Queen - Sheer Heart Attack

Freddie Mercury's breakthrough - but the whole band shines

Looking back at the 1970s, sometimes many forget how big the band Queen was. Even as Queen moved into the 1980s, while their popularity did slightly decline in the United States, it continued to be very high in Europe. Their performance at Live Aid is widely considered one of the greatest of all-time and their subsequent "Magic" tour is considered one of the all-time greatest concert tours. If it weren't for Freddie Mercury's death in 1992, we might still be talking about Queen being as big a band as the Beatles. When Queen released their 1973 self-titled debut album, it showed all of the signs of greatness to come. This album would show how the band embraced a "theatrical" feel to their music (which was something seen by other bands such as the Kinks) as well as embrace a sound that would evolve into what would become Heavy Metal. I expected the follow-up album, "Queen II" to continue much of what "Queen" had started. While "Queen II" continues down the road of theatrical music, overall this album just didn't capture my interest as much as the first album. However with Queen's third album, "Sheer Heart Attack", Queen would successfully build on the fundamentals of the first two albums and expand their sound. They would still revolve around the theatrical sound, but move away from the medieval themes of the first two albums. It would also prove to be their first breakthrough album in terms of commercial success.

Queen is an example of the sum of the parts actually being greater than the whole. However, if you take each of the four members of Queen, they easily stand on their own as a top musician in their profession. Freddie Mercury is easily known to be the emotional and flamboyant lead vocalist of Queen who indeed has a legendary voice. Brian May is the legendary lead guitarist and probably the second most popular member of the band. Roger Taylor and John Deacon go extremely underrated. Listen to Taylor's thundering drumming in the studio or live and one can easily understand why he was asked to participate in an All Star Drum Jam (The S.O.S. All-Stars) at the Live Earth concert. As for John Deacon, he might be one of music's all-time underrated bass players. Many of his bass lines have proven to be the foundation for Queen's musical sound. In addition to being top musicians, all four members play integral roles in the songwriting. As with the first two albums, the band's instrumentation continues to operate a high level. However on this album, I think its Mercury that takes it up a notch and establishes a foundation as a hall of fame vocalist.

Here is a track by track synopsis of this collection:

"Brighton Rock": This is a great track. Queen improvises by using carnival sounds (indicative of the seaside resort of Brighton). While May's guitars shine, this song is a real breakthrough for Mercury who performs both parts of a duet - simply outstanding.

"Killer Queen": Legendary track as Mercury once again takes it up a notch again with his vocals. The song has a theatrical feel to it. Terrific piano work is also done by Mercury. However the real underrated hero of this track is Deacon - his bass completely sets the tone for this track.

"Tenement Fuster": This song features Taylor on vocals who once again proves he can also be a lead vocalist. Taylor's high octaves give this song a prototype for some early Heavy Metal.

"Flick of the Wrist": This song has a great segue from "Tenement Fuster". Mercury takes over lead vocals for this track. Once again, Mercury demonstrates great harmonies. This song takes on more of a progressive rock feel.

"Lily of the Valley": This song has a segue from "Flick of the Wrist". This song takes a softer tone, yet still with a theatrical feel.

"Now I'm Here": Mercury shines again and shows he too can hit the high vocals. May's guitars are right on form. Terrific harmonies are prevalent throughout this track.

"In the Lap of the Gods": This track again showcases a theatrical feel to it - and Queen is awesome in doing so. This features some great piano work.

"Stone Cold Crazy": "In the Lap of the Gods" has a segue to this track. This song almost sounds like a cross between classic Rock of the fifties and early Heavy Metal.

"Dear Friends": Soft piano ballad. Not a bad song, but didn't have me doing handstands.

"Misfire": Much of this song was composed by Deacon and the fruits of his efforts shine. This song almost gives me a feel for what sound that the band Boston would feature in the late 70s.

"Bring Back that Leroy Brown": Queen has always they could pull off a Rockabilly sound - and this song proves it. Nice work of banjo and jangle piano are featured in this song. Great bass work by Deacon.

"She Makes Me": This song has more of a classic rock feel. Underrated track. May has some great acoustic guitar work. I like the way the use of sirens are used in this song.

"In the Lap of the Gods...Revisited": Queen wraps this one up with a theatrical finale feel to it. The perfect way to end the album.

I think Queen moving away from the Medieval themes of the first two albums has a lot to do with why they grew as a band on this album. While Mercury has his breakthrough on this album, the whole band shines. Overall, this is a terrific effort that will keep core Queen fans and casual fans happy. Highly recommended. June 22, 2008

Queen's masterpiece

I know I may be going out on a limb here, but for my money this is the single best studio album this band ever did. And yes, that includes "A Night at the Opera." The production, the overall sound and cohesion, and of course the songs, all come together on this one. There are so many styles here it's truly mind-boggling, but somehow it works. The glam-rock opener "Brighton Rock" leads into the campy majesty of "Killer Queen." "Now I'm Here" is another rocker and a concert favorite. "Stone Cold Crazy" is fast and furious, so much so that it was a natural for Metallica to cover years later. "Flick of the Wrist" is an absolutely acidic kiss-off to a crooked former manager. "Bring Back That Leroy Brown" may make you feel you're sitting in a speakeasy on a Saturday night, while "Dear Friends" is a short and sweet tearjerker. Even Roger Taylor -- notorious for penning the weakest songs on Queen albums -- hits the mark with "Tenement Funster." If you're looking for everything this band was capable of on a single disc, look no further. Highly recommended. May 25, 2008

Solid Queen!

There's no denying that Queen were one of a kind, and this album demonstrates that again and again. From straight up hard rockers, to their more operatic tendencies, to acoustic and atmospheric pieces, this album has it all. February 3, 2008

Queen's first US Top 20 album still holds up 30 plus years on

English rockers Queen released their third album Sheer Heart Attack in October of 1974.
The album was a huge improvement over the somewhat bland Queen II (my least favorite Queen album and many Queen fans will probably disagree with me on that) and set the pace for their experimentation that they would take to the enth degree on the next two albums A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races.
SHA kicks off with guitarist Brian May's "Brighton Rock", which had the innovative use of a delay meachine during the guitar solo to make it sound like there were two guitarists playing the middle solo and would be his solo showcase for the next three years and then again on the 1978/79 tour (on the '78-'79 tour it was more of an improv with John Deacon's bass and Roger Taylor's drums although Roger had a tympani solo spot and Brian with a guitar solo on his own). Brian also contributed the rocking "Now I'm Here" and the ballads "Dear Friends" and "She Makes Me" (in which he also does lead vocal).
Lead singer Freddie Mercury contributed "Killer Queen" (which was the band's first US Top 20 hit rightfully peaking at #12 and pushed the album to #12 in the US and Gold status in sales as a result), the rocking "Flick of the Wrist", the ballad "Lily of the Valley", the weird "In the Lap of the Gods", the ragtime sounding "Bring Back That Leroy Brown" and the closing masterpiece "In the Lap of the Gods...Revisited".
Drummer Roger Taylor wrote the rocking "Tenement Funster".
Finally, bass player John Deacon wrote his first track for the band "Misfire" and is the first of many great tracks he would write for Queen in later years.
Also, all four members of the group co-wrote "Stone Cold Crazy", which was the first song they wrote together as a band. That track would be in the setlist for the next few tours and was also covered by Metallica in 1991. James Hetfield of Metallica also did that track with the surviving members of Queen at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in April of 1992.
Sheer Heart Attack was Queen's first hit album here in the US as it peaked at #11 and attained Gold status (the first Queen album to do so) and was the first taste of things to come for the band.
This album has aged gracefully in the 33 years since release and is highly recommended! November 7, 2007

Una de mis influencias mas grandes en EL ROCK

..Bueno que puedo decir..! realmente no se si han escuchado algo asi, pero la verdad de todo es que es una obra magistral, no cabe la menor duda que en ese momento queen estaba llegando a su cuspide, realmente que no podemos negar de ninguna manera que la influencia glam era notable en QUEEN pero con mucha fuerza y distinción, las palabras sobran para detallar todo lo que se puede decir de SHA ... MI EDAD CUANDO LO ESCUCHE ERA DE 13 AÑOS Y CREO QUE ME ABRIO LA CABEZA DE UNA MANERA IMPRESIONANTE, LAMENTABLEMENTE PARA MUCHOS DE LOS JOVENES DE AHORA ESTO NO SUENE TAN GENIAL PORQUE ESTAN ACOSTUMBRADOS A LA GENIALIDAD CON EL SONIDO DIGITAL PERO SI NOS REMONTAMOS A LA EPOCA..ESTO ES UNA PIEZA QUE NO PUEDE FALTAR EN LA COLLECCION DE UN ROQUERO DE VERDAD, SIN LUGAR A DUDAS ESTO ES UNO DE LOS MEJORES LOGROS DEL GRUPO, PARA MI, CON "QUEEN A NIGHT AT THE OPERA" ¡POR FAVOR NO SE PIERDAN ...APRESURENSE Y APRECIEN ESTO, PUEDA QUE SE LAMENTEN DE NO HABER VIVIDO ESA EPOCA PERO DE TENER...EN LA COLECCION; JAMAS! NUNCA!!! POR FAVOR DEJEN DE TRATAR DE BUSCAR LO QUE YA SE INVENTO HACE 4,3 O 2 DECADAS NO PIERAN EL TIEMPO September 8, 2007

More reviews at Amazon.com ...