Queen was at the top of her game during A Night At The Opera (1975). The first albums of the quartet had already done well and with Killer Queen (1974) Freddie Mercury had written a big hit. For the fourth full-length, nothing was changed in the success formula. Both the structure of the album and the technique behind it are almost identical to and especially , which came out a year earlier. With
… A Night At The Opera, Queen refined the trick. A few months in the studio resulted in a diverse collection of pop, vaudeville and (hard) rock by four top musicians who each left their mark as a composer. The album was given wings by the single Bohemian Rhapsody, a true relevance with three different parts including a bombastic opera piece. As a result, A Night At The Opera is nowadays seen as their masterpiece. The album gets really exciting on the B side, as Bohemian Rhapsody and The Prophet's Song both make a pompous attempt to overwhelm the listener. A Night At The Opera contains beautiful and very varied songs. Two of those songs are with lead vocals by Brian May. This only makes Queen's most famous album even more idiosyncratic. (JE)more
