A Night at the Opera by Queen
You suck my blood like a leech
This album is a classic and generally very well regarded. It's quite grand and doesn't take itself too seriously.
Unfortunately, like a lot of classic albums around this time period it's also quite single heavy. Though most of the non-singles are still fine songs, they lack a lot of the style and appeal the singles on this record do. If the non-singles followed a similar grand audaciousness like the best tracks here do this would probably be one of my favourite albums. A lot of later Queen albums suffer from the same sort of thing, and in my opinion exposes a reliance of aesthetics rather than heart when it comes to songwriting. The music itself has a lot of depth but I don't feel like they're trying to communicate something outside of how cool the music sounds. In The Prophet's Song, the track has an acapella breakdown that goes for like a minute and a half into a pretty sick guitar solo section. I pretty much enjoy the entire track except for the stylistic acapella section, I think it's too long and is an example of the many times Queen tends to lean on aesthetics and style over what might actually serve the song better.That isn't to say this album isn't a complete bop though, and in terms of style and substance this album definitely gets that ratio a lot better than future Queen albums do. I really like a good handful of tracks here, and the songs I don't vibe with are still definitely high quality. My favourite aspects of the album is how unserious it is, every grand gesture of style is met with a self-awareness which I think enhances the way I listen to the songs. Instead of being a simple pastiche it's a heartfelt expression of a love for a certain style and aesthetic of rock music. It also sounds so quintessentially and unashemedly British compared to a lot of other British rock bands.
Favourites: Death on Two Legs, Sweet Lady, Bohemian Rhapsody