Queen
40th Anniversary Deluxe Reissue Set
Hollywood Records
This is proving to be quite a year for
Queen. It marks their 40th anniversary,
and in true Queen fashion, the band
is pulling out all the stops to mark the
occasion. So far, they’ve already premiered
a gallery exhibition chronicling
their early years, and they’ve put out a
second
Greatest Hits compilation (their
first was the highest-selling album
ever on the UK charts), in addition
to a handful of special commemorative items for die-hard fans.
However, this all pales in comparison to the main attraction of the
band’s 40th birthday—a complete reissue of their entire catalog,
digitally remastered with a plethora of rarities, some of which
have never seen the light of day. This first box set out of the three
reissue box sets due for release this year contains Queen’s first five
albums: 1973’s Queen, 1974’s
Queen II, 1974’s
Sheer Heart Attack,
1975’s
A Night at the Opera, and 1976’s
A Day at the Races.
First and foremost, let’s just get this out in the open: These
remasters sound incredible. Queen chose the legendary producer
Bob Ludwig to revamp and clean up the original recordings, and
his mastery of the mixing board shines brighter than ever here.
From the soaring breakdown solo of “Brighton Rock” to the
persevering lull of
A Night at the Opera’s classic “’39,” every track
verily gleams with a distinctly audible difference in punch, brilliance,
and clarity.
Brian May’s standout guitar
wizardry stings and soars with
more gusto than ever before, but
the real improvements lie in the
mixing of the band’s ferocious and
highly underrated rhythm section.
Both John Deacon’s bass and Roger
Taylor’s drums have more separation
and room to breathe, which
makes it easier to hear just how
well they fed off of each other. Even
Freddie Mercury’s vocals seem to hit
new heights, flying in the face of
everything logical that says perfection
can’t be improved upon. His
voice has no sonic constraints, moving
within and around each tune
with remarkable fluidity. The detail is so sharp you can hear
subtle movements of his tongue that just weren’t audible before.
Each of the five albums comes with a bonus CD of five or
six songs. Some are from live sessions, but the real gems are five
demos from the 1971 De Lane Lea Studios sessions prior to the
band’s debut album. May already has his trademark nasal tone,
and the fidelity is so good you can hear his six-pence coin scraping
against the strings in the opening gallop of “Keep Yourself
Alive.” The songs don’t have the polish that the later studio versions
had, but the band is still incredibly tight—you don’t feel
like you’re downgrading to a dusty old bootleg, that’s for sure.
The band’s remaining catalog has been remastered in the same
fashion, and it’s due to be released in two five-CD waves later
this year. It’s pretty much everything a hardcore Queen fan could
ask for, and then some.