I would extend that run through Jazz but I don't know the 80s records as well - they could still write a fucking killer single in the 80s though
― Joan Crawford Loves Chachi, Tuesday, 7 July 2015 02:34 (eight years ago) link
I never enjoyed Jazz very much - for me, the better later records (The Game and Innuendo are my favourites from post-1978) challenging it.
― funk79, Tuesday, 7 July 2015 02:54 (eight years ago) link
the game rules, i'd put it up against most of these
― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Tuesday, 7 July 2015 03:04 (eight years ago) link
man Jazz has so many unimpeachable jams
Mustapha, Dead on Time, Dreamer's Ball, Leaving Home Ain't Easy (A+++ ballad), Don't Stop Me Now, More of That Jazz...weirdly sequenced album, most of those are from side 2, but I really think it stands next to the best
― Joan Crawford Loves Chachi, Tuesday, 7 July 2015 03:11 (eight years ago) link
Sheer heart attack, obv
― Nourry, Tuesday, 7 July 2015 04:19 (eight years ago) link
My understanding is that they moved to going into the studio without much written material after NotW, which was the last Queen album I ever purchased (purchased it new at the end of my childhood Queen obsession).
― Three Word Username, Tuesday, 7 July 2015 07:24 (eight years ago) link
As much as I'd love to vote for one of the other albums listed here, when push comes to shove it has to be Sheer Heart Attack for me. I've always felt that Sheer Heart Attack had more in common with A Night At The Opera than A Day At The Races did.
― You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart (Turrican), Tuesday, 7 July 2015 08:53 (eight years ago) link
I'd rank Queen's 1980-1991 albums like this:
The Works > Innuendo > The Miracle > The Game > A Kind Of Magic > Hot Space.
― You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart (Turrican), Tuesday, 7 July 2015 09:00 (eight years ago) link
Quenn II
― PaulTMA, Tuesday, 7 July 2015 10:32 (eight years ago) link
lol
"As much as I'd love to vote for one of the other albums listed here, when push comes to shove it has to be Sheer Heart Attack for me. I've always felt that Sheer Heart Attack had more in common with A Night At The Opera than A Day At The Races did."
This is true, too.
― vmajestic, Tuesday, 7 July 2015 21:05 (eight years ago) link
While I love Queen II and can understand why it has such a cult following, it definitely has its flaws. I've always felt that 'The Loser In The End' was completely out of place on the record, and there's one or two production decisions that I'm not so keen on: the transition from 'The Fairy-Feller's Master Stroke' into 'Nevermore' may have been more effective if the piano sound didn't change so blatantly - you can tell where the edit point is, and it could have felt a little more seamless. The segues on Sheer Heart Attack: 'Tenement Funster' into 'Flick Of The Wrist' into 'Lily Of The Valley', are so fucking masterful that it makes me feel disappointed in a way that they near enough stopped doing segues like that after A Night At The Opera. While I love how completely rammed with detail Queen II is, I guess it can also be accused of sounding a little on the murky side sonically. I think with Sheer Heart Attack, they finally found a way of having a big productions on their records that sounded crisp and clear. For me, A Day At The Races is the transitional album between "early Queen" and "middle period Queen"*. On the follow-up album News Of The World, not only were the segues that characterised Queen II, Sheer Heart Attack and A Night At The Opera missing, but they'd also toned down the production a great deal and it seemed like they weren't too fussed about sequencing the tracks so the album felt like a "whole" rather than a "collection of songs" anymore. I've always thought that the track order on News Of The World was a bit bizarre.
*("early period Queen" = Queen to A Night At The Opera, "middle period Queen" = News Of The World to Hot Space (with A Day At The Races being a transition between the two), "late period Queen" = The Works to Innuendo, with Made In Heaven being a bit of a P.S.)
― You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart (Turrican), Tuesday, 7 July 2015 21:55 (eight years ago) link
oh wait, when i said the game i meant the works
goddammit i always do that
― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Tuesday, 7 July 2015 23:01 (eight years ago) link
I don't even know if I can vote
II is so great, but I heard it way late -- the ones I knew when I was a kid, the ones I can sing most of the songs on from memory are News of the World and Jazz and to a lesser extent Sheer Heart Attack and A Day at the Races -- the ones that were news to me & my grade school friends, the ones we were processing as they became available, they have that I-was-there glow for me. It was kind of...like, they were huge, you knew they were huge, but they weren't being pushed/covered/presented like a Here's A Contender For Best Band In the World candidate -- this was southern California in the late seventies/early 80s, the Times was Hilburn and Hilburn was into Springsteen/Elvis Costello/the LA Scene. And U fucking 2. But in my 6th grade classroom, everybody knew all the songs on those two records. It wasn't even about "We Are the Champions," they were huge complete records with deep cuts way into their second sides, records that still sound to me like some of the very best of their age. So there was this hard-to-process disparity between lukewarm coverage and these amazing tunes, which'd be an easier disparity to navigate within a couple of years but kept Queen from feeling as big as they were, to my circle of music-obsessed 12-year-old friends.
But then as a grownup I got II and fuckin', goddamn that is an album and a half
I can't vote
― Joan Crawford Loves Chachi, Wednesday, 8 July 2015 02:40 (eight years ago) link
Always loved Queen as a kid after discovering them via Mighty Ducks soundtrack then making tape dubs from my folks' records.
Voted for the debut. "Keep Yourself Alive". That GUITAR SOLO MY GOD.
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 8 July 2015 03:14 (eight years ago) link
Sheer Heart Attack, with A Night at the Opera and Queen II close behind.
Agree that 'Loser in the End' is out of place on Queen II. It's a showpiece for Roger, and there's barely a song beneath all the percussion & noise (not that I normally have a problem with percussion & noise). Whereas what might be seen as the weaker moments on Sheer Heart Attack and A Night at the Opera ('Good Company' comes to mind) are saved by the sequencing/segues and the feel of those albums as a whole. And yes, some of those segues are masterful. My personal favourite is the leap from 'Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon' into 'I'm in Love with My Car'.
The debut and A Day at the Races are solid albums too. I find News of the World and Jazz patchy, although the latter has some killer tracks. I take my hat off to them for stripping everything back on News of the World, but aside from 'It's Late' (maybe), there aren't any tracks on it that I feel compelled to revisit.
― Wordy, Wednesday, 8 July 2015 03:54 (eight years ago) link
Just revisited Sheer Heart Attack. Love it, but it's still no II. The first half just doesn't seem to have that flow and epic open that II does with Father to Son and unlike others here, I really like Loser in the End and don't think it's very out of place at all.
― octobeard, Thursday, 9 July 2015 19:40 (eight years ago) link
Loser in the End works better than most Roger songs, largely because the echo he's playing to prevents him from his tendency to drag the tempo down -- he's always better when a machine or Freddie's piano are there to keep him in time.
― Three Word Username, Thursday, 9 July 2015 19:52 (eight years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Sunday, 19 July 2015 00:01 (eight years ago) link
Really hard to choose between Sheer Heart Attack and Night at the Opera... SHA is the easy answer, but, I fear... too easy.
― Frobisher, Sunday, 19 July 2015 03:22 (eight years ago) link
track for track I had to go with News of the World in the end, which surprised me -- if I made a POX for Queen, it wouldn't be News-heavy, but as an album that record is quality jam after quality jam. Their best play-both-sides album next to II.
― Joan Crawford Loves Chachi, Sunday, 19 July 2015 03:37 (eight years ago) link
Queen II hands down
― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Sunday, 19 July 2015 03:37 (eight years ago) link
Doom Queen :
LiarGreat King RatSon and DaughterOgre BattleThe Fairy Feller's Master StrokeMarch of the Black QueenBrighton RockTenement FunsterFlick of the WristDeath On Two LegsSweet LadyThe Prophet's SongWhite Man
― めんどくさかった (Matt #2), Sunday, 19 July 2015 08:47 (eight years ago) link
Voted for the debut in the end, just because it's underrated imo. The drop-off in quality between Night At The Opera and Day At The Races is quite startling, in retrospect.
― めんどくさかった (Matt #2), Sunday, 19 July 2015 08:50 (eight years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Monday, 20 July 2015 00:01 (eight years ago) link
Yay!
― You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart (Turrican), Monday, 20 July 2015 00:35 (eight years ago) link
It's great to see the debut getting some love, although I think both A Day At The Races and Jazz are superior to News Of The World.
― You’re being too simplistic and you’re insulting my poor heart (Turrican), Monday, 20 July 2015 00:36 (eight years ago) link
A Day At The Races got zero votes?! On what planet is News Of The World a better record?
― vmajestic, Monday, 20 July 2015 14:02 (eight years ago) link
I can go along with these results - I'd swap II and Sheer Heart Attack over but those are the two consistently great Queen albums for me. I like Night at the Opera too but the three music hall songs let it down. Not a fan of Day at the Races or Jazz at all.
― Gavin, Leeds, Monday, 20 July 2015 15:27 (eight years ago) link