antiMusic.com: Queen - A Night At The Opera [2011 Remaster] Review

Queen - A Night At The Opera [2011 Remaster]
by Dan MacIntosh

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Queen's A Night At The Opera lives up to its title with the smash hit, "Bohemian Rhapsody." It's easily one of the greatest studio singles in all of rock. It's also smart introduction to an extremely eclectic album � even all these decades later.

Listening now, the hits still sound great. In addition to "Bohemian Rhapsody," there's the electric piano ballad, "You're My Best Friend," as well. However, the record's non-rock music is what still stands out so boldly. There's "'39," an acoustic folk tune, as well as "Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon," which sounds like a Rudy Vallee ballad.

Ironically, Queen still gets lumped into the heavy metal category; even though this group's extended eclectic streak prevents it from truly belonging there. Freddie Mercury is so effeminate at times, it's difficult to take him seriously when he attempts to rock out on "Sweet Lady" and "Death On Two Legs (Dedicated to)." Brian May is a talented guitarist, but he's much more of a melodic player � more in the Boston Tom Scholz mold � to be accurately categorized with all the other hard rock gods.

This album's non-rock music sounds better to these grown-up years, than it did back when this kid (yours truly) only wanted to rock. However, Roger Taylor's "I'm In Love With My Car" is still unforgivable. It certainly must have been a case of 'letting the drummer get an album cut to keep him quiet,' as it doesn't at all fit with the rest of the music contained within. Most of Queen's music is smart, even though it doesn't always rock. However, this song's just plain dumb.

This reissue comes with a second bonus disc. Ironically, one of the six bonus cuts is an alternate take of "Keep Yourself Alive," which originally appeared on the group's self-titled debut. It's a Brian May song and it shows because it has one wonderfully memorable electric guitar riff.

Although this album is not filled with opera music � with the pseudo exception of "Bohemian Rhapsody" � Queen is a band that could very well have written and recorded a fairly respectable authentic opera album. Instead, it's an album with as many sharp twists and turns as a San Francisco street. All these years later, Queen remains the king of weird AOR rock.

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