antiMusic.com: Queen Week: A Day at the Races [2011 Remaster] Review

Queen Week: A Day at the Races [2011 Remaster]
by Dan MacIntosh

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With A Day At The Races, Queen sure sounded like they were having a night at the opera � even more so than on the album titled A Night At The Opera.

Songs like "You Take My Breath Away" and especially "Somebody to Love," found the four-piece layering the layered vocals down thick. These vocal-focused songs contrast starkly with the album's more standard rock examples, which include the lustful "Tie Your Mother Down" and "You and I."

One called "White Man" is also one of the strangest songs Queen has ever recorded. It appears to be an anti racism lyric, with lines like "White man, White man/Where you gonna hide from the hell you've made?" Perhaps it's a slap in the face of American racists, as it continues with, "Oh the Red man knows war/With his hands and his knives." One doesn't normally associate "Red men" with merry old England, after all.

The most of this album is good, although not great. There is the obligatory Roger (drummer) Taylor song with "Drowse," which is head and shoulders above junk like "I'm In Love with My Car" at least. Overall, the highs aren't up to the group's regular high sonic standards, and the lows aren't too low -- just somewhere in between.

The bonus disc includes an entirely unnecessary backing track for "Tie Your Mother Down," as well as a few live recordings. Interestingly, this was the first band-produced album, and the first not to feature Roy Thomas Baker's production. It's obvious the group learned their studio lessons well because this album sounds wonderful. If only it had a few more memorable tunes to go along with its great sound.

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