Queen
Queen II

Voices from the depths of the night often echo in my thoughts, and they almost always have the same refrain: commercial, commercial, commercial... the Queen are commercial, they suck, etc... well, they suck, of course, you're right... so here I present, realizing that I am neither worthy nor fully capable, one of the most underrated rock works in history, already evaluated in this community: Queen II, and we'll see how much Queen suck... Well, describing this masterpiece with a mere review is really reductive, but I'll try to be as intense as possible... those who hate Queen should listen to this album. Are you ready? Good, now you just have to put the record on.

Track 1: around you, a medieval atmosphere is created accompanied by a simple coin that walks on the six strings of some artisanal contraption called "Red Special", used by a certain Brian May. It almost feels like witnessing the solemn march of a saint... then everything fades, and new horizons appear before our eyes...

Track 2: after the "Procession" a soft melody echoes in our ears, but suddenly everything spills over with perfect balance into a harmonic yet "heavy" guitar riff from our Brian May, introducing the sweet and gentle singing of Freddie Mercury, which takes us as in "Procession" into a medieval parable represented by the "Father-Son" relationship in this track simply called "Father To Son", a straightforward 6-minute song that, aside from the repetitive ending, offers moments of pure manna for the ears, only to dissolve once again into an atmosphere that paradoxically is dark, yet at the same time is white as a pearl...

Track 3: mist spreads in the subconscious, a gust of melancholic wind caresses our skin, the "White Queen" advances, poor Freddie gently invokes her with a truly touching sadness in the soul, light... on a splendid text signed May, in 4 minutes we relive one of the most beautiful tracks of this LP, a slow but inexorable love song towards an unfortunately predictable and sad conclusion. This track that was proposed incessantly in the early concerts but then was forgotten after the commercial shift...

Track 4: a moment of pause after the continuous succession of the first 3 tracks. We find a country-blues melody, a song maybe with a slightly pop vein, but still catchy and pleasant... it’s "Some Day One Day", the first piece sung by Brian May, a song without too many pretensions that still delights listeners' ears as if its purpose is to create, together with the subsequent "The Loser In The End", a moment of pause after the exciting debut to then move from the "White Side" (Side A), written by Brian May and a song by Roger Taylor, to the "Black Side", written entirely by the divine Freddie.

Track 5: right after, we find ourselves with a blues that’s a bit understated, with Roger Taylor on vocals, where the portrait of the generous but "loser" mother plunges us into the pessimistic and (later with "Drowse") rarefied world of the Queen drummer, often underrated like all other members of the group. After a decent solo by May, the song dissolves, and changes face, moving to the "Black Side", and here is where the fun begins!

Track 6: a slow explosion hovers in our heads, until it alters into a piercing scream, which echoes in a "rewound" effect of Brian May's guitar, which introduces us to Mercury's first masterpiece in this LP, the so-called "Ogre Battle", a song with Epic-Metal tones that captivates and surprises with its sharp riffs and engaging rhythm. The ogre battle explodes, to enter a different world, not connected to the themes of what I arrogantly and presumptuously define as a "concept album" where good and evil confront and join in a poetic and surreal embrace...

Track 7: we immediately enter an atmosphere that perhaps is not suitable for Queen's style, that is, in a "Pseudo-progressive" atmosphere not so much Genesisian as many critics have mistakenly claimed, but in a Yes vein, with a description of bizarre yet fantastic unreal figures that seem almost placed there randomly. Well, it's not like that... in reality, in this song, "The Fairy Teller's Master Stroke", Freddie is inspired by a beautiful painting by an English painter where those figures described in the song appear. The song is still beautiful, not a masterpiece but certainly one of the pearls of Queen II. After this brief "Progressive" parenthesis, here we are with another short but very, very touching song...

Track 8: nevermore said Edgar Allan Poe’s raven, but our Freddie also exclaims this phrase, but in a different context, the amorous one. "Nevermore" is a song of just 1 minute, but it’s one of the best songs for its intensity and sweetness, a true masterpiece, the sound of the piano is sweet and sad, and the last note preludes to the QUEEN'S MASTERPIECE, a little-known song but perhaps comparable only to the great Bohemian Rhapsody (always speaking in the Queen realm).

Track 9: Forget the previous slow prelude of "Nevermore", that same prelude transforms into a solemn march, which this time is not destined for a saint, but to its kind of opposite... the black queen, who has the kingdom in her left hand and the law in her right, the queen of the night. This mini-suite of six and a half minutes is divided into four parts, the solemn initial part, where "The March of The Black Queen" is introduced in its darkest shades, among magniloquent choirs and sharp and very, very complex arrangements... then the central part acts as a bridge between the previous parts, it is a slower sequence, a slow and sweet dialogue between Freddie and his piano, until culminates in the triumphant and dark triumph of the black queen, represented by the legendary riffs of Brian, Freddie’s immense voice, and an incredible performance by Deacon on bass, and is represented by a much harder rock compared to the first part of the song. After the exciting triumph, "The March of The Black Queen" concludes with a brief piano-guitar dialogue, then transitions to a strange straining song, encouraging to forget the black queen to return to a world more repetitive and petulant, but no less fascinating...

Track 10: "Funny How Love Is" is a song that is based on love games but also on a notable repetition and an arrangement that is not quite orthodox... perhaps the only lapse in style of the "Black Side". The long uninterrupted sequence of the songs has ended to then begin another story, the last of this epic album.

Track 11: "Seven Seas Of Rhye" is a song that retraces the main theme of the "Black Side", but it was already born before Queen II, although it has now been perfected. The seven seas of Rhye are traversed with Brian's sharp riffs and Roger's excellent drumming. Freddie's voice is always magnificent, which allows this single to reach the 10th place in the UK.

With the first commercial success of Queen comes to a close a rock work of all due respect, a work that deserves to be dusted off and rediscovered even by those who have always condemned Queen a priori without listening to their early albums.