Post Description

"Nevermore" and "The March of the Black Queen" highlight this 1974 release

Part of a six-album SHM-SACD reissue series celebrating Queen's 40th anniversary and featuring albums Queen I, Queen II, Sheer Heart Attack, A Night At The Opera, A Day At The Races and News Of The World

Over the course of its career, Queen released 18 albums and 18 No. 1 singles and sold more than 300 million albums worldwide. The band was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003 and the U.K. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. The band received its own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in October 2002.

"Queen II - the first of two albums Queen released in 1974 - was the mini-breakthrough. Part of this was due to diving with abandon into recording experimentation, particularly the elaborate vocal and guitar overdubs that would soon become the band's trademarks. (Guitarist Brian) May wrote most of the music for the album's 'Side White': the stately (if modest by Queen standards) guitar prelude 'Procession' leads directly into the still-statelier would-be rock anthem 'Father to Son'. Sounding like a hippie-era group sing-along crammed face-first into murky, early-70s proto-metal, it's another good example of Queen's penchant for at least attempting to unite disparate musical worlds - even if the end result was more than a bit bloated.

"However, (vocalist Freddie) Mercury's 'Side Black' was the masterstroke, and the first real evidence of the double-decker Fabergé egg that would become Queen's career on record. 'Ogre Battle' (a live holdover from the time of the first record) begins with a long, ominous fade into screeching vocal harmonies and flailing, backwards drums and guitars. The song busts and tumbles its way into the 'The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke', a dry run for the kind of music-hall rock they'd perfect with the next album's 'Killer Queen', and which should probably win a few awards as the world's most apt Queen song title. 'Nevermore' is a piano and vocal ballad that nicely introduces the album's central epic (and direct 'Bohemian Rhapsody' precursor) 'The March of the Black Queen'. And the people noticed: The album produced a United Kingdom hit with a remake of the up-tempo gallop 'Seven Seas of Rhye' from the debut. Dizzying, overstuffed, and unflinching, Queen II is a die-hard fan favorite, and arguably the band's most underrated record." - Pitchfork

1. Procession
2. Father To Son
3. White Queen (As It Began)
4. Some Day One Day
5. The Loser In The End
6. Ogre Battle
7. The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke
8. Nevermore
9. The March Of The Black Queen
10. Funny How Love Is
11. Seven Seas Of Rhye