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Album Review, David Bowie

Blackstar – Album Review

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Context

I like my way to interpret this album, so I’m completely against researching it. The beauty of David Bowie’s Blackstar is its legacy; the death of a music legend. In a way just like Heath Ledger’s role as The Joker. All you need to know is that this album has “death” all over it, and oh boy it shows.

I still have to listen to much of Bowie’s discography, so I’m no expert. However you can always expect the following of a Bowie album: It’s probably good. Yeah, I’m a fanboy.

So to homage Bowie, today being the day he died back in 2016, here’s my Album Review for his last album.

Rating Theme: Dollar Days

 

Blackstar: Intro Song

We start off with the title track and probably the most “WTF” song of the bunch; specially if you watch the music video. I could talk for days and days about “Blackstar”, but how does it rank as an Intro? First of all, it sets the mood perfectly, even though it’s the weirdest and no song reaches its level of crazy in the album. It’s also an extravagant track, with many stuff going on and it lasts for about 10 minutes. So it’s clearly an above average intro. But is it a great one? Does it deserve a 5/5? Man, I think it’s not only a 5/5 Intro Song but it could also be a 5/5 Closing Song. “Blackstar” is weird, but it has a perfect structure, atmosphere and theatricality.

When I listen to “Blackstar” I feel like I’m listening to death and rebirth at the same time. A great achievement.

Grade: 5/5 Dollars 

 

Blackstar: Variation Of Songs

So this album is pretty quick, kinda. It has 41 minutes, but only seven tracks. As stated before the title track has a lot of stuff going on for it. It’s weird space horror, jazzy slick and beautiful melodic all over its run time. There’s a bunch of sounds and instruments, like horns and all that good stuff.

After that we go to “‘Tis a Pity She Was a Whore”, a more straight forward song, that still manages to maintain the mindfuckery of what was established with the opener. This one has some fast, energetic drums that does help break the pacing so far, but still feels like the same album, with weird sounds and horns.

“Lazarus” is “chill and kill”; a term I just created. Like, it flows really smooth, cause of that sweet melodic arrangement, but it still manages to be super moody and eerie. Some might feel kinda uncomfortable; again, specially with the music video.

“Sue (Or In a Season of Crime)” yet again keeps the weird going, and it is all over the place. Very noisy and shit. It’s in the same spirit as the second track, with fast, energetic drums, but way less melodic. Bowie talks trough it, basically.

As we arrive at “Girl Loves Me” we realize the weird shit just got groovy. It’s exactly what you would imagine if you wondered: “Is there a groovy Bowie version of this weird shit I’m listening?” And well, the title track had that in some parts, but “Girl Loves Me” is that from beginning to end. The backing vocals might be too moody for some people though. (I hope some one finds Monday one day.)

“Dollar Days” is feel good track, with a slight touch of “last day of vacation”, in which you’re happy, but sad. It’s not weird like those that came before, so as close as possible to a radio friendly track. It really has some stand out horns in it. Very melodic.

“I Can’t Give Everything Away” is almost like it comes from another album. But those eerie drums and orchestral you’ve been listening still creep their way in. So it’s in a nutshell: The happy version of a “Blackstar” album track. This one could be easily played in the radio without making you wonder about life and death.

That’s all the seven tracks. They sound similar overall, except for the title track (a truly special one) and maybe an argument can be made regarding “Lazarus”. However the album does have variation: some happier parts, groovy instrumental and orchestra. But honestly, the title track has more variation in itself than the rest of the album.

Grade: 4.1/5 Dollars 

If the album felt a little more balanced,  it could’ve been a 5. But it sounds way too moody overall.

 

Blackstar: Closing Song

“I Can’t Give Everything Away” does not feel like a finale. That’s my biggest disappointment with this album. Such brilliant beginning, but a standard melodic friendly track to end it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s a bad song, I’m claiming it doesn’t fulfill the role of ending the album well enough.

Grade: 3/5 Dollars 

Blackstar: Hits & Deep Tracks

Album is not old enough = Hard to say. So we would have to go to my opinion. So this is how I’m gonna do it from now on regarding albums that are recent: “From what I see” (Based on facts) and “Theory From 10 years from now” (My opinion)

From What I See

Hits: “Blackstar” and “Lazarus”. They are present on the only Bowie Hits album released after “Blackstar”, the album. So that’s pretty much it, ma rite? Is there’s another Greatest Hits album I should know of, tell me.

Grade: 3/5 Dollars 

 

10 Years From Now

I believe both of these songs will still  likely be considered the hits from this album. The rest is great, but not as unique as “Blackstar” and “Lazarus”. Maybe a third song can be added, like “I Can’t Give Everything Away”, since it’s the most radio-friendly one. So 3 songs.

Grade: 3.5/5 Dollars 

Blackstar: Album Order

It’s fine. When I listen to it I don’t feel like something is out of place. However, it’s not great, I believe. This album doesn’t exactly makes you feel a “Middle” and “End”. As for “Beginning” it works really well with the combo “Blackstar”, “‘Tis a Pity She Was a Whore” and “Lazarus”. Of course this part is the most subjective of all my categories.

Grade: 2.8/5 Dollars 

*Blackstar: 3.6/5

*Blackstar: 3.7/5

 

“Blackstar” is not a top-shelf David Bowie album for me. However is undoubtedly gonna become his most legendary. I personally love all the albums I heard of Bowie, but this one was “The Death Album”, this one is the last one, it’s very symbolic and final. “Blackstar” = Heath Ledger’s Joker performance.

The “*” refers to 10 Years From Now

The  “*” refers to From What I See

 

 

 

 

 

Album Review, Foo Fighters

Foo Fighters – Album Review

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Context

All you gotta know about this album is: It’s the first Foo Fighters album and Dave Grohl made it by himself (With some contribution here and there, but he wrote everything and recorded it all except for some guitars, according to Wikipedia…) What to expect from a Foo Fighters album? This was the first one, so nobody knew.

Rating Theme: “Fingernails are good”

Foo Fighters: Intro Song

It all starts with “This Is a Call”, a song that can probably make any rock fan go from sad to happy in an instant. However, even though it has the energy, it lacks the requirements of a great opener.

Grade: 2.5/5 Good Fingernails

Foo Fighters: Variation of Songs

Let’s just get this out of the way now: This album is pure rock n’ roll spirit. It’s not a fancy album, it’s not ridiculously complex. “Foo Fighters” is a straight to the point rock album. But are the tracks different? Are they exactly the same?

“This Is a Call” and “I’ll Stick Around” are the first two tracks and they are energetic organic rock songs. So it’s only fair that the third one mixes it up a little. “Big Me” breaks the mold and goes more melodic and less heavy. The same happens with the next track: “Alone + Easy Target”, a more dancy groovy version of the first two songs.

“Good Grief” gets back on track with the “This Is a Call” and “I’ll Stick Around” style. Straight to the point rock n’ roll, much energy; you got it. With “Floaty” we add some more melody to the rock again.

Have you heard “White Limo”? It’s a song from their 2011 album “Wasting Light”. If you did, you might notice that “Weenie Beenie” is like a first version of that song. It’s super heavy compared to the rest of the album so far.

“Oh, George” and “For All The Cows” are both straight to the point rock mixed with more melody and dancy stuff. You can see how the formula works for this album at this point. “X-Static” is a nice change with its very moody instrumental and vocals.

“Wattershed” is a more melodic “Weenie Beenie”. It has that sweet “White Limo” DNA. And for last we get “Exhausted”, a classic moody song in the style of this album. You might call it the very first drafts of “Everlong”.

For what it is, this album is great. However, in my opinion, it gets a little repetitive. Still, Dave Grohl deserves all the music cred for it.

 Grade: 3.3/5 Good Fingernails

Foo Fighters: Closing Song

Like I said before, “Exhausted” is what I call early “Everlong”, which is really good. I think it works for a finale, but the same as the opener, it lacks the requirements. It does deserves the role of final song though, more than “This Is A Call” for a opener; since for me many others could’ve been the first song, but “Exhausted” is the only closing song here.

Grade: 4/5 Good Fingernails

Foo Fighters: Hits & Deep Tracks

Show. Me. The. Hits! There’s one Foo Fighters Greatest Hits album, so I’ll be taking it as my reference. Remember, this category is all about superficial popularity and what makes the Greatest Hits albums.

Hits: “Big Me”, “This Is a Call”

Deep Tracks: The rest.

So we get two hits. That’s good enough.

Grade: 3/5 Good Fingernails

Foo Fighters: Album Order

Alright, so I have no idea if Dave Grohl decided on the order of tracks, but this shit is fine as fuck. It varies the tracks well enough so your ears don’t get bored and they seem like they are from the same album and not a playlist on shuffle. Also, 12 tracks is easy to get annoyed by, good job Foo Fighters. I wouldn’t change a single thing about the order.

Grade: 5/5 Good Fingernails

Foo Fighters: 3.5/5

This album is not top-shelf Foo Fighters, but it is more than a proper debut.

Album Review, Alice Cooper

Billion Dollar Babies – Album Review

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Context

This album was released when Alice Cooper was a band, the original one, one of the seven albums that belong to this era. After that Alice Cooper went solo with “Welcome to My Nightmare”. “Billion Dollar Babies” is the sixth and considerably his best; well at least you’ll find it in almost every top 5 Alice Cooper albums around the internet. I did some detective work on the thematic connection of the album (I went to Wikipedia…) There I found this supposedly statement from Cooper, saying that: “The whole idea behind the Billion Dollar Babies album was exploiting the idea that people do have sick perversions”. I’ll try to find out more about this statement, but for now I’m happy with it, cause it sure makes sense. Lyrics are not the focus here on this review, but I might want to write articles just about them in the future. Alice Cooper’s greatest strength in my opinion are his lyrics and theatricality, so that’s the reason I’m mentioning themes and lyrics in the first place.

When listening to an Alice Cooper album you have to put these thing in mind: The man has been active since the 60’s, so he has plenty of different eras of sound. His lyrics and gimmicks are the cornerstone to his albums no matter what. He’s mainly a horror musician, so expect some dark, creepy and degenerate content.

Now back to “Billion Dollar Babies”.

Rating Theme: related to the song “I Love The Dead” And if you can’t tell by the title, go check out the theme of this song.

Billion Dollar Babies: Intro Song

Weirdly enough “Hello Hooray” was not written by Cooper, but by Rolf Kempf a Canadian musician. However the Alice Cooper band version was quite the hit and is, in my opinion, a fantastic opener for the album. Like come on, even the title is saying hello to you, this one was made to be first.

Grade: 5/5 Sexy Dead Bodies

Billion Dollar Babies: Variation of Songs

Side One

So “Hello Hooray” is a pretty welcoming track. It really feels like the album is starting, with Cooper screaming the title with energetic voice and following with “Let the show begin, I’ve been ready”. It’s a chill song with a piano part that is soothing as fuck, mind my language, and it feels like it’s trying to prepare you for what’s to come. And it does warrant preparation, oh boy it does.

Next we get “Raped and Freezin'”. Surprising enough it is a fun, melodic and danceable track; it gets the feet moving. So not so dark in its instrumental, but check the title again and read the lyrics. “Elected” is not dark though, but it keeps the energy moving. However this isn’t as deancable, but it gains in explosion as Cooper screams the title. Actually his delivery is what makes the song. At the middle of the song one hell of a build up takes place, and from there it only gets more energetic.

Talking about build up… “Billion Dollar Babies”, the track, has probably one of the most memorable build ups in rock and roll history, I kid you not. Keeping up the freshness of every new song so far, the title track is most likely the one with the greatest personality. It has such a unique style with Copper alternating the singing with musician Donovan, that also helped write the song. It feels like there’s something wrong happening, the track is quite eerie and reminiscent of a horror story.

“Unfinished Sweets” is dentist horror story. So this one is for the those that despise going to the dentist. It’s the longest song with 6:18 minutes and it just keeps on the tradition of the album: Every track feels original and with a purpose. This one has an extra surprise when the dentist equipment sounds fuse together with the song and a spy theme begins out of nowhere. Really unique. I believe the spy theme is regarding the “ain’t gonna get me” sentence in the lyrics, as if he wants to run away from the dentist like a spy or whatever.

This finishes the first half of the album. All of the songs except the first one are great examples of top-shelf rock and roll tracks.

Side Two

Now comes rock and roll with radio friendly mixed together, combining to form one of the best rocking tracks of all time. “No More Mr. Nice Guy” is as rocking as its predecessors, but it is clearly made to be heard on the radio. That is not a bad thing though, just pointing it out cause the song get’s a little more poppy with the chorus and such; unlike the five before.

“Generation Landslide” has a damn cool name and it’s what I like to call a “Build Up Song” where the song sounds like it’s building up to something all the time and it makes you lean slightly and keep your eyes peeled for the great release. Oh boy, that harmonica solo is the shit; at the second part of the track it gets wild with the solo I just mentioned and all instruments going crazy; there’s even some “Sympathy for The Devil” percussion there. Another rocking song.

Okay, remember this: “The whole idea behind the Billion Dollar Babies album was exploiting the idea that people do have sick perversions”? The next track is pretty much one of the main reasons and straight to the point examples of this statement being pitch perfect description of the album. “Sick Things” is the evil-looming in the background song. It has some horns in there and a nice bass riff, plus the creepy vocals/back vocals. Alice Cooper sings more like he’s talking to you, and that makes it even more uncomfortable. This is the first not-traditional rock and roll sound so far.

“Sick Things” transition to “Mary Ann” is perfect. This next song is surprising. It’s a piano western saloon track about a lady, as it always is… or not. “Mary Ann I thought you were my man” Oh, Alice Cooper… your lyrics are amazing. It’s as beautiful as it is haunting as it is short. It does break all that rock and roll you heard so far, something “Sick Thing” kinda did, but not as great as “Mary Ann”.

And now this one is for all the dead ladies and gentleman out there. “I Love The Dead” is as rocking as it is a ballad. Following the tradition of “Sick Things”, Cooper seems to be talking to you as if he had you tied on a chair ready to murder you and have sex with your dead body; you know? Pretty light content. This song sounds like a madman’s thoughts. It’s calm, but horrifying. “I Love The Dead” is an anthem of Shock Horror Rock N’ Roll. The most beautiful melody of the album, in my opinion, with a great orchestra behind it. There’s even some grunts and screams mixed with the instrumental that give the track that special something. My favorite being the “Whooooo” screams that start at about 4:10 minutes. They are quick consecutive screams found more noticeable at your right ear.

All in all this album is a guidebook to rock and roll tracks with originality and purpose. They don’t have that much variation of style though, but there is some. We get some spy themes, harmonicas, orchestras, dental equipment sounds, grunts etc. The thing is “Billion Dollar Babies” know it’s a rocking album and tries with success to innovate it, by using that sweet Shock Horror Alice Cooper is known for in the musical history books.

Grade: 4.5/5 Sexy Dead Bodies

Billion Dollar Babies: Closing Song

“I love The Dead” feels like a Grand Finale. Simple as that. I has the scale of a big powerful track that has that explosion and arrangement to end it all.

Grade: 5/5 Sexy Dead Bodies

Billion Dollar Babies: Hits & Deep Tracks

So here is the strong link of the album: It’s all great. A rare thing to see in music, but there are those albums that just perform well in every music. “Billion Dollar Babies” is one of them. However, what are the songs that became objectively hits?

Hits: “Hello Hooray”, “Elected”, “Billion Dollar Babies”, “No More Mr. Nice Guy”

Deep Tracks: “Raped and Freezin'”, “Unfinished Sweets”, “Generation Landslide”, “Sick Things”, “Mary Ann”, “I Love The Dead”

All are great, but those four hits were found in every Alice Cooper’s Greatest Hits of their era. That’s how popular they are. And “No More Mr. Nice Guy” is so popular it is a cultural landmark.

Grade: 5/5 Sexy Dead Bodies

Billion Dollar Babies: Album Order

What can I say against the order? Nothing. The album doesn’t feel like it’s on shuffle. It starts great, it has plenty of fresh, creative and original rocking songs at the bulk of it. Near the end it breaks routine and gives us three peculiar tracks with a lot of new sounds the album didn’t have until that point. It has everything. 10 tracks is the perfect number, since it doesn’t feel like it drags and it’s not too short.

“Billion Dollar Babies” is not an excuse to have one or two big hits. It’s not a formulaic album. It wasn’t made just to make money. It has no filler. Regardless of taste, this album is one for the ages, even if it isn’t your number one Alice Cooper album, it surely is in the top 5 or 3.

Grade: 5/5 Sexy Dead Bodies

 

Billion Dollar Babies: 4.9/5

That’s it, farewell.

Album Review, Muse

Simulation Theory – Album Review

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Context

In a way I like to compare Muse to Queen. When I say that I mean: Both change a lot from album to album. Muse is ever-changing and so “Simulation Theory” marks another kind of Muse, a more “synthwavy” band. They were already into electronic sounds, Muse is a space-rock band after all. But this time they embrace the hell out of it.

When you listen to Muse you gotta keep this in mind: It’s gonna be different than last time. A problem with most Muse fans I met is that they insist in wanting the “Old Muse” back, instead of just enjoying those early albums and be done with it. It’s fine if you don’t enjoy new stuff, but they don’t take away the old stuff. Sorry, I digress.

Back to the album. Inspired by the notorious 80’s Nostalgia, Muse decided to make an actual album again, instead of just releasing singles as they felt like making them. If I recall correctly, in an interview with Radio X, Dominic Howard stated that some of the inspiration to make an album came from the new Arctic Monkeys LP; so thank you Arctic Monkeys.

Rating Theme: Virtual Realities, man.

Simulation Theory: Intro Song

Yep it’s great as usual. If there’s one thing Muse will probably get right is the intro to their albums and “Algorithm” is no joke, fool. It’s practically Muse does synth-wave mixed with classic music. It has that “Wow” factor and the build up is ridiculously good.

Grade: 5/5 Simulations

Simulation Theory: Variation of Songs

So yeah, we covered “Algorithm”. It’s exactly what you would expect from an album with synths. In the same Radio X interview I mentioned earlier Matt Bellamy said the idea was to create this fight between the virtual and classic music. At least this song nailed that idea. This is a very epic feeling song.

Next we have “The Dark Side”. This one has synths to the bone, not as much as the opener, but almost everything is electronic. This track is what I would call an “Always Moving” song. It has this amazing pacing that makes up for it being very repetitive.

Next comes “Pressure”, the one that breaks the expectations. Man, this track is so danceable it’s crazy. The beat is just insanely catchy, real drums here, and the riff is pure rock and roll, baby. A legit rocking song in a very virtual album; a delight for rock fans.

And here comes the supreme variation and experimentation you’ve come to listen regarding Muse. “Propaganda” is the first WTF moment. This song has a robotic voice shouting the title repeatedly, funky rhythm like Prince, slide guitar and explosive build up to the final chorus. And then we get to…

“Break It To Me”. This is even crazier and more of that sweet WTF element. Some heavy funky bass and drums, peculiar vocals, some Bollywood melodies, theremin riff, distorted Tom Morello like guitar solo. I’ll tell you something, it doesn’t get much groovier than this from here on out.

This album has 11 tracks, so there’s no mid point.

Now “Something Human”. A truly chill track. It’s the definition of made for radio. It mixes electronic with acoustic, kinda like the slide guitars in “Propaganda”, but here it is more present. It has a fast paced beat and a lot of effects going on.

Talking about radio-friendly, here it is: “Thought Contagion”. This is what I call a “Chorus Song”, a track that is always building to the “WOWS”. Differently from the other songs, this one has the bass riff as the main focus. The build up to the solo is also great. The main difference of this song to the others is the arena vocals at the chorus, which is clearly made for participation of the crowd, hence the radio-friendly label it gets.

Hey, radio-friendly again. This track is very similar to the last two in the way it is easy to digest for a wide range of people. However “Get Up And Fight” is more formulaic and less complex. It’s pretty much: small verse, big chorus, poppy harmony; it even has clear as day auto-tune. Honestly it has way less synths as well.

It gets epic again with “Blockades”, a real drum song again and another example of a song that nails two made up traits of mine: Always Moving and Build Up Song. “Blockades” never stops and when it it’s getting repetitive, it doesn’t. The slow build up to the epic chorus begins, and it feels as epic as “Algorithm”. And oh boy, that solo is just great, specially cause of the build up it gets.

Back to radio-friendly with “Dig Down”. This one is all synths and “Second Act Explosion”, another music trope I just made up, roll with it. This one brings new things to the table in its soothing and relaxing synths and happy melody. After that it gets even more happy and real instruments are brought back to give the song that epic finale.

And for the finale we arrive at “The Void”, that mirrors “Algorithm” in its battle between electronic and classic music. However shits get dark for real here. “The Void” has orchestra to give it the epic treatment and some top-shelf synths in the mix. About half way trough the song it starts to explode, but it doesn’t. We go back to the Cosmic Pessimism piano melody and it ends with more amazing synths.

“Simulation Theory” is an album that has: Synth Driven tracks (Algorithm, The Dark Side, Dig Down), A rocking track (Pressure), fun radio-friendly (Thought Contagion, Something Human, Get Up And Fight) weird experimental shit (Propaganda, Break It To Me) and a slow piano driven song (The Void).

Grade: 4.2/5 Simulations

Simulation Theory: Closing Song

Yeah, “The Void” is some good shit and it ends everything rather pessimistically. For an album with many radio-friendly stuff, a heavy pessimist deep track like this is really fitting. The idea of Simulation Theory does bring that agony of existential proportion.

Grade: 5/5 Simulations

Simulation Theory: Hits & Deep Tracks

So this is a recent album, henceforth it hasn’t been tested by time yet. However, there has been critical reception and such.

Hits: “Thought Contagion”, “Pressure”.

Deep Tracks: “Algorithm”, “The Dark Side”, “Propaganda”, “Break It To Me”, “Something Human”, “Dig Down”, “The Void”, “Get Up And Fight”.

As far as I know “Pressure” is played a lot on radio and “Thought Contagion” is so damn popular on concerts. We can’t be sure about how these songs will stand without many years from now. So I’ll use my personal experience of facts regarding their popularity.

Regarding modern albums (Those that still haven’t reached 10 years or more of existence) I’ll give two ratings for Hits & Deep Tracks. The classic one, with personal knowledge about facts I know of the song’s popularity. The other being my personal idea of how they will stand the test of time.

So, my theory on Hits & Deep Tracks for the upcoming 10 years or more is:

Hits: “Pressure”

Deep Tracks: The rest.

I say this cause I know this song is the most catchy of the whole album by far and it gets so much radio plays, as far as I know. My opinion is that nowadays for a song to be remembered it has to have high radio exposure and such. Not like in the old days it wasn’t the same, but with the sheer amount of music being made today… it’s hard to stand out.

So I believe if they made a Muse Greatest Hits 10 years from now, “Pressure” will be the only song featured from this album

Grade: 3/5 Simulations

 

Theory Grade: 2.2/5 Simulations

Simulation Theory: Album Order

The Album Order: Where most albums sin. Simulation Theory is no exception. Apart from the “Algorithm” “The Dark Side” transition, “Propaganda” and “Break It To Me” transition and “Dig Down” and “The Void” transition, this album feels like it’s on shuffle to me. Part of having great Variation of Songs is the sin of your album probably feeling like a bad playlist. Similar to another Muse album that has this problem (The 2nd Law), “Simulation Theory” is for the most part incoherent and chaotic. I honestly don’t think there’s a way to organize these songs that’s so much better, so I’ll just leave it at: “Simulation Theory” is an album that feels incoherent for the most part and it doesn’t flow smoothly as an album with a great track order. Multiple songs feel like they could belong to another album easily. This order deserves slightly above average grade, at MAX.

Grade: 2.8/5 Simulations

 

Simulation Theory: 4/5

 

Now the grade with the Theory on Hits & Deep Tracks:

Simulation Theory: 3.8/5

Album Review, Queen

A Night At The Opera – Album Review

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Context

Considered a masterpiece and containing Bohemian Rhapsody in the track list. Queen’s fourth studio album is highly regarded as one of the best, if not The Best of their discography. But is it the shit as they say? I’m gonna give this album my very own breakdown treatment. If you want to know the method before reading this, go to “The Method” in the menu. Let’s move on.

Queen was a weird band that used a lot of piano, varied vocals from their members for unique choirs and they experimented like there was no tomorrow. So for every Queen album expect the unexpected. There will be: At least more than one hit song, good and bad weird shit and songs from different band members; be it just the writing or both writing and vocals. “A Night At The Opera” is their fourth album, so they were already on to their signature style, different from their first and second album, in which they were still looking for it.

Rating Theme: Car related stuff in homage to “I’m In Love With My Car”

A Night At The Opera: Intro Song

Every great album needs a great intro song. On this case we got “Death On Two Legs (Dedicated To…)”. Is it a good song? It’s ridiculously good. Is it a good intro song? It does have the build up of a great intro, the piano, the drama, the energy, the mood. It all fits in the category of an Intro Song pretty well. I think it’s fair to say it’s a more than decent first song. This album is quite the Drama Queen with its extravagant melodies, themes and such, so “Death On Two Legs (Dedicated To…)” does its job. I give it:

Grade: 4/5 Machines of a Dream

 

A Night At The Opera: Variation Of Songs

We have a 12-song-track-list here.

Side One

Starting with two Mercury songs we have the aforementioned “Death on Two Legs” and the second, “Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon”. Both are very different from each other. The first one being more fast paced, heavy and dramatic. And the other being more fun, delightful and slower paced.

Next we get Roger Taylor’s car-fetish tune: “I’m in Love with My Car”. This is a pretty rocking song, like most of Taylor’s are, the same way it’s pretty weird and fun, employing car noises along with the instruments and having some really over dramatic delivery for its lyrics, making it funny since he’s just talking about a car.

Following along we get John Deacon’s track: “You’re My Best Friend”. Another piano heavy track with a more melodic, radio friendly ring to it. Here the the back vocals really shine, in my opinion.

Oh boy, next we get some double trouble with two bangers from Brian May: “’39” and “Sweet Lady”. The first has some really heart feeling melody, it’s mostly acoustic driven and up beat, even though it makes you feel nostalgic for days of past (at least for me). “Sweet Lady” is the second rocking track on the album after Taylor’s car song.

To finish the first side we get another Mercury cool track: “Seaside Rendezvous”. Fabulous piano strikes again in a very classic Mercury song. This one is very similar to “Lazying on a Sunny Afternoon” but it is so much more weird and crazy. At about minute 1:06 there’s some awesome instrumental going on.

 

Side Two

Alright… “The Prophet’s Song”. This is by far the weirdest of them all. That’s both great and bad at the same time. In my opinion the beginning and ending of the song are fantastic, however the middle point is just bananas, bad bananas the way I see it. This is a May song again, his third so far.

“Love of My Life”. It’s just perfect. This is the slow song of the album and the second most emotional. Oh yeah, it’s piano heavy.

Yet again a May song. “Good Company” belongs to the “Lazying on a Sunny Afternoon” feel. It’s fun, whimsical and melodic. Oh, and it’s weirder as well, like “Seaside Rendezvous”.

And finally we get to the masterpiece of masterpieces: “Bohemian Rhapsody”. This song has more variation within itself than the entire album. Actually, it has more variation than a lot of albums. This is a full package. It’s the most weird and experimental, and yet it works very well. Piano has the spotlight, as of course it is another Mercury track.

To end the album May’s “God Save The Queen”, the instrumental song, gives some time for the listener to understand the masterpiece they just heard.

As you can see “A Night At The Opera” is more than decent in its oscillation between rocking songs (“I’m in Love with My Car”, “Sweet Lady”, “The Prophet’s Song”), dramatic songs (“Death on Two Legs”, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “’39”) and fun songs (“Lazying on a Sunny Afternoon”, “Seaside Rendezvous”, “Good Company”). And that ladies and gentleman, is deserving of:

Grade: 5/5 Machines of a Dream 

 

A Night At The Opera: Closing Song

Even though I think “God Save The Queen” is a good ending to the album, nothing should ever follow “Bohemian Rhapsody” honestly. That song is so extravagant, original and unexpected that it should have been the true finale to “A Night At The Opera” in my opinion.

Grade: 3/5 Machines of a Dream

 

A Night At The Opera: Hits & Deep Tracks

Alright, when I say hits I mean: “What are the songs that are remembered the most?” I’m not saying that they are better, but just that they ended up being the big ones for the ages, you dig? Deep Tracks are obviously the ones mainstream Queen fans don’t know about; seriously though, they can be as good as the hits.

Hits: “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Love of My Life”, “You’re My Best Friend” and “I’m in Love With My Car”. The last one was the B-side to “Bohemian Rhapsody”, a big factor in it being a hit.

Deep Tracks: “Lazying on a Sunny Afternoon”, “Death on Two Legs”, “’39”, “Sweet Lady”, “The Prophet’s Song”, “Good Company”, “Seaside Rendezvous” and “God Save The Queen”.

So we got four hits against eight deep tracks. Considering some albums have just one or two hits, I’ll say this is pretty great. In my opinion “’39” is one that should’ve been a hit as well, it is one of my top five Queen songs even.

Grade: 5/5 Machines of a Dream

 

A Night At The Opera: Album Order

As the name of the album already suggests it is very dramatic and it feels like that. All of the songs, even the fun ones, have some extravagant proportion to them that just rhymes really well with “Opera”. It starts really well. It has good variation of songs in the bulk of it. It ends really well.

This is not a Concept Album, so there’s no need to analyse it as one. It is very thematic with its drama thought, so “Death on Two Legs” really does set the mood. Queen is fabulous and this album lives up to this trait. For what it is, “A Night At The Opera” is a masterpiece for sure, having both spectacular Hits and Deep Tracks as well. The only problem I have with this album is the order of the songs. I think “God Save The Queen” is the perfect opening to it, leaving “Bohemian Rhapsody” to finish it of by itself. There’s also other changes. However I’ll put them in this different order down bellow for you, if you want to check if my intuition makes for a better album order. (Not shitting on Queen, just think they messed up the order, nobody is perfect after all).

The reason I criticize the order is that it feels all over the place in a bad way. I mean the songs are amazing, but it feels like it’s on shuffle. What I did was put songs with similar moods together. So we start the “Opera” with the big instrumental “God Save The Queen” and then move on to two “darker”, more heavy hitting melodic songs; number three being less “dark” than the 2nd. So as you listen you get ready for a lighter track that doesn’t make you feel sentimental. These two fun songs are followed by “The Prophet’s Song” that brings the first heavy surprise to the “Opera”. Since this one is 8 minutes long, your ears will be longing for fun again, and that’s when “Seaside Rendezvous” arrives.

At this point you already heard heavy melodic tracks, fun tracks and had a surprise with number “6”. It’s half way trough the album, so let’s get rocking, ma rite? “7” delivers “I’m in Love with My Car” followed by another rocker: “Sweet Lady”. Then before the heavy feelings hit we get another fun track at number “10”. Before the Grand Finale “Love of My Life” takes your guard down by being the first real slow track on the album. And to finish it off, “Bohemian Rhapsody” is like the whole album until now in a nutshell. The perfect ending.

 

Grade: 3/5 Machines of a Dream

A Night At The Opera: 4/5

This is the final score for my method of analyzing albums. “A Night At The Opera” is top-shelf Queen for me. What I did was add all the grades and divide them by the total number of categories of analyses, simple shit. As you can see the Album Order was the factor that fucked it up, but I can’t deny that I dislike this order. So here is my order:

  1. “God Save The Queen”
  2. “Death on Two Legs (Dedicated To…)”
  3. “’39”
  4. “Lazying on a Sunny Afternoon”
  5. “You’re My Best Friend”
  6. “The Prophet’s Song”
  7. “Seaside Rendezvous”
  8. “I’m in Love with My Car”
  9. “Sweet Lady”
  10. “Good Company”
  11. “Love of My Life”
  12. “Bohemian Rhapsody”

Well, that’s it. See ya.