Queen - A Night at the Opera
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Free Music Notes for A Night at the Opera
Free Music Review: Musicality, Songwriting, All Exceptional
Hit: 5 Stars
As Roger Taylor says, Queen were heavily on the rise when their breakthrough sensation A Night At The Opera was released. They had already scored a fairly big hit with the song Killer Queen on the Sheer Heart Attack album, and were quickly garnishing attention. This achievement, not only features arguably the greatest operatic composition ever recorded, but also displays exceptional musicality, witty sing-a-long songs, art rock, smashing guitar riffs, and pop beauty.
The album begins with easily one of Queen's hardest rocking songs of all time, Death On Two Legs pounds vicious chords on you, and then Mercury shouts bloody lyrics into our ears, with the song compiled with some extraordinary metal rock. The album then takes a lighter approach with Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon, offering a calm, almost laughable lyrical delivery, with a smooth finishing guitar solo. Roger Taylor finds his best rock composition up to this point with I'm In Love With My Car, a lyrically strong, well composed hard rocker. The pop beauty I mentioned in the first paragraph comes with You're My Best Friend, a pop ballad with a smooth intro, and a catchy chorus, all in all a very pleasant song. 39' is very much so folk oriented, with a smooth guitar strum, and Brian May providing the lyrics. Sweet Lady is a much different approach to rock n' roll than Queen's typical rock compositions. It has strong riffs, with a good lyrical delivery from Freddie. However, it isn't a very well written composition. Seaside Rendezvous has a very flamboyant feel to it, obviously influenced by Mercury's homosexuality. This in no way takes away from the brilliance of the song, with great piano rolls, and enjoyable overdubs and background harmonies. An operatic powerhouse comes next with Prophet's Song, an 8 minute extraordinaire, with sensational crescendos and it's many different rock phases. Love Of My Life is very much so a live track, with fulfilled beauty coming from the original recording as well. A very passionate recording with Mercury delivering maybe one of his greatest lyrics of any Queen recording. The guitar strum is simple, but nice. Good Company may be the weakest recording on the track list, with a lack in melody. Bohemian Rhapsody then comes on. A highly definitive recording, I find the most impressive component to this song are the different phases it runs through. Lyrically, it is outstanding, and few recordings ever matched the true magnificence it possessed, incorporating overdubs into the song with perfection. The piano melody is sensational and catchy. The song is highly driven by Mercury's lyrical delivery though, passionately singing "Mama just killed a man...". The rock section of this song is extraordinary, and a classic guitar solo, actually thought up by Mercury could not be without. Of course the operatic section is a force, with the overdubs and back and forth lyrics simply exceptional. The song ends on a soothing return to the core of the song, and Mercury singing in a poetic tone. To follow, a nice rendition of God Save The Queen, almost a bow for the album accomplishment. Possibly in buying the remastered version of this album with two useless remixes in some ways takes away from listening to the album as a whole closing with God Save The Queen.
A Night At The Opera highly expresses in many ways why Queen's true decade was the 70s, in which they explored many different fields of music with artistic experimentation. It is in many ways a disgrace to the achievements of Queen to read Rolling Stone's thoughts on this band, giving it no respect, and not even placing this work of art on their list of 500 greatest albums of all time. Quite possibly the most misunderstood group of all time, Queen's A Night At The Opera one of a few of their rock masterpieces that is more than essential for a Queen fan, and should be looked into for all music listeners. Other Queen selections I recommend include A Day At The Races, Sheer Heart Attack, Queen I, Queen II, Greatest Hits albums, The Game and News Of The World.
Free Music Review: One of the best Queen Albums ever!
Hit: 5 Stars
A quiet but loudening piano solo fills your ears. Louder and louder this piano playing gets. After about fifteen seconds a guitar is added to the piece, screeching out a unique sound. As the guitar plays on, the music gets louder and louder. Finally, at the point when your ears might burst, the song changes into a fast-tempoed, guitar filled sound that is very different from any thing you've ever heard. Are you at a fabulous concert from an incredibly experienced band? No, you have just listened to the first minute of the most important and one of the best Queen albums ever recorded. From the loud and hateful "Death on Two Legs," to the operatic melodies in "Bohemian Rhapsody," this album is like an amusement park for your ears. Song after song played by the amazing members of Queen create some kind of wonderful feeling that is so unique and discernible that only Queen could create. After "Death on Two Legs" comes the playful and happy song, "Lazy on a Sunday Afternoon." Subsequently comes the powerful automobile dedicated song, "I'm in Love With My Car." Next comes the soft-rock, love song, "You're my Best Friend." One of the band's greatest hits, this song is full of truly and deeply felt feelings of adorement. Immediately following is the acoustic song, "39". This is one of the best songs on the album, full of beautiful vocal pieces and harmonic instrument playing which makes Queen so unique (excluding all of the other unique characteristics). Next comes the nearly Metal song "Sweet Lady" full of great guitar playing and Heavy Metal voices. Immediately after comes the "Lazy on a Sunday Afternoon" like song "Seaside Rendevous." Happy and romantic, this song reflects Queen's lighter side of music. Following "Seaside Rendevous" is the extremely long piece, "The Prophet's Song." A spectacular display of Brian May's song-writing skill, this song is sure to be one of your favorites. "The Prophet's Song" reminds me of something from the Bible, particularly the passage about Noah's Ark. Next is the piano/love ballad "Love of My Life." This is a somewhat sad but still great song about a lost love. Next is the May written "Good Company." An okay song but only a warm-up to the next one. THE GREATEST QUEEN SONG EVER: "Bohemian Rhapsody." This masterpiece for all music fans is, I believe,by far their best song, their greatest hit ever, and most popular song. First comes the beautiful and sad beginning to the song which I interpret is about death. "Bohemian Rhapsody" is full of great piano-playing, amazing vocals, and just spectacular lyrics. Next comes one of the most popular song sequences ever created. This operatic opus reveals the brilliant passion and ability for song-writing ability of the late Freddie Mercury. Just simply amazing. Colorful and full of incredibly diverse and unique lyrics, this part of the song is so popular that it was karaoked on the 1992 film, "Wayne's World." Finally after a minute or so of spectacular vocals, the song transforms into a hard-rock song with again amazing vocals and instrument playing. After a period of raging vocals and spectacular guitar playing, the song again transforms, this time into a mellow, soft, and sad piece which is the perfectly fitting ending to this perfect opus and display of Queen's vocal and instrumental ability. Next is the classic ending to this CD(And to concerts), "God Save the Queen". Although no vocals are in this song, it is still a powerful ending to a spectacular CD. Finally, the remixes come. They really don't make the CD any better. In fact, I usually skip over them as fast as I can. But don't worry, this CD will remain in your mind as nearly perfect. Any way the wind blows.....Free Music Review: Wonderful... A rock opera masterpiece.
Hit: 5 Stars
Unfortunately, A Night At The Opera suffers from a problem similiar to that of Bowie's 'Hunky Dory' or John Lennon's 'Imgaine': The one hit it generated was so big, that the album itself, as a whole, never got what it deserved. For A Night At The Opera is much, much, much more than 'The Album With Bohemian Rhapsody In It'. It is a complete, beautifuly composed rock album, with all the pieces - including 'Rhapsody' - just in the right place. In my personal 'top ten Queen songs' list, at least five would be from this album. That's a lot.The first track, Death On Two Legs, shows lead singer Freddie Mercury at his very best; it has a lot in common with the songs he wrote on Queen's previous album, Sheer Heart Attack - one of his last real rock songs, before he started doing upbeat pop-rock songs like We Are The Champions, and several years later stuff like Living On My Own (the horror...) Great, fast rock, great guitars and vocals and wonderful, nasty lyrics. Simply awesome. Lazying On A Sunday Afternoon is another great Freddie entry, a short, beautiful, happy little piano song. It's a shame he stopped writing songs like these in later albums.
I'm In Love With My Car is drummerman Roger Taylor's effort for this album; a good rocker, his best yet, although I don't really care much for his writing style - or his singing. You're My Best Friend is a song by bassist John Deacon, a sweet, nice little love song. Next is '39, written and performed almost exclusively by guitar master Brian May, a wonderful sci-fi piece, slightly folkish. An excellent song, and the only one, in my opinion, that Brian performed better than Freddie.
Brian's Sweet Lady and Freddie's Seaside Rendezvous are my less favorite songs on this album, Sweet Lady being Brian's attempt at heavy rock and Seaside Rendezvous is very similiar to Lazying On A Sunday Afternoon, but not quite as good - one like that on an album should be enough. Side B, however, opens with The Prophet's Song - in my mind, the best song Brian May has ever written, proving for the first (and, sadly, last) time that his music can be as original, unique and inventive as Mercury's. Beautiful harmonies, ingenious use of recording techniques. Simply amazing. Listen to it with earphones - you'll be blown away.
Love Of My Life is Freddie's song - one of the most beautiful love songs ever written. This version has never achieved formal 'hit' status, since it was not released as a single; it was however one of Queen's most popular live songs, and the 1979 'Live Killers' version was finally released as a single and a video clip. Good Company is a little Brian song - nothing special, with moderate vocals by Brian - the lyrics are quite good, though...
In Brian's own words - what can I say about Bohemian Rhapsody that hasn't been said? This is the one that stole the show. Finally Freddie came up with a song that showed his unique writing style but also made it as a hit. A great, perfectly established song, with one of Brian's best known solos. The album closes with Brian's great guitar arrangement of God Save The Queen, wonderfully perormed by May and Taylor.
From beginning to end, A Night At The Opera is a perfect album, which will leave you breathless. This is not only for Queen fans; it is a rock classic, which every music lover should listen to.
Free Music Review: album changing the rock scene forever
Hit: 5 Stars
Night At The Opera released by Queen in 1975 has contributed to changing the face of rock music for ever. Their hard rock and even metal movements all of a sudden were being listened to by ever growing crowd of people who would have not came near such music before. On the other hand, the lovers of hard rocking sound started accepting softer rock, folk or even pop songs they would normally be running away from. Night At The Opera has mixed it all up which in itself was a bit of a gamble. However, that was an easy gamble to take considering how many great songs this album contains. I wonder if the band had any idea which song would become their ticket to riches, when they were working on their material. Bohemian Rhapsody by many called the best piece of rock music ever written became that breakthrough hit for the Queen. Considering how many bad songs become huge hits it was good that in this case the song was great. However, the fact that The Prophets' Song (which to me sounds like it could be dedicated to Robert Plant) went straight to oblivion and got very poorly rated by many is a mystery. You might want to listen to this song carefully. Following The Prophets' Song both Love Of My Life, a beautiful love song and Good Company, a melodic parody which sounded like it was written and sung by Paul McCartney took us all the way to the Bohemian Rhapsody. When we used to listen to records and not cds nor digital files back in the 1970s, putting side B of this album on was a great experience. Night At The Opera's side A starts with great Death On Two Legs (Freddie wanted to express his feelings towards their former manager right away), which after a funky and moody little filler Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon takes us back in time and....roaring forward again I'm In Love With My Car, the best song ever sung and written by Roger Taylor, their drummer, which also happens to be the most beautiful car love song ever. The following song You're My Best Friend was composed by their bass player John Deacon and makes this album a true team effort. Following it is another great song by Brian May '39. The only song on this album that I could never get into was Sweet Lady, which was followed by Seaside Rendezvous, funky moody filler taking you back to the 20s or 30s again. These short fillers, because they are strong and stylistically so all over the place, work well with the complex structures of Bohemian Rhapsody and The Prophets' Song, and together with the remaining love and rock songs create quite an album. Queen's following album Day At The Races was very strong as well. Their following albums contained some great songs but my recommendation would be to turn to their earliest music first, if you like both Night At The Opera and Day AT the Races and you are thinking about exploring their music further. My favorite songs of Queen are the following: Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together), White Queen, Love Of My Life, Nevermore, Jealousy, Bohemian Rhapsody, Forever, Dear Friends, Don't Try So Hard, The March Of The Black Queen, The Millionare Waltz, Killer Queen, Spread Your Wings, Who Wants To Live Forever, Las Palabras De Amor, You're My Best Friend, You Take My Breath Away, We Are The Champions, Bicycle Race, I'm In Love With My Car, Lilly Of The Valley.
Free Music Review: THIS is Worthy of the Overused Label: CLASSIC
Hit: 5 Stars
You've got your "IV"'s, "Appetite For Destruction"'s, "Dark Side of the Moon"'s, "Toys in the Attic"'s, "Slippery When Wet"'s, the list perpetually continues.All of which are wonderful, but stalwart fans refuse to acknowledge that most GREAT bands evolved with even better music following their eternally labeled "classic" album. With "A Night at the Opera," Queen did both; they made a PERFECT album and made even more perfect music as their tragically doomed career marched on to the day of sadness in 1991.
If ever there is an album worthy of putting on headphones and clearing your mind of the rest of the world while meditating to an album, surely this is the one. The leadoff song "Death On Two Legs" is perfect, with tasteful piano work, as is the next "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon." There's so much going on in so little time! At this point, you know exactly how to expect the rest of the album: there is no way you can expect anything. The successful diversity of this band is unmatched to this day. The witty personality of Mercury is splotched everywhere, taking an already-greater-than-ordinary-song and putting something to it that is just .... ah, who needs words.
It always helps when there's no filler on an album, and every track stands on its own. This is one of the strongest start to finish albums ever made. The grade-A musicianship and quality diversity only make the jaw drop more as you hear such unique compositions as "Seaside Rendezvous", "The Prophet's Song", and "Good Company."
Then you've got the simple stuff. And only Queen knows how to put an unspeakable magic and emotion into songs with 3 (or in Queen's case 6) chords. Such songs include '39, the compound metered "Sweet Lady," and wellknown hit "You're My Best Friend." Even the mandatory insertion of Roger ("I'm in Love with my Car") is remarkably wellsuited for the occasion.
Finally you've got the songs written by God and given to Queen, "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Love of My Life." Enough's been shoved in people's faces about those tunes, so you probably don't need any further commentary. The works of a genius.
A good album 1) doesn't only thrive from its singles, 2) has the creme de la creme of both artistry and emotion, 3) has a wealth of diversity, 4) lacks filler, and 5) flows perfectly start to finish, without even being a concept album. Again, this album passes the test on all accounts.
If you are an American and think you like music AND don't have the majority of Queen's albums (PARTICULARLY this one and Innuendo) then you should be mildly ashamed of youself. Queen never got the appreciation from America that they deserve, people knowing only "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Those Sports Songs." Ugh.
But it makes sense I guess. I'm an American, but devote lots of time to everything I do. Many prefer the quick fix, and avoid Queen/prog/classical music because it demands to much of the listener. Queen is the perfect place to start for those looking for substance in music. Indeed, Freddie pretty much throws it at you and you can't help but "get it" when Queen performs.
Get it.