Did Queen invent the stomp, clap, hey sub-genre of indie slop? Perhaps they did with We Will Rock You, an opening song which is as irritating as the band were at this point in their careers. Queen had drifted far from the hard rock and inspired production values which marked the likes of their self-titled debut and Sheer Heart Attack. How the band managed to follow up A Day at the Races with News of the World, the latter a turgid collection of rock and roll stadium fodder, is unknowable. They pursued not the sound that many would find value in, but what people believed they wanted to hear. Still, give the band some credit; they were just feeding what was popular at the time, and that’s what the band did best. There’s still much to love about News of the World, it’s just how overplayed the first two songs are that makes for a difficult time. But those two songs are far better than having to hear Sheer Heart Attack is a bizarre selection.
One of the many strange problems to feature on News of the World, but none of them was all that ridiculous. We Will Rock You is at least short enough to make note of the stomp and clap repetition, the song an audience can sing back to a band, to make for an understandable opener. Pair that with We Are the Champions, a song that truly does define Queen and their somewhat subtler ego-rubbing, and it’s quite the double bill for News of the World. What’s clear with We Are the Champions is the sincerity of the band as servants to their audience. But then that breeds a growing struggle for Queen, who are stuck playing up to what listeners are expecting, which is more anthemic, operatic-like rock songs from a band whose best sound comes from the hard rock heard on Sheer Heart Attack.
The trouble there, though, is the instrumentals had moved beyond serving the genre and instead serve Brian May and his desire to make even the simple sound complex. The inverse is always more impressive, and it does very little for Queen as a rock outfit. Never finding a balance between those May services and softer rock floaters, like Sheer Heart Attack into All Dead, All Dead is the problem. As much as Queen would like their listeners to spread their wings and fly away, as is the case on Spread Your Wings, they never give an audience the gusto or push to do so with their instrumentals. It’s never quite effective enough to inspire that move from someone, though it does sound nice from time to time. Call to arms track Fight from the Inside is scuppered by the abysmal Get Down, Make Love to follow.
Mercury is not so much a suck on the mind as a drain on it with this meaningless fluff for the second half of News of the World. Give it a bit of time and solid work returns once more to News of the World, though efforts like Who Needs You are too little, too late. It’s a broad stroke from the band there, an acoustic guitar-driven piece where Mercury approves of the instrumental by moaning and saying, “I like it,” rather than interjecting with some stronger commentary. The same shortcoming affects It’s Late, but by this point, the damage is done, and you can just switch off your brain and wait for the end. Many of Queen’s albums run out of steam by the midpoint, but at least the band tries to bring themselves back from the brink on News of the World. A shame it doesn’t work.
Discover more from Cult Following
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
