Queen – A Night at the Opera (1975)

This must be one of the best albums ever created. It's also a very successful album in terms of sales. Over 6 million copies of this album have been sold world wide. I feel like this kind of thing doesn't happen as much anymore that a record would be successful according to sales, hailed by the critics and loved for many years to come. Of course no records sell as much anymore. I bought this album on vinyl reasonably late. I found it at Notting Hill street market with £10 when I had just moved to London. I didn't even have a vinyl player here at the time, but I just felt like I had to own such a classic on vinyl. I always try to find these kinds of classics with quite affordable prices on used vinyl, as I think they have more feel to them than brand new LPs do. I'm not too fussed about them being originals, but there's still something about buying used records.



It's probably almost impossible to make these kinds of records anymore. Queen didn't have the songs ready when they went to the studio. They spent months on end finishing up all of the songs to the perfection, composing while they were at the studio. This kind of studio time would be way too expensive and no record company would pay for such a crazily ambitious project. Of course, nowadays it's possible to record stuff in home studios and some rich musicians even own their own recording studios, but I still don't think anyone makes albums like this anymore.

The vocal harmonies on this album are just insane. Just listen to a cappella singing in songs like Prophet's Song. Of course Bohemian Rhapsody is often mentioned as the best song ever written. I would be almost ready to agree there. It's just an insane song. I remember the car singing scene in Wayne's World vividly. I used to watch that film quite a lot growing up and that scene was one of my favourites. I've also sung Bohemian Rhapsody with a drunken choir in many university events and later on with colleagues. There's nothing quite like a drunken choir singing their heart out on this really complex song.

The songs on this album are really varied. There are influences from heavy metal, hard rock, music hall, progressive rock and maybe even actual opera. Many of these songs are lost on the general public these days as full length albums don't mean as much anymore and people just listen to individual songs on Spotify. I feel like you really lose something important unless you listen to full albums. Only two songs from this album were on Queen's first compilation album.

My personal favourite from this album might be Love of My Life. This amazing ballad is so incredibly beautiful that it brings shivers all down my spine. There's really no other singer like Freddie Mercury. Brian May on the other hand shows his best guitar playing in Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon. He has such a personal sound in his guitar that it's very recognisable even if you don't hear  the vocals. I also have to give my two thumbs up to John Deacon for his bass lines. These are often overlooked in Queen's music, but the bass playing is very good on their albums.

Bohemian Rhapsody music video is a classic. Even in the time when bands didn't make that many music videos, this video managed to influence many other bands in making similar kinds of visuals on their videos and it also sparked many parodies. Watching this video, I just wish that I had had a chance to see Queen live back in the day.

I don't really listen to Queen that much on a regular basis anymore, but it will always be one of the most important bands to me. I grew up with them, they are constantly still playing on the radio and on television and they've had a massive influence on the music after them. A Night at the Opera is probably their most ambitious and influential albums. I'm glad I own it on proper vinyl!

Listen to the album on Spotify.