Originally published by L.S. Media. June 28th 2011.
As part of the next batch of re-releases to celebrate Queen’s 40th anniversary celebrations, Universal Music have released four studio albums and the soundtrack from the film Flash Gordon.
In 1977 the band released News of the World with much expectation after the mixed reviews the band got over their previous release A Day at the Races. If there were any doubts or misconceptions about the forthcoming album during the summer of 77 then by the time the first songs hit the airwaves in the autumn of that year they were soon forgotten and omitted from people’s memories as the double A side of We Will Rock You/ We are the Champions stormed up the charts to a peak of number 2 in the British singles charts and number 4 in America.
The album opens with both these songs in a well worked use of stadium and audience participation that would become the main stay of their set many years after the first recording. The time sequence at the beginning of We Will Rock You giving that perfect stomp, stomp, clap, pause effect that has Queen fans all over the world shiver in anticipation at the thought of what is to come.
It’s easy to be glib after the fact but News of the World should be looked at as the natural successor to the Queen’s fourth album A Night at the Opera. Each song on the record seems well worked and even gave John Deacon another crack of the whip in the art of having written another classic song, the beautiful and tantalising Spread Your Wings which is notable as the first Queen single not to use any vocal harmony. Its uniqueness adding to the charm of the song which tells the tale of a frustrated bar worker watching the shows night after night and wishing he could be part of the action.
Although not quite as convincing or strong as one of his earlier offerings on other albums, Roger’s Fight from the Inside and Sheer Heart Attack give the album a certain punch and authority that may have had the album slipping into a melancholic overdose without them.
The final song of the album shows the bands next stop on the road to chart dominance, with the drop dead gorgeous My Melancholy Blues. This last song isa wonderful product of self inertia that shows the best of vocalist Freddie Mercury’s self confessed amazing ability to make even the tightly wrapped sadness and thoughts of utter dejection that prevails within each superb line seem quite joyful and worthy of praise.
News of the World is a fantastic album that should have done so much better than the high peak of number four it attained. Brutally clever, sanguine and with just the right amount of panache that would see the band through the next four albums.
Ian D. Hall