For all the praise the albums to follow received, none of them quite captured the glam rock magic of Queen’s debut. Sure, A Night at the Opera may be a production masterclass, but it lost its way with its superfluous, shallow instrumental work. Queen, however, has a magnificent balance between sharp songwriting, which would highlight Freddie Mercury’s talent and a lead guitar piece from Brian May that feels like it matters to the core of the song, rather than a collection of notes thrown together. That much is made clear from the first moments of Queen, an album as unlikely as it is marvellous. A triumph for the band, whose work would peak soon after and fall into the foul pop rock arena, which has taken so many of our great creatives. Stick to the early years of the band, though, and you can at least hear some of those inevitable notes of love and drugs turned on their head. Few are referring to the women they’ve bedded as a “belladonic haze”.
But the opening track Keep Yourself Alive does just that and makes room for a drum solo too. Classy stuff, creativity reigns free on Queen and, crucial to any successful-sounding, stylish rock and roll effort, it sounds like the band themselves are enjoying themselves. Variety is what Queen lacked on the albums to follow. They found themselves in a gold-plated rut where everything they touched topped the charts. What they find in comfort, they lose in experimentation. Doing All Right may be the very best, beyond Stone Cold Crazy, that Brian May has ever sounded on guitar. Great King Rat features excellent work too but the driving force of the song is the vocal range Mercury displays throughout. There’s more of a focus on Roger Taylor’s drumming, too, which would become less the point of Queen on later releases.
You can hear it already beginning to slip with the piano-heavy fantasies of My Fairy King, a nice but underwhelming piece which halts the album in its defiant, rocking tracks. Instrumentally effective pieces of progressive rock-like work appear once more with Liar, a solid mix of acoustic and electric guitar leading the way on that track. The Night Comes Down is the most surprising track of all. Softer instrumentals, a wonderful message that still holds up, and a sound which seems to have influenced more bands than Queen would on their future releases. It’s a bold, ambitious song which instead of amplifying its points, takes the time to peel back the layers with softer, suggestive tones. Magnificent work on that song, one of the many highlights to be found on this self-titled debut.
Queen begins to lose steam in the latter half, but so did the band. Their debut is a complete overview of their quality, a strength they would lose fascinatingly fast through the releases to follow. Son and Daughter is an absolute masterclass from the band. Lyrically and instrumentally complete, the suggestiveness of their pop hits without the dumbed-down sound or lacklustre lyrics. There was a time when Queen could have been a lively, spirited band with honest comments on tough topics from life. But that passed them by and they, like so many artists would very rightly do, chose to be popular over persuasive, contemplative songwriters. Queen stands as a testament to what could have been had their abilities been worked over on cultural commentaries, rather than the Flash Gordon soundtrack and a flimsy David Bowie collaboration.
