Tracklist:1. Brighton Rock
2. Killer Queen
3. Tenement Funster
4. Flick of the Wrist
5. Lily of the Valley
6. Now I'm Here
7. In the Lap of the Gods
8. Stone Cold Crazy
9. Dear Friends
10. Misfire
11. Bring Back That Leroy Brown
12. She Makes Me (Stormtrooper in Stilettos)
13. In the Lap of the Gods... Revisited
Slowly Breaking Through – 8/10
With Queen II they slowly came into the picture, but Sheer Heart Attack opened the world for them with grand hit “Killer Queen”. This album was in style quite groundbreaking though quite similar to Queen II, featuring trademark hard rock songs combined with a proggy touch. The thing, however, that separated Sheer Heart Attack from its predecessors is the more poppy touch to some songs like “Bring Back That Leroy Brown” and “Misfire”. Though I’d rather have them stay in the hard rock scene I can’t blame them for choosing the big pop audience on later releases.
The album begins very powerfully with the powerful hard rock riff of “Brighton Rock” combined with Mercury’s falsetto vocals. Yet it is already a lot more accessible than Queen II material. Second track “Killer Queen” scored a big hit for the lads from Great Britain, and it’s understandable why. The song has a lot less of the heaviness, but no less of the catchiness and brilliantness of the melodies. Add a great guitar solo by May to that and you have a terrific song. The beauty of this album is the diversity of it. Where we had the two very different opening tracks, tracks three, four and five are this album’s magnum opus. Basically it’s a long song divided into three parts. The first is the Taylor-sung “Tenement Funster”, which is less heavy than it would’ve been on Queen II, but adds a great relaxing song to the album and is definitely one of early Queen’s highlights. Taylor has got such a powerful raw voice and it gives great contrast with May’s sweeter voice and Mercury’s clear voice. Part two is “Flick of the Wrist” and is a mysterious track with a fast-paced chorus, but contains more of those catchy melodies. Then the opus ends with the gentle “Lily of the Valley”. Live classic rocker “Now I’m Here” and metal song “Stone Cold Crazy” are two more highlights with great catchy riffs.
There’s some material I’d rather not have, though. “Dear Friends” is a short ballad interlude, followed by another short interlude “Misfire”, a happy pop song, and that one is followed by yet another interlude “Bring Back That Leroy Brown”. These three shorts songs are not truly awful tracks, with the exception of “Bring Back...”, but totally kill the power of the album. This “Bring Back...” song is a want-to-be-funny type of song that Queen will make more of in the 70s, and those are quite annoying. But all these short songs don’t add to the album, they just stop it. And then they are followed by “She Makes Me” to make the remainder of the listeners fall asleep right away. It’s a very gentle ballad, sung by May, and consists mainly of this acoustic chord-riff, which in itself is not bad, but the execution of it serves better as a lullaby than anything else. Luckily we have a very satisfying end to the album with “In the Lap of the Gods... Revisited”. The first version is an odd but good song with odd low vocals by Mercury, but the revisited version is nothing alike. This is a gentle song with an epic feel to it and a massive stadium chorus which would make a good live classic and bares some resemblance to the later “We are the Champions”, but is way better than that overrated hit.
To end this relatively short review, I can say Sheer Heart Attack is a great album, with unfortunately an emergency stop somewhere in the middle. It is possible to overlook those songs though, and thus enjoy the good side of the album. I’d highly recommend this album to anyone who wants something of Queen, though if you’re keen on hits, you may want to wait for later albums.
Strongest tracks: “Killer Queen”, “Tenement Funster” and “In the Lap of the Gods...Revisited”.
Weakest tracks: “Bring Back That Leroy Brown” and “She Makes Me”.
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