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Old 28-02-2009, 18:29
player1
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I have spent some time today listening to my Queen discography. It strikes me that whilst they were a stunning band at thir peak, and live few could touch them..their musical output is inconsistent in the extreme.

There are some fantastic albums..A night at the opera, a day at the races, Jazz,

but there are some real stinkers - Queen, Hot Space

and some mixed bag recording Innuendo, Sheer Heart Attack, Made in Heaven, New of the World to name a few.

I had forgotten how inconsistent they were , their good output was very good...but oh boy ..when they were bad they were awful...Hot Space being a particular low point.

anyone care to disagree ?
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Old 28-02-2009, 18:40
crazychris12
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I think they were a great singles band but their albums were patchy.
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Old 28-02-2009, 19:39
dan44762000
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must disagree
under pressure is on hot space
and seven seas of rye is on queen
but i guess you mean the consistancy of the entire album.
cant argue there but every band has done some bad songs.
just no every band can be as good as queen undoubtedly were.
but i am biassed as there my favourite band ever.
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Old 28-02-2009, 19:55
bryemycaz
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Seven Seas of Rhye is on Queen 2

The version of Seven Seas on Queen is a short instrumental.

But Queen is a fantastic Debut album. Keep Yourself Alive and Liar are two of the best Rock songs Queen ever made.
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Old 28-02-2009, 20:30
calvin&hobbs
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Queen
Queen 2
Sheer Heart Attack
A Night at the Opera

all excellent albums, after that, for me quite poor really apart from few tracks here and there, mainly the singles, thio some of them were shite too. agree with previous post, Liar is amazing track and they did it great live too.

Queen 2 one of my fave albums of all time

they were one of the best rock bands of all time till they got kind of poppy
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Old 28-02-2009, 20:35
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Seven Seas of Rhye is on Queen 2

The version of Seven Seas on Queen is a short instrumental.

But Queen is a fantastic Debut album. Keep Yourself Alive and Liar are two of the best Rock songs Queen ever made.
I agree. Bohemian Rhapsody marked the moment Queen "jumped the shark" prior to that they were a serious rock band. The first two albums were excellent.

I suspect I'm in a minority!
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Old 28-02-2009, 20:35
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Quite agree about Hot Space it was a very bad stinker apart from Under Pressure, the rest is really awful. The albums before that are very good.
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Old 28-02-2009, 20:50
player1
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must disagree
under pressure is on hot space
and seven seas of rye is on queen
but i guess you mean the consistancy of the entire album.
cant argue there but every band has done some bad songs.
just no every band can be as good as queen undoubtedly were.
but i am biassed as there my favourite band ever.
Yes ..I agree there are good tracks on even the poorest albums but consistancy ( or lack of ) across the albums is exactly what I am talking about ...I don't expect every song to be a memorable clasic, that would be impossible across such an extensive output...but there are some real stinkers ..to call them filler would be kind
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Old 28-02-2009, 20:52
skunkboy69
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Brian May was asked recently if he would like to remaster Hot Space in a rockier way and he said it sounded interesting but it's part of Queens history now.I've been a queen fan for 30+ years and I like everything they've done really.They have done a few "different" albums but compared to a lot of bands who have been around for so long I think they maintained their sound and integrity.They didn't want to be pigeon-holed to a certain genre and I think they managed that. Queen 2's probably my fave album.It leaves a lot of modern albums production values to be desired.
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Old 28-02-2009, 20:58
Muttley76
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I think when you look at the number of classic singles that Queen made, their status as British greats is well justified.

I agree their albums were inconsistent, but there are many bands and singers that are better known for the quality of their singles than their albums and vise versa.

I think the only band that could match their discography of singles are the Beatles, no other act comes close.

I can't find the link for it now, but Freddie himself spoke of seeing themselves as more about making singles than albums.

I also think the fact that they experiemented with a lot of different styles is part of the reason for the incnsisitancy, and again that to me isn't a bad thing. If you think about it, most bands find a genre and stick to it - Coldplay are a classic example. At least they were not afraid to be creative, even if it didn't always work.
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Old 28-02-2009, 21:04
Muttley76
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another thing that I find interesting about Queen is that it wasn't until the last years of Freddies life that they really started making music from the heart in an adult way....however patchy The Miracle, Innuendo and (especially) Made In Heaven were, they were quite emotional albums overall...as though Freddies illness made them channel their emotional turmoil and greif in to their music. So those albums are actually albums I do rate highly for that reason, it's like Queen finally grew up....
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Old 28-02-2009, 21:21
player1
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another thing that I find interesting about Queen is that it wasn't until the last years of Freddies life that they really started making music from the heart in an adult way....however patchy The Miracle, Innuendo and (especially) Made In Heaven were, they were quite emotional albums overall...as though Freddies illness made them channel their emotional turmoil and greif in to their music. So those albums are actually albums I do rate highly for that reason, it's like Queen finally grew up....
Yes..I can identify with that..I find Innuendo patchy but today have revisited "Made in Heaven" and whilst it doesn't have any real stand out classics its actually a reasonable album overall..it just lacks a couple of stand out tracks to promote it to a very ggod album
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Old 28-02-2009, 22:50
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I think you have to remember- they weren't like bands today- out to please everyone every time.
Like Freddie once said "Its only a bloody record.. people get so uptight about these things".. referring live to a track of Hot Space.

One reason why they were so big was that they moved with the times- picked and mixed inspiration for the music of the time. Hotspace was that Funk / Michael Jackson type era.

They were a album and single band- knocked out the anthems but also full albums like Sheer Heart Attack and News of the World (my favorites) + they made... what...10-11 albums ?? - there's bound to be some dud points.

After Freddie's Death I think Made In Heaven was a beautiful album- especially how it was made.

And also- every album had at least 1or 2 massive / famous tracks.
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Old 13-07-2012, 14:39
supermanexpress
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I found their "Hot Space" album to be rather underwhelming, but I have always found their albums "A Kind Of Magic", "The Miracle" and "Innuendo" to be fantastic!

As for "Made In Heaven", I found it to be a bit of a mixed bag, some of the songs on that particular album I like, and one or two of the songs on that particular album I don't really like! :sleep:
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Old 13-07-2012, 16:34
donna255
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I loved Queen, favourite track Liar. I was a young teen and my older friend's boyfriend bought it for her. We used to sit in the front room and listen to it.
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Old 13-07-2012, 17:04
keironuk
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I love all queen albums and especially made in heaven because of how the album was made and mother love on that album always brings me close to tears as you can hear freddie is in pain but he is still going for it and as for mr bad guy album its an ok album but that album had made in heaven the great pretender and living on my own so every queen (and freddie) album always had a amazing song on it.
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Old 13-07-2012, 19:17
DRAGON LANCE
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They were totally unique and no other band before and after will ever be like them. Some have tried, Mika and Muse come close god bless 'em. But as per the Highlander catchphrase "there can be only one."

I think a lot of their stuff from the later years is underrated, simply because America had decided it didn't like them post "fag" I want to break free video. Shows how stupid they were for not getting that in the 1st place. The clues in the name.

Add to that the inability to tour because of Freddie so tragically dying from Aids.

Maybe they were more of a singles band, but what singles. They were the perfect collusion of pop and rock. Amazing band.
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Old 13-07-2012, 20:10
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A great live band when Freddie was still with us
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Old 13-07-2012, 20:18
PunksNotDead
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Big Queen fan here, not to keen on this Adam Lambert dude who is now with the band. Freddie Mercury was Queen!
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Old 13-07-2012, 20:47
StarSupernova
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I love the fact the albums are so varied. 'Hot Space' gets a bad rap I think. There's not one song I hate although I don't really like 'Body Language'. Lol.
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Old 13-07-2012, 22:38
davestoke
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The first 5 albums were exceptionally good. The output did become patchier after that, The Miracle being the lowest point.. I treat Inuendo as the last Queen album & a damned fine one it was & had a bit of everything that Queen ever were. Made in Heaven was pretty horrid for me. Half finished tracks & the odd demo do not an album make & how the other band members could justify ripping Freddie's vocal track from I was born to love you & sticking a rock soundtrack to it was unforgivable. I've been disappointed in the way that Brian & Roger have continued to cling to the Queen legacy, to it's ultimate denigration & think that John Deacon comes out of it with much more diginity.
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Old 13-07-2012, 23:53
Barnes5603
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I think they were a great singles band but their albums were patchy.
Agreed. Fantastic singles band but albums for fans only really.
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Old 13-07-2012, 23:58
JR_THELEGEND
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I'm a massive Queen fan and yeah their albums have been pretty patchy the only ones i really enjoyed from start to finish were the Live at Wembley, The Miracle, Innuendo and Kind of Magic! But they have produced some amazing mind blowing music! Not one person could touch them as a live act in fact today is the 27th year anniversary when they owned the world through their Live Aid peformance they just owned every stage they were on in no way i have ever seen!
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