Queen
News Of The World

THE REVIEW

Stumbling upon a forum expressly dedicated to Queen, it would be sheer madness to negatively review this album that is so dear to Queen fans, but this is also an album where two or three great anthems appear, and the rest is of little significance.

The 1977 album titled "News of the World," which takes its title from a well-known English magazine and owes its cover idea to science fiction writer Frank Kelly Freas, depicts a robot holding the shredded, strangled Queen members. It's appropriate to say it! Where have the baroque Queens of "A Night at the Opera" or "A Day at the Races" gone? Where is the experimentalism? Where is the thematic and stylistic consistency of "Queen II"? Lost. The album promises well, let's admit it. The beginning is something overwhelming, unique, and unrepeatable, so beautiful that it opens the album but will ALWAYS close Queen's concerts from now on: the combination "We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions".

1) "We Will Rock You". I suppose there are few songs in music history that are as minimalist and as powerful. A simple and pounding three-beat by Roger Taylor, a quasi-spoken singing by Freddie Mercury, and finally a simple solo by Brian May, the author. Stadium song, history song.

2) "We Are The Champions". Freddie Mercury thought of soccer even though he wasn't passionate about it and asked himself: How can I create something triumphant but not vulgar and banal? Here's the triumph. A reflective opening on the career, a piano that follows the reflection, a sudden crescendo, and an explosion into an unforgettable chorus with many choirs. I believe that even today it represents the team spirit par excellence. Three minutes of song, an era!

3) "Sheer Heart Attack". Written by Taylor, echoing the title of their third album, one of the less innovative tracks. At the dawn of Punk (we're in 1977), this piece would fit well with that era for its energy but not for its style. The usual Taylor grappling with rock 'n' roll persecution manias. It works really well live but ends up being a predictable and repetitive track.

4) "All Dead, All Dead". A dirge. Brian May has often produced undisputed masterpieces on which I will return, but he often stumbles on very personal and sterile nostalgias of little depth. Dedicated to his cat that died years earlier (was there really this pressing need?), it ends up being very affected and not incisive. No rhythm, only piano not even much arpeggiated and Brian's voice with choruses also from Freddie. Certainly an inferior piece but not entirely unlistenable.

5) "Spread Your Wings". Written by Deacon, the bassist (for those who didn't remember). It's a little gem in Queen style that narrates the dreams of a young working lad dreaming of becoming someone while his boss invites him to think about what he already has in comparison to adventures and investments. The invitation is still to "spread your wings" because man is free, always. Performed very well by Queen and a more than ever splendid Freddie. Today it is a great rediscovery. Unmissable.

6) "Fight from the Inside". By Taylor, opens Queen to more dance rhythms. It is the true pioneering song of the group's turning towards future disco styles but in itself, it says nothing and results in being an isolated capsule in the entire album with decidedly obvious themes: "fight from the inside, attack from behind..." Thrown in the middle, like a reserve player. Mediocre.

7) "Get Down, Make Love". To claim it's the least successful Queen song is not utopia. The band, which until that point had never dealt with sex explicitly if not intelligently, now gets raw and crude with "lie down, let's make love... every time I'm iron you're ice... etc". Note also the musical part: we witness once again another break in Queen's tradition, namely the entrance of synthesizers that had so well distinguished the band from other groups. Some claim that the central effects are achieved with May's "Red Special" guitar, but it's hardly believable. A disaster.

8) "Sleeping on the Sidewalk". If someone didn't know Swing, they might begin tapping their finger on the table, much amused, but as Brian May himself declared, this was a piece just to show that he could also do Swing like all guitarists (as if the fans didn't already know!). It's also recorded live (a demonstration of little accuracy in arrangements, to say the least!). This makes us understand how the entire album continues to be a mosaic of different styles, and this song is the most vile example. An inconceivable step backward.

9) "Who Needs You?". We continue with the pastiche. By John Deacon, it's a fun '30s ballad and also an ironic love story of push and pull with a guy protesting "Who needs you?. . . I say six-thirty, and you show up at seven. . . I take a step forward, and you make me take three back". Here, yet another style!!! Rhyme for road trip music.

10) "It's Late". Brain May repeats the experiment of blending two songs into one like in "Doing All Right" but not only. The start is a brushstroke of classical guitar that promises well except it lasts for almost six minutes interrupted by choruses with few variations and short rock'n'roll sections perhaps to break the tedium. One note is worth attention: this is the piece where Freddie Mercury soars in melodious flights with the voice reaching peaks like C#4 smoothly executed. The lyrics talk about a love story about to end, but is it too late to break up? Maybe it's not too late? Oh well! In the end, it is just late, obviously, and the story ends. A bit mechanical and schematic. Doesn't work.

11) "My Melancholy Blues" Well, blues could not be missing in this mixed style stew, but we cannot, despite being purists of good music, not accept equal purism in this piece incredibly charming, dreamy, and "performed" with a mastery and elegance that only Mercury possessed. Let's forget the album and let ourselves be accompanied by this sweet and melancholic blues, impeccably instrumental and with what a voice, folks!!! Falsettos and full voice in great harmony. An excellent piece, spread it!

The tracks of the album, taken individually, are not earplugs. The problem is that Queen, riding the wave of success, appear a bit tired at the compositional level after the exhausting trials of "A Night at the Opera" and offspring... and in the attempt to prove their skill again, they venture into multiple genres creating a hybrid with few great points of light. All the energy is there. Those who do not know music would elevate it to the top, those who already know it would sleep through 70% of the album, awakening only with majestic flashes of Queen royalty.