{"id":307065,"date":"2025-11-22T12:51:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T12:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/307065\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T12:51:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T12:51:23","slug":"every-queen-album-ranked-from-worst-to-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/307065\/","title":{"rendered":"Every Queen Album Ranked From Worst To Best"},"content":{"rendered":"

MOJO runs down every long-playing jewel from Freddie Mercury and co.\"\"<\/p>\n

@Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty <\/p>\n

In 2005, it was calculated that Queen had become the most successful ever act in Britain\u2019s album chart with a total of 1,322 weeks on the chart, while The Beatles could manage only 1,293.\u00a0Admirers clearly appreciate Queen for their melodies, compositional range and Freddie\u2019s stage presence. However, when you look closely at the band\u2019s individual albums, even the most ardent admirer might admit they sometimes lack the gravitas that goes with a \u2018rock classic\u2019 like, say, Led Zeppelin<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0IV.<\/p>\n

Queen, of course, can be as much Elaine Paige as Jimmy Page<\/a>. On most albums, they travel to extremes of kitsch, pastiche and schmaltz on at least a couple of tracks. But anyone who appreciates joy in popular song can only listen with amazement to the tracks arrayed on the band\u2019s\u00a0Greatest Hits I\u00a0compilation. The albums, too, amaze with their thrilling combination of individual talent and studio technique, while the songs move from ragtime to rock (via disco, funk, skiffle, gospel and Islamic rock). As the Queen canon unfolds, surely only the most stony heart can fail to beat a little faster.<\/p>\n

15.<\/p>\n

The Miracle<\/p>\n

Parlophone, 1991<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Queen\u2019s studio nadir does include I Want It All, a powerful, if standard-issue, expression of Queen anthemics \u2013\u00a0a Brian May song inspired by a favourite saying of wife Anita Dobson. There were also the chugging, perfunctory singles Breakthru and The Invisible Man, but the album is typified by the opening Party and Khashoggi\u2019s Ship. Both pretend to a good time abandon, one that\u2019s nowhere to be found in this music. And Khashoggi being the billionaire businessman\/arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. The abiding mood is artistic aridity.<\/p>\n

14.<\/p>\n

Hot Space<\/p>\n

EMI, 1982<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The first Queen album sleeve on which Freddie is boldly moustachioed. He\u2019d been enjoying nights at leading NYC leather lads club the Mineshaft, and here Queen also embraced the dance floor. Tracks like Body Language and Staying Power have an upfront carnality in the lyrics, but their disco\/funk undercarriage is much less stimulating. By far the standout track is the glorious Bowie collaboration Under Pressure \u2013 a track that, when sampled by Vanilla Ice, saw much more dance floor action than Hot Space\u2019s routine disco forays. However, the ballad Las Palabras De Amor (The Words Of Love) is pretty and likeable, a celebratory nod to the mass audience adoration Queen had experienced in South America.<\/p>\n

13.<\/p>\n

Flash Gordon<\/p>\n

EMI, 1980<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Directed by Mike Hodges (Get Carter) and featuring Max von Sydow as Ming The Merciless alongside a cast including Brian Blessed and playwright John Osborne, the Flash Gordon film is enjoyable space camp. Full of tight, spangly clobber and fruity dialogue, it\u2019s surely home terrain for Queen \u2013\u00a0and their soundtrack is capable stuff, full of atmospheric synth surges, ray gun noises and Brian May\u2019s harmonic guitar orchestration. But while Flash\u2019s Theme (\u201cFlash! A-ah!\u201d) is undeniable in its superbly absurd sci-fi sensationalism, the likes of The Ring (Hypnotic Seduction Of Dale) and Crash Dive On Mingo City are best for occasional background deployment.<\/p>\n

12.<\/p>\n

A Kind Of Magic<\/p>\n

EMI, 1986<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The first album after Queen\u2019s utterly exhilarating, show-stealing Live Aid set<\/a>. The precision pop and rock triumphalism displayed that day fills the opening track here, the single One Vision. This song started as a Roger Taylor composition, inspired by Martin Luther King. Commandeered by Freddie it became an exercise in playful anthemic supremacy. The album was a de facto soundtrack to the film Highlander, with only three songs not featuring in the movie. As a whole, the album is neat and purposeful, with the title track, Friends Will Be Friends and Who Wants To Live Forever also becoming singles. The latter took on immense retrospective poignancy after Freddie died five years later.<\/p>\n

11.<\/p>\n

Made In Heaven<\/p>\n

Parlophone, 1995<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Completed after Freddie\u2019s death, this album seems ever more poignant. He\u2019d recorded vocals when he could, working against the inevitable finality. The rock-augmented new version of Mercury solo track I Was Born To Love You is a puzzling inclusion but elsewhere there are extremely moving moments. Too Much Love Will Kill You was first released as a Brian May solo single in 1992. It deals with May\u2019s own personal life but when sung by Mercury it came to seem hauntingly prescient. The album concludes with 13, a meditative and largely instrumental 22 minutes and 30 seconds that sometimes suggests Kraftwerk. Mercury died aged 45, and one theory is there are 30 seconds for each year of his life.<\/p>\n

10.<\/p>\n

Innuendo<\/p>\n

Parlophone, 1991<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After the often-astonishing aridity of\u00a0The Miracle, it was good to see Freddie \u2013 who would die of AIDS-related illness nine months after its release \u2013 bow out with an album that reprised Queen\u2019s most outlandish inclinations. It was, of course, the six-and-a-half-minute Innuendo where this was most evident. It was heartwarming to see this title track released as the album\u2019s first single and fly straight to Number 1 in Britain \u2013unimpeded by kitchen-sink arrangement and flamenco Interlude by Steve Howe of Yes. Other cherishable tracks include the bittersweet These Are The Days Of Our Lives and the rousing The Show Must Go On.<\/p>\n

9.<\/p>\n

The Game<\/p>\n

EMI, 1980<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This is the album where Queen first contravened the \u201cNo synths!\u201d proclamation on the sleeve of 1976\u2019s\u00a0A Day At The Races\u00a0album. But a more ancient musical mode heralded\u00a0The Game\u00a0\u2013\u00a0the superb rock \u2018n\u2019 roll of the Crazy Little Thing Called Love single. Another One Bites The Dust brought more from-nowhere genre mastery, an irresistible funk blast inspired by Chic. There\u2019s also the spectacularly relaxed funk rock of Dragon Attack (\u201cTake me to the room \/ Where the black\u2019s all white \/ And the white\u2019s all black\u201d), while singles Save Me and Play The Game further juice a joyous 35 minutes. Even the Samaritans-flavoured Don\u2019t Try Suicide sounds like free entry to Studio 54.<\/p>\n

8.<\/p>\n

News Of The World<\/p>\n

Parlophone, 1977<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In We Are The Champions and We Will Rock You, News Of The World contains Queen\u2019s two great inclusive anthems- staples of the band\u2019s concerts, sporting occasions and Pepsi Cola advertisements starring Britney Spears and Beyonc\u00e9 as gladiators. Amazingly enough, We Will Rock You wasn\u2019t a hit in Britain until boyband Five covered it. The track originally appeared merely as the B-side to We Are The Champions. N_ews Of The World_\u00a0fans also draw much pleasure from Sheer Heart Attack (not to be confused with the LP of the same name) and All Dead, All Dead, a song guitarist Brian May wrote about a childhood cat.<\/p>\n

7.<\/p>\n

Queen<\/p>\n

Parlophone, 1973<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Emerging from a primordial soup of bands with various unpromising names such as Ibex, Sour Milk Sea, Smile and Humpy Bong, Queen appeared with this debut album. Compared to the following\u00a0Queen II, it\u2019s an ostentatious but straightforward rock blast. Nonetheless, this band\u2019s dual monarchy of utter preposterousness and utter brilliance was there for all to see. Just place the disdainfully self-assured Keep Yourself Alive beside the luna- tic bravado of Great King Rat. The album closes with an instrumental Seven Seas Of Rhye-a song that, when completed for\u00a0Queen II, would give the band their first Top 10 single.<\/p>\n

6.<\/p>\n

The Works<\/p>\n

Parlophone, 1984<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Under Pressure excepted, 1982\u2019s\u00a0Hot Space\u00a0album was something of a low point for the band. On Body Language, Queen seemed determined to morph into epicene Brit-funkers Imagination\u2013 not something to please the band\u2019s more rock-minded fans.\u00a0The Works\u00a0followed two years later and it re-established the band strongly with swaggering mechanised pop. Radio Ga Ga, It\u2019s A Hard Life and I Want To Break Free were all Top 10 singles, while the latter found utility with both the Brazilian democracy movement and in an advert for Coca-Cola. The rock slam of Hammer To Fall was released as a fourth single peaking in the Top 20.<\/p>\n

5.<\/p>\n

Jazz<\/p>\n

Parlophone, 1978<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A few cloying tracks (Dreamer\u2019s Ball, In Only Seven Days) sit alongside hugely potent stuff. It\u2019s difficult to imagine a double A-side as brilliantly ridiculous as Fat Bottomed Girls\/Bicycle Race. Unless you replace the former with Mustapha. Sung in barely-sensical Arabic, Mustapha goes, “Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah will pray for you, hey!” As Brian May wryly informed MOJO in 2004, “I don\u2019t know how well it would go down if we played that one in America today.” Best of all, though, is the euphoric Don\u2019t Stop Me Now. When Alex Kapranos was asked for his key inspiration for Franz Ferdinand\u2019s second album, he chose this track.<\/p>\n

4.<\/p>\n

A Day At The Races<\/p>\n

Parlophone, 1976<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Coming after the success of Bohemian Rhapsody and\u00a0A Night At The Opera,\u00a0A Day At The Races\u00a0has a feel of consolidation \u2013 something reinforced by the crest on the sleeve and another Marx Brothers-derived album title. Which isn\u2019t to say it lacks bold strokes. The album\u2019s big hit, Somebody To Love, is an extraordinary, multi-tracked gospel powerhouse, apparently written with Aretha Franklin in mind. Brian May\u2019s White Man is a rare excursion into the explicitly political and Tie Your Mother Down became a live favourite. Overall, the album made it clear that Queen\u2019s coat of arms was a reliable bill of fare.<\/p>\n

3.<\/p>\n

Sheer Heart Attack<\/p>\n

Parlophone, 1974<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t hang around in those days-this followed\u00a0Queen II\u00a0and was also released in 1974. Compared to its widescreen predecessor, this is a lean ocelot slipping off its choke chain. The album\u2019s visceral side is best heard on Stone Cold Crazy, later powerfully covered by Metallica. But there\u2019s also the pop precision of Killer Queen and the insane ragtime pastiche of Leroy Brown. Other high points include Now I\u2019m Here and the great Brian May track, Brighton Rock.<\/p>\n

2.<\/p>\n

Queen II<\/p>\n

Parlophone, 1974<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After the relatively orthodox, high-octane rock of their debut album, this gave notice of Queen\u2019s startling ambition. The album is divided into a White side and a Black side.\u00a0Opening the White side, May\u2019s 1 multi-tracked guitars on Procession still sound futuristic 30 years on. However, it\u2019s the Black side, all written by Mercury, which really astonishes. The pairing of The Fairy Feller\u2019s Master Stroke and Nevermore gives a heady foretaste of Bohemian Rhapsody. Fairy Feller is full of the rococo lyricism that Freddie would tellingly revisit “Pedagogue squinting… a satyr peers under a lady\u2019s gown… what a dirty laddio.” Scaramouche!<\/p>\n

1.<\/p>\n

A Night At The Opera<\/p>\n

Parlophone, 1975<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Following\u00a0Queen II\u00a0and\u00a0Sheer Heart Attack, this crowned Queen\u2019s most outrageously fecund period. Bohemian Rhapsody is the centrepiece, but also of particular note are John Deacon\u2019s lovely You\u2019re My Best Friend and Freddie\u2019s Love Of My Life (the latter covered by Elaine Paige, The Scorpions, Extreme and Norma Waterson). And let\u2019s not forget I\u2019m In Love With My Car, Roger Taylor\u2019s tribute to a roadie\u2019s Triumph TR4. Queen are rarely described as \u2018experimental\u2019 but they\u2019ve probed relentlessly in the studio. This album features not only forward-thinking multi- tracking, but, on Good Company, the human mouth doing a whole brass section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MOJO runs down every long-playing jewel from Freddie Mercury and co. @Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty In 2005, it was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":{"0":"post-307065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}