Friday 2 April 2010

Queen - Queen I (1973)

Tracklist:
1. Keep Yourself Alive
2. Doing All Right
3. Great King Rat
4. My Fairy King
5. Liar
6. The Night Comes Down
7. Modern Times Rock 'n Roll
8. Son & Daughter
9. Jesus
10. Seven Seas of Rhye



In the Beginning... – 7,3/10

Queen, the legendary band, best known for their smash hit “Bohemian Rhapsody” and later years, never started out as a hit band. In fact, as only true fans know, their first few albums were quite heavy rock albums. The first ever official Queen album doesn’t have one song that become a fairly big hit either, and that is probably why non-Queen fans would never notice this album, sticking to the pop hits like “I Want To Break Free” or “Another One Bites to Dust”. In fact, those people don’t know what they’re missing. They say ignorance is bliss, but that’s certainly not the case with Queen I.

This first album actually sounds like a potpourri of different music styles at times. Where “Keep Yourself Alive” features hard rock at its catchiest, “Doing All Right” begins as a gentle ballad and then suddenly without logic the rhythm shifts and evolves into a hard rock riff. “Great King Rat”, “My Fairy King” and “Liar” show the more progressive side of Queen, and “Son & Daughter” features more Deep Purple-ish riffing. It’s clear that this album is not yet fully drenched in the Queen sound everybody knows, except for Brian May’s unique guitar sound and Freddie Mercury’s one-of-a-kind voice of course. This release does sound quite good, especially the first half. “Great King Rat” is my absolute favorite together with “Liar”. They are two heavy songs with progressive touches, such as the lots of content the song carries. Unique song structures, multiple themes and sudden changes. If the whole album was filled with pieces like these it would’ve been one of Queen’s best releases.

You feel it coming, there are also some downsides. “Son & Daughter” features this Purple-ish feel throughout, and Purple is great, but doesn’t fit on a Queen album. The chorus goes more towards a Queen sound, but it’s all average at best. Then there is “Jesus”. The track tends to be nice, but nothing special. The break takes the song to another level though in a fast and heavy guitar solo. This second half of the album is mainly weaker due to these two tracks, but also because of the lots of short good tracks. “Modern Times Rock ‘n Roll” is a great song, but it’s so damn short. It’s the first song to feature Roger Taylor on vocals. Then the ending song “Seven Seas of Rhye” is the instrumental version of the one that’s on Queen II, and it’s slightly slower and a lot shorter as well. It’s a nice listen, but again so short. “The Night Comes Down” is the only fully enjoyable track after “Liar”, but still it doesn’t compare to the first half of the album. Perhaps I’m demanding too much, but they set the standard very high with songs like “Liar” and “Great King Rat” that they make the lesser songs seem really bad, while they perhaps aren’t bad at all.

In short, Queen I is more of a progressive hard rock album than the more commercial Queen everybody knows through hits. This doesn’t mean the quality of the songs is less. Just like any Queen album it has got great epics and less good songs, but here it’s all a bit roughed up. Highly recommended for the Queen fan, not for those who are new to Queen, they should check out A Day at the Races or Queen II first.

Strongest tracks: “Great King Rat”, “Liar” and “My Fairy King”.
Weakest tracks: “Jesus” and “Son & Daughter”.

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