Queen - A Night at the Opera

A Night at the Opera is the fourth studio album by the British rock band Queen, released on 21 November 1975. Co-produced by Roy Thomas Baker and Queen, it was the most expensive album ever recorded at the time of its release. The album takes its name from the Marx Brothers film A Night at the Opera, which the band watched one night at the studio complex when recording. The album was originally released by EMI Records in the United Kingdom, where it topped the UK Albums Chart for four non-consecutive weeks, and Elektra Records in the United States, where it peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and became the band's first platinum selling album in the US. The worldwide sales for the album are currently over 6 million copies.
A Night at the Opera incorporates a wide range of styles, from ballads and songs in a music hall style, to hard rock tracks and progressive rock influences. It also produced the band's most successful single in the UK, "Bohemian Rhapsody", which became their first UK number one and one of the best-selling singles in both the UK and the world.

At the time of its release, A Night at the Opera was the most expensive album ever recorded. Upon release, the album was a commercial success, debuting at No. 1 in the UK and topping the charts for four non-consecutive weeks. In the US, it reached No. 4, the band's strongest showing at that time. In 1977 "Bohemian Rhapsody" received two Grammy Award nominations for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus and Best Arrangement for Voices.
In a contemporary review, Kris Nicholson of Rolling Stone Magazine said that, although they share other heavy metal groups' penchant for "manipulating dynamics," Queen are an elite act in the genre and set themselves apart by incorporating "unlikely effects: acoustic piano, harp, acapella vocals, no synthesisers. Coupled with good songs." Melody Maker called the album a "must-have", encouraging listeners to "turn it up loud and enjoy", while the Winnipeg Free Press wrote: "The group's potential is practically limitless, indicating that Queen is destined to finally take its place among the small handful of truly major acts working in rock today." Robert Christgau, writing in The Village Voice, felt that the album "doesn't actually botch any of a half-dozen arty-to-heavy 'eclectic' modes ... and achieves a parodic tone often enough to suggest more than meets the ear." However, he questioned the record's consistency and what "that more is".
In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine called the album "a self-consciously ridiculous and overblown hard rock masterpiece" and "prog rock with a sense of humour as well as dynamics". Erlewine felt that Queen "never bettered their approach anywhere else". Progressive rock historian Stephen Lambe has disputed that the album itself is progressive rock in his book Citizens of Hope and Glory: The Story of Progressive Rock. He wrote: "While far from progressive rock, it was the band's most grandiose and ambitious album yet, full of great songwriting and prog influences." He said the album was "a neat symbol of the furthest reach of the progressive rock movement". The Dutch Progressive Rock Page concluded that A Night at the Opera "crosses musical boundaries and combines many musical styles, which makes it a real progressive album".

Track Listing

1. Death On Two Legs(Dedicated to.....)
2. Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon
3.  I'm in Love With My Car
4. You're My Best Friend
5. '39
6. Sweet Lady
7. Seaside Randezvous
8. The Prophet's Song
9.  Love of my Life
10. Good Company
11. Bohemian Rhapsody
12. God Save the Queen

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Queen - A Night at the Opera