The band’s second album receives the lavish treatment

Over half a century after it set them on the path to superstardom, Queen’s regal second album, Queen II, has been remixed, remastered, and expanded for a lavish new box set.

Arguably the heaviest Queen album, Queen II was originally released in 1974 and widely heralded as their first true masterpiece. With Brian May and Roger Taylor as executive producers, the album has been stunningly mixed by the team of Justin Shirley-Smith, Joshua J Macrae and Kris Fredriksson.

The 5 CD/2 LP Queen II Collector’s Edition box set features the 2026 mix of the album, plus intimate fly-on-the-wall audio of Queen in the recording studio, previously unheard outtakes and demos, live tracks and radio sessions.

The Queen II Collector’s Edition box set also comes with a 112-page book featuring previously unseen photographs, handwritten lyrics, diary entries, and special memorabilia, as well as memories of writing and recording the album from the band members.

“Queen II was the single biggest leap we ever made,” says May. “That’s when we really started making music the way we wanted to, rather than the way we were being pushed into recording it.”

“With Queen II, I couldn’t believe how much work we put into it,” adds Taylor. “I think we felt we were evolving our own sound. We were pioneering this sort of multitracking thing. It gave you a tremendous palette, massive choral effects with just three of us singing.”

The task of remixing Queen II for this new edition was in the hands of the trusted team of Justin Shirley-Smith, Joshua J Macrae and Kris Fredriksson, who worked on the Queen I reissue as well as several other past releases from the band, with Brian May and Roger Taylor acting as executive producers.

Queen’s self-titled 1973 debut album had established the band as one of the boldest and most unique new voices in music. Even a troubled recording process, which resulted in a sound the band was unhappy with (subsequently rectified on the 2024 reissue), couldn’t mask the brilliance of the songs, nor the ambition of the band behind them.

For the follow-up, recorded once again at Soho’s Trident Studios with Queen I co-producer Roy Thomas Baker, Queen seized control of their own destiny. They were already incredibly well-drilled before they began, with “Father To Son” and “Ogre Battle” having featured in the live shows as far back as September 1973. The result was an album that didn’t so much tear up the blueprint as redraw it on a grand scale.

Originally released in the UK on March 8, 1974, Queen II still sounds extraordinary today. Bold, brave and madly ambitious, it’s the work of a band whose self-belief, vision and ability were unmatched. Its songs range from the intricate and complex to the raw and heavy, with vocals stacked to near-operatic levels and Brian May’s fabled “guitar orchestra” giving the band a sound like no other.

Like the iconic Mick Rock photo that stares out from the cover – revisited by the band themselves nearly two years later in the groundbreaking promo video for “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Queen II is an album of shadow and light.

Rather than the traditional sides one and two, in characteristically flamboyant Queen fashion, the album is divided into Side White and Side Black. The former is dominated by Brian May’s songs, including soaring rocker “Father To Son” and the ethereal, celestial “White Queen (As It Began),” with Roger Taylor’s raucous but bittersweet “The Loser In The End” capping off the white side.

Side Black is given over to Mercury’s complex musical excursions, from the roaring “Ogre Battle” and the filigreed finery of “The Fairy Feller’s Masterstroke” (inspired by a 19th century painting by maverick artist Richard Dadd) to the quasi-mythical fanfare of “Seven Seas Of Rhye,” which gave the band their very first UK hit single. The centrepiece of Side Black was “The March Of The Black Queen,” a multi-part mini-epic that, like much of Queen II, pointed towards Queen’s glorious future.

Even beyond the new 2026 mix, the Queen II Collector’s Edition reframes the album on a much bigger canvas.

The second CD features Queen II – Sessions, a treasure trove for Queen fans, presenting a completely different and 100 percent previously unreleased version of every song from the album in the form of outtakes from the original Trident sessions, complete with false starts, guide vocals, the odd mistake, and some fabulous studio banter between the four band members.

Individually and taken together, the Sessions CD presents an alternative tracklisting that shows how this most grandiose of albums took shape. Some songs, such as “Father To Son” and “Some Day One Day,” feature guide vocals and musical sections that are subtly different from the finished tracks, while others, such as “The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke” and “The March Of The Black Queen,” find the foursome striving to perfect the music they‘d written.

Most intriguingly, the Sessions CD also includes early versions of two songs: a solo Brian May version of “As It Began,” aka “White Queen,” dating from 1969, plus two solo demo versions of Roger Taylor’s “Loser In The End,” which show the song’s evolution towards its final incarnation.

Not only do these revelatory tracks lift the lid on the band’s creative process at the time, but the snippets of conversation and studio banter at the beginning and end of these tracks adds a fascinating new dimension not just to Queen II but to the band themselves.

The Sessions also features the lilting, evocative “Not For Sale (Polar Bear),” a song the band worked on during the Queen II sessions but never completed.

CD three features Queen II – Backing Tracks that complement both the album itself and the Sessions by offering mixes of the songs from the album without lead vocals, highlighting the stellar musical performances of the band members.

CD four is Queen II – At The BBC, bringing together tracks from three separate sessions the band did for BBC Radio 1 DJs and early Queen supporters John Peel and Bob Harris in late 1973 and early 1974.

Two tracks, future B-side “See What A Fool I’ve Been” and a tantalising version of “Ogre Battle,” were recorded for Harris’ Sounds Of The Seventies program and John Peel’s show respectively in September and December 1973, predating the release of Queen II by several months and showcasing the huge leap forward they’d made from their debut. Two more tracks, “Nevermore” and “White Queen (As It Began),” were recorded for Harris in April 1974 and capture Queen in full flight for the BBC tapes.

At The BBC is rounded out by the band’s set at the Golders Green Hippodrome on September 13, 1973, a full six months before Queen II was released. Once again, its eight tracks present a band who are ready to seize the future.

The new edition is completed by a fifth CD entitled Queen II Live, a showcase of the album’s songs from concerts at North London’s fabled Rainbow Theatre on March 31, 1974, and Hammersmith Odeon the following December. Highlights include a blistering “Father To Son,” the furiously fantastical “The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke,” and the epic yin-yang of “White Queen (As It Began)” and “The March Of The Black Queen,” which show off every facet of the band’s distinctive personality.

The incredible story of Queen II is further fleshed out by the 112-page book, which is included in the Collector’s Edition. Shining a new light on both the album and the band that made it, it includes a host of previously unseen photographs of the band, including outtakes from Mick Rock’s legendary photo session for the Queen II cover. Queen devotees will be amazed to see Freddie Mercury, Brian May, and Roger Taylor’s handwritten lyrics and musical notation for the songs on the album, as well as journal entries, letters to friends and supporters, and a trove of memorabilia, including images of vintage adverts and gig posters, turning the Queen II Collector’s Edition into a multi-dimensional experience.

CD 1: Queen II – 2026 Mix

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. Seven Seas Of Rhye

CD 2: Queen II – Sessions

1. Procession (Stage Intro Tape – April 1973)
2. Father To Son (Takes 4 & 9 – with Guide Vocal)
3. As It Began (Brian’s Studio Demo – October 1969)
4. Some Day One Day (Take 1 – with Guide Vocals)
5. The Loser In The End (Roger’s First Demo)
6. The Loser In The End (Roger’s Second Demo)
7. Ogre Battle (Takes 2 & 6 – with Guide Vocal)
8. The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke (Takes 4 & 9)
9. Nevermore (Take 6)
10. The March Of The Black Queen (First Section Takes 3 & 5)
11. The March Of The Black Queen (Second Section Take 1)
12. Funny How Love Is (Take 4)
13. Seven Seas Of Rhye (Takes 4, 5 & 6)
14. I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside (Take 4)
15. See What A Fool I’ve Been (B-side Version 2026 Mix)
16. Not For Sale (Polar Bear)

CD 3: Queen II – Backing Tracks

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. Seven Seas Of Rhye

CD 4: Queen II – At The BBC

1. See What a Fool I’ve Been (BBC Session 2, July 1973 – 2011 Mix)
2. Ogre Battle (BBC Session 3, December 1973)
3. Nevermore (BBC Session 4, April 1974)
4. White Queen (As It Began) (BBC Session 4, April 1974)
5. Procession – Intro Tape (Live at Golders Green Hippodrome, 13th September 1973)
6. Father To Son (Live at Golders Green Hippodrome, 13th September 1973)
7. Son And Daughter (Live at Golders Green Hippodrome, 13th September 1973)
8. Guitar Solo (Live at Golders Green Hippodrome, 13th September 1973)
9. Son And Daughter – Reprise (Live at Golders Green Hippodrome, 13th September 1973)
10. Ogre Battle (Live at Golders Green Hippodrome, 13th September 1973)
11. Liar (Live at Golders Green Hippodrome, 13th September 1973)
12. Jailhouse Rock (Live at Golders Green Hippodrome, 13th September 1973)

CD 5: Queen II – Live

1. Procession – Intro Tape (Live at the Rainbow, March 1974)
2. Father To Son (Live at the Rainbow, March 1974)
3. Ogre Battle (Live at the Rainbow, March 1974)
4. White Queen (As It Began) (Live at the Hammersmith Odeon, December 1975)
5. The March Of The Black Queen (Live at the Rainbow, March 1974)
6. The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke (Live at the Rainbow, March 1974)
7. Seven Seas Of Rhye (Live at the Rainbow, March 1974)
8. See What A Fool I’ve Been (Live at the Rainbow, March 1974)