Yes-sorry, I missed this album being added!

Queen II:

UK #5 US #49

singles:
"Seven Seas Of Rhye" UK #10

Not a huge fan of this one. Daring-yes. Not my cup of tea darling, for the most part. Too much weird Prog/Glam, but some truly amazing vocal and guitar sounds. It does have an odd appeal in there for sure, so I'd never say I dislike it-just one of my least favorite Queen platters.
"Seven Seas Of Rhye" is fantastic and "Father To Son", "The Loser In The End" and "Funny How Love Is" I do like. As for fairies, ogres and black queens it's just too campy and weird for me to truly embrace. But the performances defy description and who the hell was doing this in 1974? So, for me, the playing outweighs the songs but it's all incredibly original, theatrical and unique.

Queen II is my favorite Queen album. The second side is just a masterpiece, one of the best sides by any artist. White Queen is also an extremely under-rated track. A must have album for any rock collection, and while I was lukewarm to many of the bonus discs included in the recent reissues, the bonus disc for this one is a must-have for any Queen fan.

SHEER HEART ATTACK
(1975)

1. Brighton Rock
2. Killer Queen
3. Tenement Funster
4. Flick Of The Wrist
5. Lily Of The Valley
6. Now I'm Here
7. In The Lap Of The Gods
8. Stone Cold Crazy
9. Dear Friends
10. Misfire
11. Bring Back That Leroy Brown
12. She Makes Me (Stormtrooper In Stilettoes)
13. In The Lap Of The Gods (Revisited)

This is where it really begins for me. Where it begins to get interesting. Sheer Heart Attack is the album where Queen begins to realize its sound in a big way. Musically, it's all over the place, yet it hangs together as cohesive whole. There's sheer magic on this album, beginning with "Brighton Rock" and leading all the way through the album.

While most people will know "Killer Queen," a great single, there are other great songs such as Roger Taylor's "Tenement Funster," which begins a three-song suite, "Now I'm Here," and "Stone Cold Crazy," which Metallica covered to great effect some many years later.

This album is simply great and I would recommend it to anyone. All the Queen trademarks are here: Multi-tracked vocals & guitars, over the top songs and a great sense of humor. I can't say enough good things about this album.

I like most of the tracks on Sheer Heart Attack. But I like both the preceeding album and the following album much more than this one, and I think that's always made Sheer Heart Attack an overlooked album for me. This one also loses a little steam after Stone Cold Crazy, although In the Lap of the Gods (Revisited) is a beautiful, majestic way to end the album.

This was my entrance into the Queen world, although just w/the "Killer Queen" single, not the album. I didn't own the album until it came out on CD (can someone help Jimbo up, please?). "Stone Cold Crazy", "In The Lap Of The Gods" and "Now I'm Here" were later discoveries that I came to love. Another one of those albums that always kind of throws me because it has a title track, just not on this album.

Alan

It's interesting too that the band began recording this album while Brian May recovered from a bout with hepatitus.

I think Brian came in a couple of months into recording. Still, his contributions are significant and I don't find myself going, "Hmm, not enough Brian May on this one."

Sheer Heart Attack:

UK #2 US #11

hit singles:
"Killer Queen" UK #2 US #12
"Now I'm Here" UK #11

Who can hear that finger snapping and not instantly recall Killer Queen?

I like this one a lot, but a touch of it is too Glammy for me and I despise the album cover (sorry Mick Rock). There are some barnstormers here for sure-"Now I'm Here" is amazing and "Brighton Rock", "Tenement Funster", "Flick Of The Wrist" and "Stone Cold Crazy" are just awesome.
I also like "Misfire" and the over-overplayed "Killer Queen" which is still pure genius and those guitar runs and vocals are insane. Again-who was doing this then?
Overall, a definite winner with only a few things I don't care for, and all the more amazing because of May's illness at the time.
P.S.
Doc-have fun with the 5000 comps when it gets to those and no weaseling out of them! I super, sloppy double dare you!

always liked 'she makes me' too. i'll play it at open mic.

Actually, I plan to stop when the regular albums are done, because that's pretty much where I finished off.

I'll cover the comps that came out during the group's active career, but that's it.

A NIGHT AT THE OPERA
(1975)

1. Death On Two Legs (Dedicated To...)
2. Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon
3. I'm In Love With My Car
4. You're My Best Friend
5. '39
6. Sweet Lady
7. Seaside Rendezvous
8. The Prophet's Song
9. Love Of My Life
10. Good Company
11. Bohemian Rhapsody
12. God Save The Queen

If I had to recommend one Queen album above all others, it would be this one. Queen's finest recorded work.

All the elements are here in and in full flower: The booming voice of Freddie, Brian's multi-tracked guitar walls of sound, John Deacon's solid bass work and Roger's drum flourishes. All combined to make Queen's grandest, most over-the-top statement of them all.

Queen was fortunate enough to have the time to really make a masterpiece and the timing was good -- the band was just coming out of a bad business arrangement with their former management and needed a blockbuster hit in order to come out from under the legal and financial mess they'd been plunged into.

Refusing to compromise, the band would not allow their magnum opus "Bohemian Rhapsody" to be hacked up for a single edit and the rest, as they say, is history.

(A funny side note: I first heard this album on a borrowed cassette from a friend with "Seaside Rendezvous" and "Good Company" being swapped in the track order. To this day, those two songs sound out of sequence to me.)

A Night At The Opera:
UK #1 US #4

hit singles:
"Bohemian Rhapsody" UK #1 US #9 (reissued several times it would hit UK #1 in 1991 and US #2 in 1992)
"You're My Best Friend" UK #7 US #16

A masterpiece in every sense of the word and with so many musical styles. I love it and always will. I also think "Love Of My Life" is possibly the most beautiful song ever written. The only song I dislike is "I'm In LOve With My Car" and I really dislike it.
"Sweet Lady", " '39", "Good Company"-so many unsung gems here. And, as sick as I am of it, "Bohmeian Rhapsody" is a mind-blowing accomplishment especially in the days of laying things down on tape and splicing. Holy crap!
Also, "You're My Best Friend" is wonderful despite also being overplayed. So what?

Love this album. It was my first Queen album too. In fact on the golf trip I just got back from......I played the album in whole to our gang while hanging out at the indoor pool one afternoon and everyone was surprised how deep this album is. Not just the big hits but all of the songs. "39" is real special and I've always loved "I'm In Love With My Car" because I have always been in love with a car. One of the heaviest of Queen songs.

The album starts off an a great foot with "Death On Two Legs" a real wow song. And of course the awesome "Prophet Song" a totally under-rated tune in comparison to Bohemian.

You take for granted that people know an album like this one....back in the 70's all my friends knew the album but all these years later....younger people do not. So it is mind blowing to 20 somethings or even 30 somethings when they hear this album a bit deeper than the 2 hits "Your My Best Friend" and "Bohemian Rhapsody".

Everyone was very impressed with "39".

A Night at the Opera is a nearly perfect record. The Prophet's Song is Queen's most under-rated track IMO, surprising since it comes off their most well known album. Never could understand why that song isn't talked about more. There really is no weak track on this. My second favorite Queen record behind Queen II.

love it all the way through. but the next one is my favorite. this ones right up there though.
i've listened to these two a gazillion times. i sometimes lump them together as one piece,
like part one and part two. they were firing on all cylinders during this period.

The surround DTS DVD is also excellent, with a great mix by the king of 5.1 mixes, Elliot Scheiner. If ever an album deserved the surround treatment, it's this one.