Queen - News of the World (1977)

Tracklist:
1. We Will Rock You
2. We Are the Champions
3. Sheer Heart Attack
4. All Dead, All Dead
5. Spread Your Wings
6. Fight from the Inside
7. Get Down, Make Love
8. Sleeping on the Sidewalk
9. Who Needs You
10. It's Late
11. My Melancholy Blues


Depressing World News – 4,5/10

After a row of five good albums Queen finally show themselves uninspired and boring. It had to come one day, no band can make solely good albums and Queen is no exception. It continues down the road paved by A Day at the Races, but takes some unexpected side roads that lead to a ravine. In they fall and out comes News of the World, which in every aspect sounds like a repeat of previous albums with some uninspired new turns. If this would be today’s world news, it would be rather depressing.

Don’t get me entirely wrong; this album is not totally without talent. There are certainly enjoyable tunes spread across and in fact this is just a necessary step in their career. Considering this contains the simple “We Will Rock You” and the anthemic “We Are the Champions” it would be unfair to discard this album as worthless. These songs might disappoint tremendously on the studio record, but when played live they really come to life. That doesn’t take away that the album versions are pretty boring though. After having recorded great rock songs on previous albums such as “Tie Your Mother Down” or “Death on Two Legs”, Taylor writes another rock song named after Queen’s third album “Sheer Heart Attack”. Can a rock song be any more boring? It sounds as cliché as possible, with the necessary heaviness aboard, but with a strong lack of originality. What is funny is the intended replication of a damaged LP in the break.

The May-sung “All Dead, All Dead” does not live up to earlier May compositions but is in essence an enjoyable song, coloured only by the songs around it, which, in this case, make it stand out. Taylor returns again on vocals with the forced “Loser in the End”-replica “Fight from the Inside”. Again we have a boring riff, unoriginal arrangements and a forced ambience. I guess we all lack inspiration sometimes. “Sleeping on the Sidewalk” is an old-styled bluesy track and falls under the same category as “All Dead, All Dead” in terms of quality, and so does the Deacon-written “Who Needs You”, which sounds flamenco-ish. And then the worst song of the decade is the terrible “Get Down, Make Love”. I find this track the most abominable, the most repulsive song Queen ever recorded, perhaps with the exception of “Body Language”.

Oh, but this release contains good songs as well. The Deacon-penned track “Spread Your Wings” beautifully plods along to become one of the best epic pop ballads by Queen. It is a shame it was rarely played live on official recordings; that guitar solo really is brilliant. Quite simple, but brilliant. A great May-written rocker is found in “It’s Late”. It begins with some acoustic plucking, but soon displays a tight and cool riff, which drives the entire song. The chorus explodes, thus giving the power ballad effect, and later becomes a full fast-paced rocker. Another great track is “My Melancholy Blues”. It took me a while to fully get it, but it’s indeed a blues-influenced ballad with beautiful vocals by Mercury. But unfortunately three truly good songs won’t save this album from its downfall. Strange enough, this album did quite well and is nowadays even being looked at as a classic and great Queen record. Yet I think the album is an obvious shift to a more commercial sound and sounds very bland. Only three songs are over three-and-a-half minutes, an obvious sign of mainstreaming their sound.

All in all, I think News of the World shows 70s Queen at their worst. Though there are some good songs scattered across the album, the majority is very bland, boring and unoriginal. I would never want to recommend this album to any possible new Queen fan, even if this was their only album. In fact, if this was their debut album, they would’ve been slammed in the face and could’ve whistle at their record deal and arena success.

Strongest tracks: “Spread Your Wings”, “It’s Late” and “My Melancholy Blues”.
Weakest tracks: “Get Down, Make Love”, “Fight from the Inside”, “Sheer Heart Attack” and “We Will Rock You”.