Published on Oct 15, 2004
In the shadow of a great success, what do you do for a follow
up? Queen’s fifth album
A Day At The Races doesn’t try to overshadow its
predecessor. Instead, it comes across as sort of a companion piece
to the masterful
A Night At The Opera. It never achieves the power of
Night, but it has great songs and is consistent with the
quality we had come to expect from Queen.
The album starts off with one of its two best tracks, the
raunchy “Tie Your Mother Down.” A classic boy-meets-girl,
boy-does-away-with-girl’s-parents love song, delivered with the
naughty panache that Freddie Mercury does so well. A tasty
hard-rocker, and a staple of their live show for years to come.
The other great track that lifts this album up is the melancholy
“Somebody To Love.” Only Queen could pull of a gospel flavored
ballad like this in 1975, and get away with it. The boys do their
trademark multi-layered vocals harmonies in a Greek chorus-like
fashion. Punctuating the verses with an echoing response to
Mercury’s soaring lamentations. Surprisingly, this would be the
standout single from the album.
There are many lighter moments on this album; in fact the more
pastoral pieces outnumber the hard rockers. Not that there isn’t
power on this album. They don’t quite reach the level of “Bohemian
Rhapsody” or the doom-laden “Prophets’ Song” from
A Night At The Opera but they do crank the heat up and come
close a couple of times, notably on “Tie Your Mother Down” and
“White Man.”
Two surprisingly satisfying pop-oriented pieces appear on Day.
“You And I” has a Beach Boys/Brian Wilson feel to if, with its
jangley guitar and piano. The lyrics invoke some of Wilson’s more
emotional pieces as well; it kind of reminds me in tone of “Don’t
Worry Baby” or “Forever,” with verses like; “I never could foresee
the future years / You know I never could see where life was
leading me / But will we be together forever? / What will be my
love? / Can’t you see that I just don’t know.””Long Away” is an
upbeat balled, with a nice vocal by Brian May.
One of the heavier songs is the mournful “White Man” about the
fate of American Indians, sort of topical for these guys, who
generally don’t delve into social issues. I really like this song,
but it feels out of place among the more upbeat numbers.
One of the Queen traditions of their use of more traditional
non-rock oriented styles, music hall-style vaudeville seems to be a
favorite of theirs, and two songs, “Millionaire Waltz” and “Good
Old Fashioned Lover Boy” exemplify this style, and add some
light-hearted humor to this album.
Closing out the disc is the beautiful “Teo Torriatte (Let Us
Cling Together)”. Freddie sings in both Japanese and English, and
this gentle song has become a favorite of mine through the
years.
Not their best work, but a great album to be sure.