A Night At The Opera [VINYL]

Queen is one of those bands that everybody knows. Whether it's the hairy rockers head banging to "Tie Your Mother down" or the everyday, low IQ individual who only knows their greatest hits, Queen is one of the most well known bands to come out of England. The one thing that a lot of people do not realize about Queen is their extreme musical diversity. They do not just play the catchy rockers you get in the bargain bin greatest hits collections. The band have a habit of mixing things between heavy rock, pop, folk and even jazz. The overly talented foursome were not only great musicians but all had unique vocal abilities that benefited when the group sang together in strange, mesmerizing harmonies. All these weird and wonderful talents were used to their greatest of abilities over the years, however they never topped the fantastic, overly bombastic and quite charming " A Night At The Opera". "A Night At The Opera" is known for giving us two fantastic singles. The sweet, charming Deacon classic "You're My Best Friend" and the now Wayne's World favourite"Bohemian Rhapsody". These two songs aside, no one ever talks about the other songs on the album. For example, the eight minute epic "The Prophet's Song". Rumoured to be about The Great Flood, this song is Queen's longest track and easily their most progressive. It is a dreamy bit of work with some of Brian May's best guitar playing. How about the great folkish "Good Company?" The point is that taking any song off this album as a single is just blasphemy. The album runs from one track to another like it was a concept album and the variety of the music itself is just immense. Unlike a lot of bands at the time, this record is not straight electric guitar, bass and drums. There are many assorted instruments featured like Ukulele, harp and the ever faithful piano. The album was produced by Roy Thomas Baker and Queen themselves. They did a splendid job of giving the music a wonderful warm feeling. The album is full of life, the music is superbly written and it has the words "timeless" written all over it. This version I am reviewing is the 2011 remaster album. In this remaster the sound has had a fair kick in the backside. "A Night At The Opera" has been given some fantastic treatment and like the rest of the remastered albums, it is easily the best I have ever heard it. "A Night At The Opera" is a Hard Rock classic that very little people every speak about. Considering how much the album sold, it is amazing how many people never mention this album as a direct influence. Though there are moments when you can hear what could be rock band The Darkness in Queen. A band that has had a lot of comparisons with Queens 70's material and rightfully so. "A Night At The Opera" is a fantastic album that must be owned by pretty much everybody. There is such a wide range of musical diversity that there is not much to complain about. The only people that would not buy into this album are the kind that don't buy into hype or the simple narrowed minded types that want an array of hits. How many times can someone listen to "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Don't Stop Me Now" without their accompanying albums... seriously?!

An excellent album indeed. Of course, there is the BR, which is an absolute classic in any genre, in anybody's opinion. But there are a plethora of other amazing tracks, all of different styles. The hard rock is present in the excellent riffing on 'Death on two legs'; it is powerful and melodic. The prog masterpiece 'Prophet song' is a culmination of all that is excellent in prog music - a beautiful acoustic opening, then a magnificient, pompous rock section. Then the acapella section - I like this, but maybe a tiny bit over bombastic, depends on my mood. I love the closing of the song, back to the acoustic intro, bookending the song well. I love the jazzy and vaudeville songs on here, with the excellent instrumentation. It reminds me a bit of Paul McCartney's whimsical ditties. 'Sunday afternoon' and 'seaside rendezvous' are extremely ambitious, and deceivingly simplistic. 'Good Company' is the first of Brian's numbers. It is lovely to hear him sing more, as he has such a sweet voice. '39' is a fantastic folk prog number, with lovely acoustic guitars and harmony vocals. I really like this song, reminds me of the group America. 'Love of my life' is also a beautiful ballad, nice harp playing and some ethereal lead vocals from Freddie. That leaves just two songs I don't really care for. (Save the God save the queen, which is great). 'I'm in love with my car' is just not that convincing and I just dig Roger's vocals. However, 'Sweet lady' is just horrible and unmelodic. Not my thing at all. However, this is an overall 5 start album. It is excellent, with so much to commend it, and deserves all the praise it has had.

This review is for the remastered single edition cd. A Night At The Opera is the fourth studio album by Queen and at the time was the most expensive record ever made. It was a commercial success upon its release in november 1975 topping the uk charts for four weeks. Brian May has since said "had it not been successful, Queen would have disbanded". First single was the now legendary "Bohemian Rhapsody" which topped the uk charts for nine weeks, other standout songs are "Prophet's Song" which is equally as good, "Death On Two Legs", "39" and "Love Of My Life". The only slightly weak track is "Sweet Lady" which in my opinion is two minutes too long as it meanders off half way through. There's also Roger Taylor's "I'm In Love With My Car" and John Deacon's "You're My Best Friend" with both of them doing a song for every new Queen LP. The album is a mix of rock, vaudeville; "Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon", "Seaside", and trad-jazz pastiche; "Good Company". This is one of the greatest rock albums ever made and sounds as good today as when it was released, these Bob Ludwig remasters are great highlighting all the instruments and vocals though judging by other reviews the bonus cd's seem a bit of a cash in and as such i won't be buying the two cd version. Why don't May and Taylor release the likes of "The Rainbow" "Hammersmith" "Hyde Park"(although some say this wasn't their best performance) which by the way was filmed and also recorded by Capitol radio but never broadcast, why is that by the way? plus "Earls Court" and the "bbc sessions" in their entirety for fans to really get their teeth into? Though this single cd version is highly recommended.

Love the CD (of course one of Queen's best)....and Amazon were quick to dispatch Dislike that Australia Post sent the CD to the wrong addres in a neighbouring suburb Thankfully the people there phoned me and delivered it personally to my doorstep

Die Platte ist gut in der Pressung und im Klang. Dazu noch günstiger als andere Anbieter. Was aber gar nicht geht ist, daß Amazon eine riesige Umverpackung für eine Schallplatte benutzt. Da gibt es kleine Verpackungen extra für Vinyl. So könnte man auch Ressourcen schonen. Darüber sollte Amazon einmal nachdenken.

Bij de eerste keer afspelen spring de plaat om de paar seconden over, dit geldt zowel voor de voor al achterkant. Er waren vreemd genoeg nergens krassen te zien, dus dat betekent dat het aan de plaat zelf ligt. Ik vind het echt heel erg jammer dat het zo geleverd is.. en zou eigenlijk ook het liefst een refund willen krijgen of een onbeschadigd exemplaar..

First off, I had absolutely no issues with my copy as others have experienced. I believe it’s the cheaper Hollywood Records pressing is the version people are complaining about (for good reason!). But this half speed mastered Virgin records version is Amazing! It’s flat and quiet. The sound is fantastic! Solid pressing of an iconic rock album! The soundstage is wide with great separation and crystal clear highs mids and lows. The album is Very bassy. I think all Queen records are bass heavy so that was to be expected. Listening to this I get the feeling of sitting in the studio with Queen! Beautiful. Very nice pressing. They should scrap ALL the Hollywood Records pressings of all Queens records! It’s awesome that they’ve all been pressed again by Virgin. So happy and I highly recommend to every Queen fan. This is truly their best album overall. A true masterpiece

Très bien !