Queen - Queen [Hollywood Records] [EAC-FLAC] [RePoPo]

******************************************************************************* Queen - Queen I (1973) ******************************************************************************* In 1993, Hollywood Records released the Queen studio albums in USA, including exclusive bonus tracks on each album. This rip comes from that batch. CD: Queen - Queen 01. Keep Yourself Alive [0:03:46.70] 02. Doing All Right [0:04:09.40] 03. Great King Rat [0:05:41.62] 04. My Fairy King [0:04:08.45] 05. Liar [0:06:26.40] 06. The Night Comes Down [0:04:23.30] 07. Modern Times Of Rock 'N' Roll [0:01:48.28] 08. Son & Daughter [0:03:21.15] 09. Jesus [0:03:44.25] 10. Seven Seas Of Rhye [0:01:15.45] Bonus tracks: 11. Mad the Swine [Previously Unreleased] [0:03:21.25] 12. Keep Yourself Alive [Long Lost Retake] [0:04:04.42] 13. Liar [remix by John Luongo and Gary Hellman] [0:06:26.50] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ALLMUSIC REVIEW ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine Like any patchy but promising debut from a classic rock group, it's often easy to underrate Queen's eponymous 1973 debut, since it has no more than one well- known anthem and plays more like a collection of ideas than a cohesive album. But what ideas! Almost every one of Queen's signatures are already present, from Freddie Mercury's operatic harmonies to Brian May's rich, orchestral guitar overdubs and the suite-like structures of "Great King Rat." That rich, florid feel could be characterized as glam, but even in these early days that appellation didn't quite fit Queen, since they were at once too heavy and arty to be glam and — ironically enough, considering their legendary excess — they were hardly trashy enough to be glam. But that only speaks to the originality of Queen: they may have traded in mystical sword 'n' sorcerers themes like so many '70s prog bands, and they may have hit as hard as Led Zeppelin (and Jimmy Page's guitar army certainly was a forefather to May's overdubs), but they didn't sound like anybody else, they were too odd in their theatricality to be mistaken for another band. That much was apparent on this debut, but one thing was crucially missing: songs that could coalesce their sound and present it in a memorable fashion. There is an exception to that rule — the wild, rampaging opener "Keep Yourself Alive," one of their very best songs — but too often the album plays like a succession of ideas instead of succinct songs, and the group's predilection for suites only highlights this, despite the occasional blast of fury like "Modern Times Rock & Roll." This can be quite appealing as sheer, visceral sound and, in that regard, Queen is kind of irresistible. It showcases the band in all their ornate splendor yet it's strangely lean and hard, revealing just how good the band was in their early days as a hard rock band. That might not quite make it an overlooked gem — it remains patchy on a song for song basis — but it sure makes for an interesting debut that provides a rough road map to their later work. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOME SONGS REVIEWED BY ALLMUSIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KEEP YOURSELF ALIVE Song Review by Ed Rivadavia After nearly two years honing their ambitious sound (part embryonic heavy metal, part grandiose opera) through constant rehearsals, Queen was given their first lucky break in mid-1972, when newly founded Trident Studios offered them free recording time in exchange for testing their equipment. Such unusual access to top-notch recording equipment (even if during studio down-time) allowed the band ample time to craft their eponymous debut, an album which, thanks to this rare privilege, was technically superior to most first efforts. And no track better represented Queen's studio savvy and facility with technology than eventual album opener and first single "Keep Yourself Alive." Coined by guitarist Brian May, whose uncanny talent for manipulating his instrument's tone and texture were already remarkably well developed at this early stage, the song's lyrics would seem, on the surface, to describe a complacent band satisfied with their current lot. But even if his performance is not quite as commanding as on subsequent albums, just one listen to Freddie Mercury's spitting, rapid-fire delivery reveals that the song is, in truth, an irrepressible ode to sheer ambition, and reveals all of Queen's desire to achieve rock stardom no matter the cost. Still, when it was released as a single in July 1973 (backed with another May composition, "Son & Daughter"), "Keep Yourself Alive" was given mixed reviews and received little to no radio airplay. In fact, like the first album, it failed to chart on either side of the Atlantic and was considered quite a disappointment, leaving the band facing an uncertain future for the six months which preceded their successful third single "Seven Seas of Rhye," after which their fortunes finally began to rise. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LIAR Song Review by Donald A. Guarisco This epic rocker was the centerpiece of Queen’s debut album. The verses take the form of a dialogue between the protagonist (represented in the verses) and the forces against him (represented by the chorus) as they presented a tormented soul who yearns for religious guidance but is shunned as a "liar." By the end, the lyrics spurn organized religion altogether: "Liar, liar, they never ever let you win/Liar, liar, everything you do is sin/Liar, nobody believes you/Liar, they bring you down before you begin." The operatic style of these lyrics is fully supported by the music, which goes through many tempo changes and different sections as it combines folky, ascending verses and a stomping chorus with instrumental and vocal bridges that pull the song in other directions. Queen’s recording of "Liar" wraps this complex tale in a grand, bombastic arrangement that alternates delicate acoustic touches on the verses with surging waves of power chords during the instrumental bridges and the chorus. It also works in a cowbell-driven percussive breakdown for the song’s penultimate vocal bridge that pushes the drama to a frantic peak. Freddie Mercury tops it off with a suitably dramatic vocal that ranges from a falsetto whisper to a baritone roar and his impressive efforts are cushioned by operatic harmonies from Brian May and Roger Taylor. It all added up to an artsy but powerful rocker that became a backbone of Queen’s early live shows and became a cult favorite with the group’s fans. More importantly, its grandiosity a solid prototype for later, even more ambitious pomp-rockers like "Brighton Rock" and "Bohemian Rhapsody." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE NIGHT COMES DOWN Song Review by Donald A. Guarisco Queen’s first album differs from many debut albums because it shows an unusually high level of technical polish in its songwriting and arrangements. A good example of this advanced craftsmanship is "The Night Comes Down," an ambitious song that combines a delicate melody with a hard-driving arrangement to create an intriguing fusion of ballad and rocker. The lyrics seem to chronicle the disillusion that many people felt when the late 1960's gave way to the early 1970's as they portray a distraught soul lamenting the magic he can no longer feel in life: "Once I believed in everyone/Everyone and anyone can see/Oh, the night comes down/And I get afraid of losing my way." The melody contrasts gentle, yearning verses with a rousing chorus that adds an earthy element of heaviness into the mix. Queen’s recording of "The Night Comes Down" gives the song a complex arrangement that shows off Brian May’s considerable guitar skills: gently, chiming acoustic guitar textures underpin the verses while heavier, electric slide guitar textures support the chorus. Also, this recording alternates the vocalized parts of the song with instrumental sections that build up a tapestry of fast-moving acoustic and electric guitar riffs over a steady beat. The end result transforms what could have been a simple ballad into the kind of complex, multi-tiered rock epic that Queen has become known for. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SEVEN SEAS OF RHYE Song Review by Ed Rivadavia Though it had failed to chart, Queen's eponymous 1973 debut album had generated enough of a buzz to secure them a support slot on Mott the Hoople's U.K. tour. This, in turn, served to introduce the band's bombastic stage show to large audiences and earned them quite a reputation, leading to their being voted Britain's "third most promising act" in the January 1974 by the respected music weekly Sounds ( Nazareth and Blue took the top spots). Interest in the band was clearly building, but they still needed one more stroke of luck to break through. Then, shortly after returning from a dismal visit to Australia (and being met at the airport by hordes of confused press agents mistakenly expecting her majesty, the Queen), the band was offered a last minute replacement slot on Top of the Pops. Understandably, they jumped at the opportunity, premiering "Seven Seas of Rhye" from their as yet unreleased second album Queen II on February 21st. Once little more than an instrumental musical sketch closing their first album, the track had been properly fleshed out for Queen II, and was rush-released as a single (backed with a non-album track, "See What a Fool I've Been") a mere two days later. A short, compact slice of Queen's "anything goes" creative mentality, the song combined majestically chorused vocals with an energetic Freddie Mercury piano figure and Brian May's soon-to-be trademark guitar orchestrations, before concluding with a sea chantey of sorts. And while it is now one of Queen's least remembered singles, "Seven Seas of Rhye" became their first chart entry after being accepted for airplay by BBC's Radio One -- a landmark event for Queen which persuaded Mercury to finally quit his day job working at his clothes stall at Kensington Market. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EAC LOG EXTRACT ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 4 from 23. January 2008 EAC extraction logfile from 19. June 2009, 14:28 Queen / Queen Used drive : HL-DT-STDVD-RAM GSA-H55N Adapter: 0 ID: 0 Read mode : Secure Utilize accurate stream : Yes Defeat audio cache : Yes Make use of C2 pointers : No Read offset correction : 102 Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes Used interface : Installed external ASPI interface Gap handling : Appended to previous track Used output format : User Defined Encoder Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s Quality : High Add ID3 tag : No Command line compressor : F:Archivos de programaExact Audio CopyFLACFLAC.EXE Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%a" -T "TITLE=%t" -T "ALBUM=%g" -T "DATE=%y" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%n" -T "GENRE=%m" -T "COMMENT=%e" %s -o %d ... No tracks could be verified as accurate You may have a different pressing from the one(s) in the database No errors occurred End of status report ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ (A REQUEST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's usual to post comments only to complain about a torrent which doesn't work in your configuration. It's normal, after a few hours/days downloading and expecting a release, to feel deceived if it doesn't work properly, and expressing this is legitimate. I've often found one comment (negative) on a movie/CD downloaded by 2000+ people, and since that single negative feedback, people simply stop downloading and therefore, sharing. But a few times it was due not to the torrent itself, but to some issues on the downloader side (not updated codecs, misused tools...), and that's unfair for the person who took the time to share it for free. 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