scapp70's Full Review: Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen
Here we are again with Queen's latest tribute album. This one is set apart from the rest, only because unalike the others, this one will not be found on record labels like Shrapnel or Megaforce. This one is produced and released by Queen's very own label, Hollywood Records, which makes it the first and only "official" Queen Tribute album. It's a shame that it sucks for the most part.
Gavin Degraw's rendition of the huge Queen classic We Are the Champions is one of the very few highlights on this CD. He takes this grand song, full of pomp rock and brings the tempo down a bit and gives the song a type of Joe Cocker feel to the vocals and to the arrangement of the song. I like that Gavin not only sings, but plays the piano and guitar on this track. Gavin, at this point in time, is mostly known for his huge hit, I Don't Want to Be. Gavin does a great job here, his vocals fit perfect with this arrangement he produced. We Are The Champions is originally from Queen's 1977 album News Of The World.
Tie Your Mother Down, originally found on Queen's 1976 release Day At The Races is given the 90s grunge feel from the band Shinedown. I thought that by now the Eddie Vedder sound-a-like bands would be finished by now, but I guess Florida is still producing them apparently. Brent Smith's vocals do not sound like Eddie Vedder here, yet somewhat reminiscent of Lemmy from Motorhead. The band does a decent rocking version of the song.
Unfortunately, the cast of the play We Will Rock You sort of ruins this version of Bohemian Rhapsody for me. I feel Constantine delivers a great vocal performance. Constantine is from the 2005 season of American Idol, as if you didn't know. The We Will Rock You cast seems too sterile with annoyingly impeccable diction. Even Constantine leaves the operatic section a mess. Yet, his vocals during the beginning verses and especially that hard rock ending are inspiring. The version here is very faithful to the original, but what do you expect. I'm sure the Queen fans would consider it sacrilege to change the song at all. Bohemian Rhapsody is originally from Queen's 1975 release A Night At The Opera.
Queens Of The Stone Age member Joshua Homme takes Queen's lightening speed heavy rock song, Stone Cold Crazy and slows it down to half speed, and surprisingly the song still stands up. Joshua Homme does a complete 180 compared to Freddie Mercury's vocal presentation, where Freddie's delivery was loud, full throated sharp vocals, Homme's presents just a slow whisper throughout the song. It still works, the song is still heavy, if not more so. This is another highlight for me from this CD. Stone Cold Crazy is originally from their 1974 album Sheer Heart Attack.
I was taken aback when I heard this version of Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy. This is identical to Queen's hidden gem, originally found on Queen's Day At The Races . I didn't know who Jason Mraz was, and I still don't. On my fast research it looks like he released an album three years ago, and has an impressive loyal fan base. Jason delivers a very Freddie Mercury-esque vocal, very tender and delicate. I love that this is identical to the original; it gives the impression that here is an artist who understands where Queen was coming from.
Joss Stone perhaps the second most famous artist here, just behind Constantine takes on the Queen/David Bowie classic Under Pressure, which was originally found on Queen's 1981 release Greatest Hits.
The original to me is sort of hard to classify the genre. It was hard rock, yet adult contemporary, with a jazzy swing. This Joss Stone version sounds more like what Alicia Keys would do. It's not bad; no I shouldn't say that, it's not horrible.
Breaking Benjamin is another Hollywood Records artist, (as Queen is). But who are they? I'm not too sure; perhaps that's why they're here. To appear on a Queen tribute album is a subtle bit of PR for the label. Their rendition of Queen's 1986 European smash Who Wants To Live Forever is not bad. To my ears, this is more like the live version Queen did in 1986, on their Live Magic tour. The original studio version, (originally found on 1986's A Kind Of Magic, is more of a ballad, and this rendition by Breaking Benjamin is so close to the live version. I was never a fan of this song anyway, but this version is not much worse.
Bicycle Race, another Queen hit, this one originally from Queen's 1978 release Jazz. Here we have a punk rock version from the very well-known punk rock band, Be Your Own Pet. Well, maybe not that well-known, I think they have an EP that was released in Japan in early 2005. This song was originally great, and Be Your Own Pet stripped it down to the bare essence, and now it sucks.
Josh Kelley, another Hollywood Records artist is next up with his very upbeat 80s style New Wave version of Crazy Little Thing Called Love, which was released in the 80s, yet it was a 50s style rockabilly song. Josh Kelley another virtually unknown artist gets his dose of ad space here on Queen's tribute CD, but his version is not bad at all. I don't know if I would listen to this song again, but it's got its charm. This song is originally found on a Queen single from 1979, and from the 1980 album The Game.
I remember when the band Los Lobos died in a 2005 episode of The Simpsons. To me, that is what I will always associate this band with. I love that Los Lobos had chosen a hidden Queen gem from their 1977 masterpiece News Of The World with Sleeping On The Sidewalk. The original was a beautiful blues rocker, this version removes the soul from the blues guitar that Brian May had originally poured into it, and Los Lobos surely made this song their own. Unfortunately, this is true, as I find whatever I hear from them is boring and it sounds the same. Los Lobos lets their homophobia hang out when they changed the lyric from I was sleeping like a princess, to the more manly I was sleeping like a king.
Sum 41's version of Killer Queen is very faithful to the original found on the 1974 release Sheer Heart Attack. Yet with inferior vocal ability, and a certain bland overtone, this version is boring. It's unfortunate that the tribute album was named after this boring rendition.
Another faithful take on a Queen song is Rooney's go at Death On Two Legs, originally taken from 1975 release A Night At The Opera. Again, like Los Lobos, Rooney decided to take on a Queen song that was not famous or played on the radio airwaves at all. Maybe Rooney understands that Queen's best material is the stuff you haven't heard on the radio. By the way, who is Rooney? You don't know either? It doesn't matter, they are definitely a band that understands Queen, and it shows. At the end of the song, they even throw in the piano intro to Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon, which is the song that follows Death On Two Legs in the exact way on the A Night At The Opera album. Nice touch.
Play The Game was never one of my favorite Queen songs. Again, I had to search to find out who the heck Jon Brion was, he is the artist found on some soundtracks such as Magnolia, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Punch Drunk Love. Anyway, I think he does a pretty good job with this throw away song from Queen. Instead of the guitar solo, he replaces it with what sounds like a glockenspiel. That is the highlight of this song for me. This song was originally found on Queen's 1980 album, The Game.
Flaming Lips gives the most interesting rendition on this whole album, in my opinion. Their version of Bohemian Rhapsody (yes, this is on this album twice), sounds exactly like if Pink Floyd wanted to cover the Queen classic. Right down to the guitar solo, this is so Pink Floyd. I am not familiar with Flaming Lips, but the singer sounds a bit like David Gilmour anyway. This is definitely my favorite from here, again, that's not really saying much, but this is surely the most imaginative cover of the lot.
Who is Ingram Hill? You don't know either? It's OK, it seems this artist released a CD back in 2002, and that's it so far. Yet, they produced one of the most cohesive covers on this CD. This is one of two songs that really sounds like a real song, instead of a last minute studio produced track like all the others. They decided to cover another hidden gem, again found on the 1975 classic album A Night At The Opera. The song is '39. They are very faithful to the original, yet they made it their own, whatever that may sound like. For those of you who may not have heard this song, this song sounds like a bouncy folksy type song with a splash of classic country. This version tends to be more on the chord-strumming side of things instead of trying to tackle original version, Brian May's plethora of finger-picking and constant pull-offs and hammer-ons. Having said that, like I said before, this song really stays faithful to the original.
Antigone Rising is an all female country band. They, interestingly, decided on a slightly sexist song with Fat Bottomed Girls; originally found on the 1978 release Jazz. This song like the one before sounds like a real song, very cohesive and convincing. I would never have heard this song as country in my imagination, and yet it is a perfect genre for this song. This song sounds possibly better than the Queen original. These country gals can rock. The harmonies are without fault, and the whole arrangement is awesome.
That's all the songs, and remember there are many Queen tribute albums out there. My favorite is Stone Cold Crazy that was released a few years ago. In my opinion, less than half of these songs will ever get any replay in my house. If someone wants to finally make a Queen tribute CD that is somewhat interesting, you can't cover the same songs over and over. Go to the first two albums, which have never been considered before, or how about The Prophet's Song or White Man for examples. If you go to Queen's best material, you may produce the best tribute album yet.
This is an enhanced CD. Uh yeah, real nice. The 'special features' here is basically an IPOD looking icon that just brings you to the official Hollywood Records website. Big deal, huh? At least it's consistent with the rest of the CD, skimpy and cheap.
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