Thursday, March 03, 2005
An unsung hero in the large Queen catalog, Queen II is perhaps my favorite album (the other being A Day At The Races) and a suburb carnival of the bands skills. Brian May is on with his Red Special, the rhythm section is solid (hey!, what more can you say?) and Freddie's singing is excellent. In fact, it is this album more than any other that drew me to Queen as a young music lover. Whatever they did in the studio to enhance Freddie's voice as they did made it haunting and beautiful. It's hard not to be attracted to the band when the vocalist has such a vocal range in terms of notes and styles.
The album is divided into a dark and light side. For those who haven't seen it, so is the original vinyl cover. Apart from the track listing telling you side A is the white side, it would be hard to tell. "Procession" is a fitting opener to the fantasy themes present throughout. The song "Father to Son" and "Loser in the End" rock pretty hard at parts, the latter being a semi-blues jaunt with Roger Taylor on vocals. Side black is a little more obvious, with "Ogre Battle" opening. "Fairy Feller" is one hell of an odd song, but it's infectious in it's own way, and I always thought "Nevermore" was beautiful. To me, however, the real treat comes at the end of the album, starting with "Black Queen". I'm not a huge fan of the entire song, but I love the last section that leads into the overwhelming track "Funny How Love Is" which has ALWAYS been a big favorite of mine. It's loud, big, and most of all positive! Brian's accompaniment is stellar and you just want to go out and make love everywhere after listening to it. The last song is the famous "Seven Seas of Rhye", which is a good little rocker, complete with the children's choir at the end.
I'd have to say that this album gets a 93, with "Loser in the End" being the lone weak point, which after all isn't that weak. A great pick-up if you think you might like Queen and would like something other than "Bohemian Rhapsody". This album is extremely accessible and not as eclectic as they could be on later works.
The album is divided into a dark and light side. For those who haven't seen it, so is the original vinyl cover. Apart from the track listing telling you side A is the white side, it would be hard to tell. "Procession" is a fitting opener to the fantasy themes present throughout. The song "Father to Son" and "Loser in the End" rock pretty hard at parts, the latter being a semi-blues jaunt with Roger Taylor on vocals. Side black is a little more obvious, with "Ogre Battle" opening. "Fairy Feller" is one hell of an odd song, but it's infectious in it's own way, and I always thought "Nevermore" was beautiful. To me, however, the real treat comes at the end of the album, starting with "Black Queen". I'm not a huge fan of the entire song, but I love the last section that leads into the overwhelming track "Funny How Love Is" which has ALWAYS been a big favorite of mine. It's loud, big, and most of all positive! Brian's accompaniment is stellar and you just want to go out and make love everywhere after listening to it. The last song is the famous "Seven Seas of Rhye", which is a good little rocker, complete with the children's choir at the end.
I'd have to say that this album gets a 93, with "Loser in the End" being the lone weak point, which after all isn't that weak. A great pick-up if you think you might like Queen and would like something other than "Bohemian Rhapsody". This album is extremely accessible and not as eclectic as they could be on later works.
I was just browsing over at old AMG, and I came across the review for the classic Stones album Sticky Fingers. In their wisdom they gave the album 5 stars but said that it didn't float. Bullshit. While there are some weak points, mainly the jazz section of "Can't You Hear Me Knocking", the album is one hell of a romp. Opening with the radio-friendly "Brown Sugar" the album ranges from dirty blues to dirtier blues to some decent ballads. The whole thing could be summed up in one word: gritty. And I love it. It's nice in these days of polished shit pop to hear something that really that really gets dirty (and jams) without any pretensions. No, there's no pretty suburban boys with eyeliner on this one, only stories about the shitty side of love and drugs.
As far as the songs go, I like about all of them and they all have something solid to offer the album. I'm not a huge fan of "Wild Horses", and I think the jazz section in "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" is a bit long, but these are minor offenses when weighed against the solid grooves on "Bitch" and "Sway". The album ends on a sad note, with some great ballads (if you can call them that) like "Sister Morphine", which is a brutally honest look at drug use. I was always partial to the pseudo-country of "Dead Flowers" and its shocking line "I'll be in my basement room/with a needle and a spoon/and another girl can take my pain away". It comes out of nowhere, in a seemingly innocent, run-of-the-mill country tune, and it makes it even more memorable. The haunting and beautiful "Moonlight Mile" ends the album perfectly, leaving one with a rocking, and yet melancholy feeling when the disk stops spinning.
If the album proves anything, its the fact that these guys could write a hell of a song. Not only that, but they could put emotion into their songs, thanks to Mick Jagger's lyrics, that would be absent from any pretenders version. This album, though good, wouldn't be half of what it is now if it were not played by the Stones. Other bands just couldn't carry the weight as easily as does Mick and co. All in all this album gets a 95, points taken off for weak points already mentioned. A must have.
As far as the songs go, I like about all of them and they all have something solid to offer the album. I'm not a huge fan of "Wild Horses", and I think the jazz section in "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" is a bit long, but these are minor offenses when weighed against the solid grooves on "Bitch" and "Sway". The album ends on a sad note, with some great ballads (if you can call them that) like "Sister Morphine", which is a brutally honest look at drug use. I was always partial to the pseudo-country of "Dead Flowers" and its shocking line "I'll be in my basement room/with a needle and a spoon/and another girl can take my pain away". It comes out of nowhere, in a seemingly innocent, run-of-the-mill country tune, and it makes it even more memorable. The haunting and beautiful "Moonlight Mile" ends the album perfectly, leaving one with a rocking, and yet melancholy feeling when the disk stops spinning.
If the album proves anything, its the fact that these guys could write a hell of a song. Not only that, but they could put emotion into their songs, thanks to Mick Jagger's lyrics, that would be absent from any pretenders version. This album, though good, wouldn't be half of what it is now if it were not played by the Stones. Other bands just couldn't carry the weight as easily as does Mick and co. All in all this album gets a 95, points taken off for weak points already mentioned. A must have.
