{"id":565585,"date":"2026-03-28T01:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T01:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/565585\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T01:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T01:47:08","slug":"queen-ii-deluxe-collectors-boxed-set-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/565585\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Queen II’ Deluxe Collectors Boxed Set: Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tUnlike their flawed first album, Queen<\/a>\u2019s second effort was nearly perfect to begin with. \u201c\u2019Queen II\u2019 was the single biggest leap we ever made,\u201d guitarist Brian May has said. \u201cThat\u2019s when we really started making music the way we wanted to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhere the band\u2019s debut suffered from a muddy mix and some stiff playing, \u201cQueen II\u201d was the work of a wildly ambitious group coming off of its first hit single, \u201cKeep Yourself Alive.\u201d Confident and sprawling, the album found the band\u2019s \u2014 and especially Freddie Mercury<\/a>\u2019s \u2014\u00a0wildest visions coming to life. It is a musical funhouse filled with roaring guitars, baroque piano and the band\u2019s gloriously stacked, angelic harmonies; with Shakespearian and Olde English lyrical references, wild characters like White Queens and Black Queens and Titans and troubadours and Fairy Fellers.<\/p>\n

\n\tMercury\u2019s multi-sectioned song \u201cMarch of the Black Queen\u201d was the direct predecessor of \u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d; even the album\u2019s cover, the iconic, morbid death-mask photo by Mick Rock, was a portent of things to come, as the group would recreate it for the legendary \u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d video three years later, which many consider to be the first modern music video. Released in March of 1974, \u201cQueen II\u201d is the blueprint for the band\u2019s masterpiece, \u201cA Night at the Opera.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tDivided into \u201cSide White\u201d and \u201cSide Black,\u201d \u201cQueen II\u201d includes two of guitarist Brian May\u2019s greatest songs, \u201cFather to Son\u201d and \u201cWhite Queen,\u201d yet the album\u2019s second (aka black) side is a soaring blast of creativity from Mercury, featuring his hardest-rocking song (\u201cOgre Battle\u201d), his most eccentric (\u201cThe Fairy Feller\u2019s Master Stroke\u201d) and one of his most beautiful ballads (\u201cNevermore\u201d), as well as \u201cMarch of the Black Queen\u201d and the band\u2019s second hit single, \u201cSeven Seas of Rhye.\u201d The album is an arch, epic, definitively British masterpiece that should be the first visit for anyone seeking more of \u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d (which this writer did as a 13-year-old, poring over the lyric sheet and then a dictionary for the meaning of words like \u201ctatterdemalion\u201d and \u201costler\u201d). Queen would never again sound so intense, wild and heavy.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo what\u2019s in this 50-ish anniversary edition? The same sumptuous treatment that was brought to \u201cQueen I\u201d<\/a> a couple of years ago: There\u2019s a meticulously remastered version of the original album, of course, and then loads of ear and eye candy for fans: an overstuffed booklet with fresh interviews with May and drummer\/singer Roger Taylor and four discs of deep-dive material: instrumental versions of all the songs, which provide a fascinating look at just how intricate the arrangements are; live and BBC radio versions of the songs from the album, all of which have been previously released; and most interesting of all, session outtakes \u2014 and one previously unreleased song.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere are few things die-hard music geeks love more than an unpacking of how their beloved songs came together \u2014\u00a0the most obvious example is probably watching Paul McCartney write \u201cGet Back\u201d on the spot in the Peter Jackson film of the same name \u2014\u00a0and you get plenty of that here: The bandmembers, especially Mercury, shaping and rehearsing the songs, laughing, bickering and making mistakes. But what\u2019s most striking and endearing is how much it illustrates the band\u2019s very strong personalities: an f-bomb-dropping Mercury very much in control of his songs; May more measured but just as determined; Taylor impatient and fiery; bassist John Deacon solid but basically silent.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt one point, as they\u2019re working out the beginning of \u201cOgre Battle,\u201d they attempt the guitar-heavy beginning and Mercury says, \u201cStop, that\u2019s fucking terrible. What about [May\u2019s] chords before? Who\u2019s going to drop those in from the sky?\u201d But he\u2019s just as unfiltered about himself. \u201cMy fault,\u201d he says after a false start on \u201cSeven Seas of Rhye,\u201d then continues, \u201cBecause I can\u2019t hear my piano very well, I\u2019m playing all sorts of horrible pedal work. Would it be hard for you fellows if all the other instruments were slightly lower?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThose moments illustrate the band\u2019s work ethic and process much more vividly than any interviews ever could. Like all classic bands, Queen\u2019s greatest strength was the combination of the personalities \u2014 four very different but forceful and fiercely competitive people. It\u2019s no accident that they\u2019re the only band in history where each of the four members wrote a number-one single. (Not for nothing, their catalog is the only one known to have sold for over a billion dollars<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\n\tFinally, the unreleased track, which has been floating around on bootlegs for decades under the names \u201cNot for Sale\u201d or \u201cPolar Bear,\u201d is actually a May song that dates back to the days of Smile, the Queen precursor he and Taylor performed with in the late \u201860s. It\u2019s much more reminiscent of Queen\u2019s first album and is hardly a classic, but it\u2019s a full-band, if tentative performance that fills a gap in the group\u2019s history. Also, included in the BBC sessions is a rare full-band take on \u201cNevermore,\u201d that finds the group joining in for the final minute and Mercury firing up his vocal in a way he doesn\u2019t on the album version. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAny lover of \u201cA Night at the Opera\u201d needs to check out the main album immediately \u2014 for those who are already fans, set aside at least a couple of hours to dig into the bounty for the eyes and ears.<\/p>\n

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