Queen - A Night at the Opera
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Free Music Notes for A Night at the Opera
Free Music Review: Queen in their prime
Hit: 5 Stars
'A Night at the Opera' shows Queen at the height of their careers, and most certainly creativity.While I would not personally class this album as the group's best work, there is no denying that it is a fine introduction to their grandeur.
The album kicks off with a venomous rocker -Death on Two Legs- which makes it seem like classic piano and heavy metal guitars were made for each other. Following this is an hilarious little ditty called 'Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon', which quickly is followed by another kick-ass rocker in the form of 'Im In Love With My Car', featuring Roger Taylor (drummer) on vocals.
As no Queen album is complete without your occasional sugar-sweet ballad, this point is started off with 'Youre My Best Friend'. This is followed with the eerie '39; a folksy acoustic number by Brian May (guitar).
Following this, we are again smacked down with some heavy notes indeed, called 'Sweet Lady', ironically followed with another ditty 'Seaside Rendevous'.
Next comes what I consider the finest moment on 'A Night at the Opera': 'The Prophets Song'. This is the quintessence of Queen's opera-inspired era, and some of their finest but also darkest moments will be found in this masterpiece. To give the uninitiated a clue, take 'Bohemian Rhapsody' -which I am sure you've heard- and multiply that idea with ten, and you have 'The Prophets Song'.
More sugar-coated sweetness next with 'Love of My Life', which is a beautiful ballad indeed. 'Good Company' is another 1920-30's romp/ditty, this time with May at the fore. In retrospect, I would say that 'A Night at the Opera' is the Queen album displaying the most of these kind of songs.
The next song, 'Bohemian Rhapsody', needs no explanation. Am I right or am I right?
Rounding off this wonderful album is 'God Save the Queen', which is an instrumental piece of May's showmanship.
Finally, a great treat of an album, with perhaps just one too many "ditties" (as mentioned above). The rockers and heavy metal operatic/progressive numbers are by far the best, as is the case with all of Queen's music, in my humble opinion.
Free Music Review: Anyway the wind blows...
Hit: 5 Stars
Much like their fellow countrymen Led Zeppelin, Queen acheived perfection on their fourth album, 1975's 'A Night at the Opera'. This album had it all and for a musically diverse band such as Queen, that was plenty. The power of four would never again be surpassed and why this album doesn't make a consensus top ten of rock albums in history is....well...dumb. Though Queen has never been the darlings of critics even the most misguided of these fools had to acknowledge the songwrtiting genius of Freddie Mercury whose "Bohemian Rhapsody" is rightfully considered one of popular music's greatest triumphs. Combining hard rock bombast with classical music wasn't new, but this song's impact and popularity was staggering. The song and album fullfilled the promise of 'Queen II' and 'Sheer Heart Attack' to make Queen a supergroup, a status they held on to worldwide until Freddie's death. What makes 'Opera' a special album is obviously not just "Rhapsody". John Deacon achieves the albums second huge hit with his beautiful "You're My Best Friend", a fantasitc love song. Not to be outdone, Brian May displays his usual axe brilliance throughout the record but also comes up with an epic, "The Prophet's Song", metal in "Sweet Lady" and the awesomely folky "'39" where he also supplies the lead vocal. Roger Taylor rocks hard on another favorite from the album, his own "I'm In Love with My Car", his best performance as a singer and a songwriter. The album, although a true group collaboration, was of course dominated by Mercury, who not only contributed "Rhapsody" but also the metallic bitchathon "Death on Two Legs" (for their ex-manager), "Seaside Rendezvous" (as campy as they get) and the second great ballad from the album "Love of My Life" (with Brian on harp and Freddie out Baching Bach on piano). An almost flawless masterpiece brought to you by Queen and their frequent early collaborator, Roy Thomas Baker. God Save the Queen indeed!Free Music Review: Le tengo mas cariño a este disco que a mi novia!
Hit: 5 Stars
"A night at the opera" es en mi modesta opinion el mejor album de la historia del rock. Me importa un huevo, lo que digan los analfaburros de los criticos (= músicos frustrados). Este album contiene la mejor cancion de la historia (si es esa en la que estas pensando). Es imposible sonar mas contundente, mas heavy, mas romantico y mejor que con "Bohemian Rhapsody". Pero este solo es una de las genialidades que compusieron en autentico estado de gracia el cuarteto britanico. "Death on two legs" con la que se abre el disco, aporta uno de los comienzos mas misteriosos, oscuros y potentes de la historia (amo ese piano). Y la letra que. Es una sucesion de insultos hacia el manager que les habia hecho la vida imposible. Bien, tambien es cierto que hay temas que rozan lo cursi (Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon, Seaside Rendezvous)pero haber quien tiene cojones para hacer canciones con el gancho y la aparente sencillez de estas. Aunque el bohemian se lleva toda la gloria, no hay que olvidarse de ese trallazo que es "The Prophet's song", la cual golpea casi mas fuerte con su letra que con su musica. Y eso es dificil. Ademas Freddie Mercury compone la mejor balada de Queen, "Love of my life" que cada vez que la oigo, no se si enamorarme de alguien o llorar a moko tendido. Roger Taylor aporta su mejor tema en solitario (junto con "Drowse") que es "I'm in love with my car" que retumba en tus altavoces. "39" es la gran aportacion de Brian May, con una de las letras mas complejas (es pura astronomia) de la historia de Queen y John Deacon ofrece el lado mas comercial pero mas inteligente y bien hecho como es "You're my best friend". Uno de los discos que mas haya escuchado desde el año 93 en la casa de mi colega Jose Luis, y sin duda alguna mi favorito. Para mi es insuperable.Free Music Review: A Night At The Opera - Queen's Classic
Hit: 5 Stars
Any vaguely serious Queen fan will already own this CD, so it's not really for them. This is more for those of you who are yet to discover the magic that is Queen - for Queen are the very best rock band that ever existed.Okay, so that's definitely a matter of opinion. But, this is still a must have CD.
The opening song, Death On Two Legs, holds great hints as to what's to come, though I personally wasn't so keen on it. It is followed by great tracks like Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon and I'm In Love With My Car, though, which makes up for it's poor opening.
Great tracks on the album include You're My Best Friend and '39, but my personal favourite is Brian May's eight minute epic The Prophet's Song - it's very, very long, but it's brilliant to make up for it. It's actually a bit of a matter of taste, I'll admit, but it's incredibly well written.
The album closes out with the simply excellent Bohemian Rhapsody - everyone should've heard this song at least once in their lives, and, while not as good as The Prophet's Song in my opinion, it's still a classic and well deserves it's status as one of the best songs of all time.
The proper conclusion to the CD is Brian May's famous rendition of God Save The Queen which he performed at the Queen's Jubilee in 2002.
Other tracks include Sweet Lady, Seaside Rendezvous, Love Of My Life and Good Company - all very well written and great songs.
There's very little to criticise about this album, except that it seems as if Queen hadn't really learnt how to distinguish an album from a collection of songs. Their next album - A Day At The Races - really hit that part of being a band on the head.
Though a little loosely compiled, A Night At The Opera is still a must-have album, and the day I bought it still stands out in my head. Actually closer to 4 ½ stars, but you can't distinguish on Amazon[.com] rating system.
Free Music Review: Sheer brilliance
Hit: 5 Stars
A tongue-in-cheek eclectic masterpiece which kicks off with the gloriously take-this-and-shove-it-where-the-sun-doesn't-shine 'tribute' to their ex-manager, "Death On Two Legs". After that we have the wonderfully bouncy "Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon" - sixty-seven seconds of pure fun. Roger Taylor takes over lead vocals for his ode to automobiles, "I'm In Love With My Car". Moving along, "You're My Best Friend" is a fabulous piano-driven, upbeat piece written by John Deacon. "'39" is one of my favourites from the album ('favourite being relative, of course) with Brian May discussing "the land that our grandchildren knew" as he strums on his guitar. And if someone would care to explain that one to me, please do, because it makes less sense than "Bohemian Rhapsody". ;) "Sweet Lady" is a fairly typical rock ballad, not much else to say about it. "Seaside Rendezvous" is another one of those wonderfully fun songs. Be prepared for urges to jump up and tap-dance while beaming brightly to hit you as you listen to it. "The Prophet's Song" is arguably the best song here, an epic eight-minute tale of the end of the world. (But of course!) "Love Of My Life", in its original, pre-anthemic form, with gorgeous instrumental backing, is stunning. "Good Company" features Brian on vocals again - and the ukelele. As for "Bohemian Rhapsody" - well, what can I say that hasn't already been said? Six minutes of ballad/opera/rock with completely absurd lyrics. Hopefully 'Mama, just killed a man...' was a metaphor for something... 'I see a little silhouetto of a man...' The CD ends with "God Save The Queen" (instrumental) unless you count the unneccessary remixes that have been tacked on to the end of this edition, but I'd prefer not to. Superb work - recorded in '74, still amazing today.