Sheer Heart Attack (1974)

 

Sheer Heart Attack

Artist: Queen
Release Year: 1974

Rating: 7/10

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Track Listing: 1) Brighton Rock; 2) Killer Queen; 3) Tenement Funster; 4) Flick of the Wrist; 5) Lily of the Valley; 6) Now I'm Here; 7) In the Lap of the Gods; 8) Stone Cold Crazy; 9) Dear Friends; 10) Misfire; 11) Bring Back That Leroy Brown; 12) She Makes Me; 13) In the Lap of the Gods...Revisited.

Out of all the Queen albums out there, this is the one I find the hardest to write about.  It's like all the energy and showmanship is present, but the form has yet to coalesce, leaving all these disparate elements to flail around in multiple directions, all in the hope of merging into brilliance.  The band's boogie and hard rock roots are on display on songs like "Stone Cold Crazy" and "Leroy Brown", but those are hardly the focus here.  The operatic enthusiasm and theatrical bombast come through in the likes of "Lily of the Valley" and "In the Lap of the Gods", which are pretty, but lack the structure needed to make them into classics.

The band must have known this, too, because they made sure to put the very best stuff first.  "Killer Queen" is the same immortal classic everyone knows and loves, but it's "Brighton Rock" that really deserves special mention.  As much fun as the frantic falsetto verses are, the chugging riff soon moves us into the triumphant, almost hymn-like chorus of "OHHH, ROCK OF AGES", followed by a breathtaking guitar freakout that drags us through a flashing, neon-colored blur of different worlds, like David Bowman going through the StarGate or something.  Sorry...you'll just have to listen to it, because nowhere else will you ever hear Brian May playing like this.

Still, there are some really nice moments outside of the first two tracks.  "She Makes Me" is a nice smooth ballad with some real feeling above the band's usual showbiz-first philosophy, and the transition from the weird verses in "Now I'm Here" to the epically overblown chorus has to be the stuff of legend.  And, yeah, it's trite at this point to trot out the usual praises for Freddie's vocals, but I can't help mentioning him at least once.  If not for him, I suspect I'd have less patience for a lot of the theatrical songs.

Overall, not a bad album by any means-- just one that could use a bit more refining, as they would do in spectacular fashion a year later.