Black & White! Brian May wears white nail polish and Freddie Mercury wore black. Brian May wore white eye shadow, Freddie Mercury wore black. Brian May wrote (most of) Side White, Freddie Mercury wrote Side Black.
You see? Black & White! Simple right? Well Queen II is not quite so simple.
Queen released this album in early 1974, only months after their debut. The debut probably would have sounded a lot like this CD, had the group had more time to record, or if they had any budget.
This CD starts off with Brian's quiet multi-layered guitar and a very muffled bass drum. Procession is just a bit over a minute long and it doesn't set the mood of the album, but it starts it off nicely with a seamless segue into Brian's Father To Son. Freddie sounds so much more vocally powerful on this album compared to the debut. The song starts off with keyboards and loud power chords, slightly reminiscent to The Who's style, but not sounding at all like them. John Deacon plays acoustic guitar on this track as well as bass. Brian May played piano on this song, as well as the many layers of guitars. Father To Son also segues into the next via fade out/fade in.
A fade into a song called White Queen. Brian wrote this, and the band recorded the song during the sessions for their debut album Queen. The track is an emotional ballad that really showcases Freddie's vocal. Queen played this song in concert for many tours, ending in 1978 with the News Of The World tour. The studio track is all guitars again, but the live rendition was much nicer with Freddie at the piano. The song was recorded in this fashion for the BBC in 1974, and one Queen fan can only hope that the BBC version will see the light of day sometime in the near future.
The song segues again into Some Day One Day. Many people and even Queen fans will dismiss this song, but I don't think it's bad at all. In fact, I like it a lot. Plus, this is Brian May's lead vocal debut on record, a landmark occasion in Queen history. The opening guitar's have a bit of a small guitar sound as they sound like ching-a ching ching. The lyrics are cool, and they have a sort of uplifting feeling.
The Loser In The End is written by Roger Taylor. This is the second song credited to him as writer in Queen's then small catalogue. This is not a bad song, but if there was a choice that I had to make for weakest song, I would choose this one. Roger sings lead, and plays some pretty heavy drums here against Freddie's organ and Brian's guitars.
"Side Black" opens with a far-away rushing wind that takes almost a minute to reach you. When it does, it starts off Freddie's compositions. Ogre Battle is so good and so heavy here. The version they played live was pretty sloppy, and even the version on At The BBC is kind of empty sounding when compared to this one on Queen II. Freddie's voice sounds so great on this song, actually on all the songs.
Ogre Battle segues into The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke. This song is very camp. Freddie is on the harpsichord very effectively. This is based on a painting that Freddie admired by Richard Dodd. The segue into Nevermore is very nice. Nevermore is an amazing ballad. Great lyrics, great piano. This is one of Freddie's greatest ballads. There is a very small space of silence between this and the next song.
The March Of The Black Queen is a long and varied song. There seems to be about four or more different parts to this song. This ends the "White" & "Black" concept. The "Black & White" did nothing to help racial tensions, in fact Freddie uses the "n" word in this song. This song segues perfectly into the next.
Funny How Love Is has Freddie singing at the top of his registers. He sings it very much like he sings the Beach Boys' I Can Hear Music, a single he recorded in 1973 (see my review on Queen for the full story). So it's no surprise that this song was produced by Robin Geoffrey Cable instead of Roy Thomas Baker. Cable produced the I Can Hear Music single and his production style tried to imitate the techniques used by Phil Spector. Cable's production is not as tinny, thin or muffled as Spector's recordings would result in thankfully, and it answers the question as to why Funny How Love Is sounds so different from the rest of the album.
These lyrics are not typical of the Freddie we have come to know. With lyrics like Funny how love came tumbling down with Adam & eve... give it a feeling of normalcy, in lieu of all the fairy tale themes that has had been so present in the majority of Freddie's songs. One more observation about Funny is that it is a very optimistic song which relieves the tension of all the darkness of "Side Black".
Seven Seas Of Rhye is the album's closer. This was a top ten hit in the UK. I've seen a very bad copy of Queen on Top Of The Pops performing this song and it looked like it was great. Everyone looked good, maybe it will be released in the future some how. Freddie's got some pretty fast piano fingers on this song. This is a very heavy song. It fades into a fade in of Queen's acapella version of I Do Like To Be Beside the Seaside.
I have the Hollywood Records release being that I live in America and it has some interesting bonus tracks. There is the original B-Side to Seven Seas Of Rhye, which is the very bluesy See What I Fool I've Been. This is a very standard blues song, and when I had finally heard it, I realized why it was left off of this album, or any Queen album. It is sub par, and it really doesn't fit in anywhere.
Then there are two remixed version of SSOR and Ogre Battle. Mildly interesting, and pointless at the most.
But, the CD artwork is superior to all other country's. Very nice. I have about 4 versions. I have this, the Japanese mini-album, the original British release and the newer British version from 1994, and they do not come close to the original 1991 Hollywood Records version.
This is the first Queen release recorded properly, and it is a must have for all.
Songs:
1. Procession
2. Father To Son
3. White Queen (As It Began)
4. Some Day One Day
5. The Loser In The End
6. Ogre Battle
7. The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke
8. Nevermore
9. The March of the Black Queen
10. Funny How Love Is
11. The Seven Seas of Rhye
12. See What A Fool I've Been (Bonus Track)
13. Ogre Battle (Remix - Bonus Track)
14. The Seven Seas of Rhye (Remix - Bonus Track)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~For more Queen CD Epinions from Scapp70~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.