Review Summary: No synthesisers! But great music!
If you don’t know Queen, then you must make a life of living under rocks. They are possibly the biggest and best band of the 20th century. But you may not know one of their albums, their understated self-titled debut. Since the members of Queen wrote lots of different songs, I think for these reviews I’ll review them by composer of song. Please note that JOHN DEACON (bass guitar) did not write any songs on this album.
ROGER TAYLOR (drums) composed only one song on the album, but it’s a pretty good one, MODERN TIMES ROCK ‘N’ ROLL. You can say what you like about this but I disagree when people say Roger’s songs are the worst on the album. This song is quite good, but my main concern with it is that it’s over a bit too soon, being only 1 minute and 48 seconds. If it was a little longer, I’d give it a higher rating.
BRIAN MAY (guitar) composed four songs for this album. The one that most people will know from this album is KEEP YOURSELF ALIVE. This was Queen’s first single release, and although it didn’t chart it is held close to the hearts of many “Queen-a-holic’s” (such as myself.) The other songs that Mr. May penned for this album are the slow sombre DOING ALL RIGHT (a song which he wrote with his pal Tim Stafford), quick and brisk THE NIGHT COMES DOWN and the immense SON AND DAUGHTER. Be warned though: the intro might shock you a little bit.
FREDDIE MERCURY (vocals) is the one who steals the show on this album though, writing four complete songs. Queen was a strange mystical album, which is best represented by the two songs GREAT KING RAT and MY FAIRY KING. Queen would continue their craziness in later albums and songs (such as In The Lap Of The Gods and Bohemian Rhapsody.) He also wrote the 6 ½ minute little epic LIAR, a song that’s even longer than the aforementioned Rhapsody about Bohemians. However, his final song on the album, JESUS, just doesn’t do it for me: I find it a bit boring to hear him go on about Jesus for 4 minutes.
The album closes on a high note though with an instrumental of SEVEN SEAS OF RHYE. The song was not finished at the time of release, so Queen put it on the end of the album, but the song in full would resurface on Queen II, where the fun continues!
So here’s a quick recap:
KEEP YOURSELF ALIVE = 5/5
DOING ALL RIGHT = 4.5/5
GREAT KING RAT = 5/5
MY FAIRY KING = 5/5
LIAR = 5/5
THE NIGHT COMES DOWN = 4/5
MODERN TIMES ROCK ‘N’ ROLL = 3.5/5
SON AND DAUGHTER = 4.5/5
JESUS = 2.5/5
SEVEN SEAS OF RHYE (INSTRUMENTAL) = 3.5/5
AVERAGE SCORE = 4.25/5
