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

******************************************************************************* Queen - Queen II (1974) ******************************************************************************* 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 II YEAR: 1974 01. Procession [0:01:10.65] 02. Father To Son [0:06:14.62] 03. White Queen (As It Began) [0:04:35.43] 04. Some Day One Day [0:04:21.65] 05. The Loser In The End [0:04:03.30] 06. Ogre Battle [0:04:07.22] 07. The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke [0:02:33.18] 08. Nevermore [0:01:26.25] 09. The March Of The Black Queen [0:06:33.00] 10. Funny How Love Is [0:02:50.52] 11. Seven Seas Of Rhye [0:02:48.70] Bonus tracks: 12. See What a Fool I've Been [Original B-Side] [0:04:38.28] 13. Ogre Battle (1991 Bonus Remix By Nicholas Sansano) [0:03:29.47] 14. Seven Seas of Rhye 1991 Bonus Remix By Freddy Bastone) [0:06:35.15] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ALLMUSIC REVIEW ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine In one regard, Queen II does indeed provide more of the same thing as on the band's debut. Certainly, of all the other albums in Queen's catalog it bears the closest resemblance to its immediate predecessor, particularly in its lean, hard attack and in how it has only one song that is well-known to listeners outside of their hardcore cult: in this case, it's "Seven Seas of Rhye," which is itself more elliptical than "Keep Yourself Alive," the big song from the debut. But these similarities are superficial and Queen II is a very different beast than its predecessor, an album that is richer, darker, and weirder, an album that finds Queen growing as a band by leaps and bounds. There is still a surplus of ideas, but their energies are better focused this time around, channeled into a over-inflated, pompous rock that could be called prog if it wasn't so heavy. Even with all the queens and ogres that populate Queen II, this never feels as fantastical as Genesis or Uriah Heep, and that's because Queen hits hard as a rock band here, where even the blasts of vocal harmonies feel like power chords, no matter how florid they are. Besides, these grandiose harmonies, along with the handful of wistful ballads here, are overshadowed by the onslaught of guitars and pummeling rhythms that give Queen II majesty and menace. Queen is coiled, tense, and vicious here, delivering on their inherent sense of drama, and that gives Queen II real power as music, as well as a true cohesion. The one thing that is missing is any semblance of a pop sensibility, even when they flirt with a mock Phil Spector production on "Funny How Love Is." This hits like heavy metal but has an art-rock sensibility through and through, which also means that it has no true hook in for those who don't want to succumb to Queen's world. But that kind of insular drama is quite alluring in its own right, which is why Queen II is one of the favorites of their hardcore fans. At the very least, it illustrates that Queen is starting to pull all their ambitions and influences into a signature sound, and it's quite powerful in that regard. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOME SONGS REVIEWED BY ALLMUSIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHITE QUEEN (AS IT BEGAN) Song Review by Donald A. Guarisco Much of Queen II concerned itself with grandiose, fantasy-inflected tales of ogres and fairies but a few of its songs had an earthier, more emotional pull to them. The best example of this tendency on the album is "White Queen (As It Began)," a lilting ballad that has become a cult favorite amongst many Queen aficionados. The lyrics create a somber mood as they mourn a graceful woman who is no longer around: "Dear friend, goodbye/No tears in my eyes/So sad it ends/As it began." The music combines gentle verse built on fluttering runs of notes with a grittier staccato chorus that wrings its few notes for all the emotion they’re worth. Queen’s recording of "White Queen (As It Began)" is as lushly- textured as the rest of the Queen II album yet much more subtle in its overall approach: the verses slowly add and subtract layers of guitar textures and backing vocals to dramatic effect and power chords and thunderous drum rolls are sparingly doled out on the chorus. The real bombast is saved for the instrumental break, which trots an array of guitar riffs that are woven into one overpowering (yet lovely) cascade of sound. Freddie Mercury tops it off with a tender yet impassioned vocal that captures the heartache of the lyrics nicely. All these carefully deployed elements made "White Queen (As It Began)" a strong mood piece and as effective in its own way as heavier, more overtly complex items like "Seven Seas Of Rhye." This song never got an official single release but was later included on 1977 British release Queen’s First EP, a maxi-single that gave the song a belated top-20 charting in the U.K. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OGRE BATTLE Song Review by Donald A. Guarisco Although they would tackle a variety of style and musical textures over the year, Queen began its life pursuing combination of metal and prog elements usually dominated by fantasy lyrics. An interesting sample of this early style is "Ogre Battle," a stomping tune that would be perfectly at home on a Ronnie James Dio-era Rainbow album. The lyrics feel like they were lifted directly from a J.R.R. Tolkien novel as they chronicle a battle with a race of ogres: "The ogre men are coming out/From the two-way mirror mountain/They’re running up behind and they’re coming all about/Can’t go east ‘cause you gotta go south." The music crossbreeds pop and rock elements, using fanciful, fluttery pop phrasing in the verses to put across the verbose lyrics with speed but taking on a punchier, rock-inflected tone for the chorus to give it shot of power that balances the song’s purely pop elements. Queen’s recording of "Ogre Battle" pushes the song into hard-rock overdrive thanks to an arrangement that starts with psychedelic backwards tape loops that give way to a powerhouse sound driven by choppy, churning guitar riffs and pounding drums. The group enriches the sound with a dense layer of high-pitched backing vocals that add sweetness to balance out the song’s metallic content and Freddie Mercury completes the song with an exuberant vocal that captures the excitement of the lyrics. The result was a densely layered rocker that pointed the way towards future Queen studio epics like "The Prophet’s Song" and "Bring Back That Leroy Brown." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CUETOOLS' ACCURATERIP STATUS REPORT ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Verification date: 20/06/2009 9:50:06] [Disc ID: 001b8e62-012671a3-d00d010e] Track [ CRC ] Status 01 [374c5c6a] (00/06) No matches 02 [9ea266b3] (00/06) No matches 03 [498a7969] (00/06) No matches 04 [473418d2] (00/06) No matches 05 [701a5ec2] (00/06) No matches 06 [6d4c4313] (00/06) No matches 07 [b86c0d23] (00/06) No matches 08 [54b882e9] (00/06) No matches 09 [494ee1f3] (00/06) No matches 10 [0950ae20] (00/06) No matches 11 [a619c1d9] (00/06) No matches 12 [a4ae3527] (02/07) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #2 13 [43b26f31] (02/07) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #2 14 [3d9b257c] (02/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #2 Offsetted by -48: 01 [486ab7c2] (06/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 02 [b46b6d74] (06/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 03 [43c43404] (06/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 04 [ffd330cb] (06/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 05 [a69d0a19] (06/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 06 [9cad134d] (06/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 07 [a459d10e] (06/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 08 [3c09388c] (06/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 09 [eceb023a] (06/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 10 [fc2e1e39] (06/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 11 [54690c89] (06/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 12 [f9628967] (05/07) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 13 [68a283b1] (05/07) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 14 [cf307bac] (04/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 Track [ CRC32 ] [W/O NULL] [ LOG ] -- [2BB698FA] [99C3A222] 01 [79361303] [40838175] CRC32 02 [59039D95] [6981DAD7] CRC32 03 [C2B63800] [75ADE7EA] CRC32 04 [1DB90A4C] [EF15EE4B] CRC32 05 [12C25E17] [5A5B2A07] CRC32 06 [CA278996] [BA506F56] CRC32 07 [B78BA36E] [84A45D9F] CRC32 08 [E1975CA2] [F83A57A6] CRC32 09 [48649AE3] [16454A9E] CRC32 10 [369CFF57] [9C5834A1] CRC32 11 [A9F93537] [F34866B2] CRC32 12 [96570DD9] [34622EEA] CRC32 13 [AF490268] [CA8E0589] CRC32 14 [E6FA072E] [240D7DFA] CRC32 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. IF YOU FIND THIS RELEASE DESERVES TO BE RECOMMENDED TO OTHERS, HELP BY DROPPING A LINE AFTER YOU'VE CHECKED IT. This way, You'll help in keeping the torrent alive, almost as much as keeping it in your HDD until a 1:1 ratio is reached. Thanks ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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