Queen II
| Queen II | ||||||||||
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Vinyl - USA - 1st edition. |
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Queen II is a progressive rock album, and the second studio album by Queen. It was produced by Roy Thomas Baker, Robin Geoffrey Cable, and Queen, and published on vinyl on 1974-03-08.
The album has a white and black theme to it with the sides being labeled, not A and B, but rather white and black. The white side is mostly Brian May's songs which are a combination of soft rock and ballads with a lighter sound and introspective lyrics, while the black side is all Freddie Mercury's songs which have a harder progressive rock sound, and have fairy tale themes. The sides also feature a matching song about a queen, white has May's White Queen (As It Began), black has The March of the Black Queen (Freddie's first epic). The two songs are unrelated, but each is fantastic in their own way. The cover art is mostly black with the interior being mostly white. The layout of the cover would later be used for the video to Bohemian Rhapsody. The black and white style stuck with the band for several more years, and the cover art of A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races both feature the dichotomy of white and black.
The Ogre Battle series of video games derives its name from two songs from this album: Ogre Battle and The March of the Black Queen.
Contents
Personal
| Own? | Yes. US vinyl, Hollywood Records CD, original master in the Crown Jewels. |
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This was the second album I bought for myself, the first being Sheer Heart Attack, and, being only familiar with Queen's greatest hits and Sheer Heart Attack songs, I remember initially being disappointed by how mellow the songs are. I was expecting more of the arena rock and hark rock I was used to but the first songs I heard were the softer white side. After I gave the album another chance, I found that the second half of the album contained Freddie's harder songs and I began to like the album more. However, as my teenage self began dealing with personal issues, in particular relationships problems, I began to gravitate towards Brian's more introspective songs. Now I adore the album entirely, and it is one of my favorite albums.
Track Listing
This album has an interesting structure where several songs merge seamless into others. Procession merges into Father to Son, Ogre Battle merges into The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke, which merges into Nevermore, and The March of the Black Queen merges into Funny How Love Is.
| Track | Title | Writer(s) | Vocals | Rank | Rating |
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| A1 | Procession | Brian May | Instrumental | 10 | 
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| A2 | Father to Son | Brian May | Freddie Mercury | 3 | 
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| A3 | White Queen (As It Began) | Brian May | Freddie Mercury | 1 | 
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| A4 | Some Day One Day | Brian May | Brian May | 5 | 
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| A5 | The Loser in the End | Roger Taylor | Roger Taylor | 7 | 
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| B1 | Ogre Battle | Freddie Mercury | Freddie Mercury | 11 | 
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| B2 | The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke | Freddie Mercury | Freddie Mercury | 6 |
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| B3 | Nevermore | Freddie Mercury | Freddie Mercury | 9 |
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| B4 | The March of the Black Queen | Freddie Mercury | Freddie Mercury | 2 |
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| B5 | Funny How Love Is | Freddie Mercury | Freddie Mercury | 8 |
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| B6 | Seven Seas of Rhye | Freddie Mercury | Freddie Mercury | 4 |
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The album's total score is 1,624.
Media
Covers
The original vinyl cover art uses high contrast which blacks out most of detail. There is also a sepia color for the foreground.
The gatefold of the vinyl album, showing more of the black/white theme.
The remastered album uses the same photograph, but it's unadulterated.
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Links
