock It (Prime Jive)" - whoa, this is definitely the Cars-sounding track. Not bad, even in the top tier of non-Mercury vocal songs. Wish it didn't have Mercury's crummy intro.
"Don't Try Suicide" - OK, it's not my favorite song. But points for saying outright "nobody cares".
"Sail Away Sweet Sister" - Brian May verse, Freddie Mercury bridge. I like it well enough.
"Coming Soon" - Cool B-side. It gives me Flash Gorden-type ideas.
"Save Me" - Good one. Lonely and longing. The piano intro really works, unlike "Rock It"; the whole song works.
Summary: I have much less whiplash than usual. Tracks are ordered decently well, there's great stuff in the first 2/3, and I don't hate any of the filler. Good album.
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Post by Nudeviking on Oct 16, 2016 21:05:12 GMT -5
Flash Gordon (1980)
The second Queen album from 1980. This time Freddie Mercury and Company try their hand at scoring a film. The film in question was the sci-fi adventure flick, Flash Gordon. It's not a great film by any stretch of the imagination but was a fun enough thing to watch on a Sunday afternoon on basic cable back in the day. But how does the film's soundtrack hold up? Let's find out! Pre-Existing Prejudices
I liked "Flash's Theme" as a small child and never found the music of Flash Gordon the movie offensive when it used to be on Saturday movie matinees on WPIX all the time in the late 80s, but I can't honestly recall what any of the non "Flash! Ah ah..." songs sound like. Songs"Flash's Theme" Flash! Ah ah... This is pretty much what one would expect a Queen song about Flash Gordon to sound like. It's got a choir of Freddie Mercurys and the Goddamn Brian May Guitar Sound and a part in the middle that's just crooning and a piano. I liked this as a small child and still think it's pretty good but it's no longer one of my favorite Queen songs. What is happening to me? "In The Space Capsule" The synthesizers sound like Dr. Who here and do a pretty good job of capturing the isolation of space. I like the tom beat that's going on in this. "Ming's Theme" Sinister synths! Lots of movie dialogue! Orchestra stabs! "Flash Gordon! Quarterback! New York Jets!" "The Ring" "Ming's Theme," but less sinister and more sex crimey. "Football Fight" This is probably the best song on this album. If I was a pro wrestler I'd want my entrance music to sound like this. "In The Death Cell" "In The Space Capsule" again, but with different movie dialogue. "Execution of Flash" Slow jam guitars and then some violins because sadness. "The Kiss" "Oooooooh oooooh oooooh. Ah ah ah ah ahhh." The Freddie Mercury Choir maybe makes an appearance and then film score orchestras happen. "Arboria" Synthesizer pan pipes and too much movie dialogue. "Escape From The Swamp" Timpani! Sinister synth swells! This is exactly what I would imagine an escape from a swamp to sound like. "Flash to the Rescue" "Flash's Theme" reprised with 100% more siren noises, laser sounds, and movie dialogue. "Vultan's Theme" Stirring battle music suitable for killing orcs or space goblins in a Japanese RPG. "Battle Theme" Brian May all up in this piece laying down some heavy Queen I or Queen II riffage and the Goddamn Brian May Guitar Sound over a reprises of "Vultan's Theme" and "Flash's Theme." "The Wedding March" A Goddamn Brian May Guitar Sound version of "The Wedding March." Meh... "Marriage of Dale and Ming" More dialogue with minimal music beside some minimal church organ sounding stuff and occasional reprises of "Flash! Ah ah!" "Crash Dive on Minho City" Brief rocking that ends as quickly as it began. "Flash's Theme Reprise" "Flash's Theme" again with dialogue and call backs to a couple of the other themes that showed up. "The Hero" The same Brian May riffage from "Battle Theme," but turned into an actual song. Freddie Mercury bellowing all over the place like this is a Queen II b-side. Final Thoughts:
As a curiosity this album's fine but as an actual album it's kind of lacking. "Flash's Theme" in all its myriad forms is pretty good and "Football Fight" is pretty great but it's otherwise it's a pretty rubbish collection of songs that only a real Queen completest would need in their record collection.
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Dellarigg
AV Clubber
This is a public service announcement - with guitars
Posts: 7,499
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Post by Dellarigg on Oct 17, 2016 1:44:42 GMT -5
Ah, yes, this would be where I nope the fuck out.
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Post-Lupin
Prolific Poster
Immanentizing the Eschaton
Posts: 5,673
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Post by Post-Lupin on Oct 18, 2016 6:01:30 GMT -5
Here's the up-tempo, no Boom-Boom-Clap version of We Will Rock You from Queens 1977 John Peel session.
No sir, I don't like it.
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Post by ganews on Oct 18, 2016 9:37:19 GMT -5
Here's the up-tempo, no Boom-Boom-Clap version of We Will Rock You from Queens 1977 John Peel session. No sir, I don't like it. I like it pretty well until the chorus, then ugh.
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