Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 04/13/2004
Queen were straining at the boundaries of
hard rock and
heavy metal on
Sheer Heart Attack, but they broke down all the barricades on
A Night at the Opera, a self-consciously ridiculous and overblown
hard rock masterpiece. Using the multi-layered guitars of its predecessor as a foundation,
A Night at the Opera encompasses
metal (
"Death on Two Legs," "Sweet Lady"),
pop (the lovely, shimmering
"You're My Best Friend"), campy British
music hall (
"Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon," "Seaside Rendezvous"), and mystical
prog rock (
"'39," "The Prophet's Song"), eventually bringing it all together on the pseudo-operatic
"Bohemian Rhapsody." In short, it's a lot like
Queen's own version of
Led Zeppelin IV, but where
Zep find dark menace in bombast,
Queen celebrate their own pomposity. No one in the band takes anything too seriously, otherwise the arrangements wouldn't be as ludicrously exaggerated as they are. But the appeal -- and the influence -- of
A Night at the Opera is in its detailed, meticulous productions. It's
prog rock with a sense of humor as well as dynamics, and
Queen never bettered their approach anywhere else. [In 2005,
Hollywood Records released a two-disc, remastered
30th Anniversary CD/DVD of
A Night at the Opera that included a DVD featuring original and new videos, as well as audio commentary from the band.]
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
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