October 28, 1977 - News Of The World

Eleven days since my last release and about a year since "A Day At The Races", Queen released their sixth album "News Of The World" on October 28, 1977. Since their last album Queen decided to tone down the theatrics a little bit and move towards a more hard rock style, rather than the more grand prog rock of their last couple albums. They wanted to strip things down and go with a simpler style, a decision I'm not sure I like. But let's not judge before we listen!

The album begins with "We Will Rock You", a song that would become one of their best-known and an anthem for sports games around the world to this day. It has a very simple formula of stomp-stomp-clap-rest that the band rightfully thought would be easy for an audience to reproduce and become more involved in the show. Freddie Mercury's voice sounds great as usual as he sings a brief verse before we hit the two line chorus. It's just such a perfectly simple formula and it hits home hard. After the third verse they move into a Brian May guitar solo that isn't especially flashy, but it fits the vibe of this song very well. The end segues right into the next track, "We Are The Champions", and these two songs would become known as a package deal, with the first played during the game and this being the victory song afterwards. Mercury sings beautifully overtop of some nice piano in the verse and the group vocals from everyone signal the start of the epic chorus. May's guitar sounds pretty sweet and Mercury easily sings all over the spectrum, going high and low. "No time for losers, 'cause we are the champions of the world". Queen struck gold with both these songs as this one would also become immensely popular. Mercury's singing continues to sound great in the verse before they return for another grand chorus. They continue to jam out the chorus with May playing some sweet guitar as this epic comes to a close. A great way to start off the album! Up next is "Sheer Heart Attack", which as you could've guessed, was meant to be the title track off their third album, but was never used until now. It starts with a fast rock and roll riff led by May's guitar and it definitely sounds like the same style as the album of the same name. Roger Taylor holds the long "sheeeeer" that leads into the chorus as he and Mercury sing the "heart attack!". May's guitar is pretty good throughout this quick song and we hear a weird sort of feedback solo that sounds a bit piercing. Taylor takes us back with a nice drum roll that leads back into the fairly heavy main riff as they play out one final verse. The style so far on this album is certainly different than their last couple albums, but it's all been solid so far. Track 4 is "All Dead, All Dead" and is written and sung by May. Mercury plays some beautiful, slow piano to lead the way as May sings in his usual Mercury-lite voice. The song has a very sad feel to it and May does a good job of singing with a mournful feel to his voice. May takes over after a couple verses with some typical Queen-like layered guitars that sound alright, but nothing special. They return to the sad verse and play out another depressing bit until the end of the song. John Deacon wrote the next song, titled "Spread Your Wings". Mercury plays another solid piano riff while also singing a pretty great verse about leaving your life behind and starting anew. The chorus is pretty in tune with the rest of the song: it sounds good, but not great. Mercury is easily the highlight with his always great singing as well as some good piano. May plays a brief guitar solo but it's pretty tame honestly. After another verse the song ends with an extended guitar solo by May, but once again it doesn't really inspire as he seems content to slowly jam along. The first side ends with "Fight From The Inside", written and sung by Taylor. Deacon plays a groovy bass line as we notice him for the first time really, but it's a nice riff. Taylor plays rhythm guitar as well his lead vocals on this song and he does a pretty good job as his more in your face voice fits this fight song well. May's guitar is pretty good as well as he leads this cool bouncing riff. It's a short song but it's good for the whole three minutes. This side had a mix of some good songs, and some lesser ones.

Side two begins with "Get Down, Make Love" and Deacon opens it with a cool stop-and-start bass riff. Taylor's drums start and stop as well as Mercury plays a nice piano riff while also singing wonderfully. It moves into a heavier chorus with some nice guitar by May as Freddie continues to sing with his one-of-a-kind voice. May's guitar is more prominent in the second verse and he makes things sound a bit better. After another chorus, things move into a space-y, trippy section that doesn't really fit the rest of the song. It sounds like futuristic noises in this unexpected but cool part and they seamlessly return to the main verse at the end! They play out a final verse and chorus before bringing this unique song to an end. The next song is "Sleeping On The Sidewalk", another tune written and sung by May. He opens it with a nice guitar riff before settling into the main verse with some bouncing guitar and bass by Deacon. May's singing sounds really tame in this one; I think it's on purpose to fit the style of the song but I don't think it's all that good. Mercury yelling it all undoubtedly would've been better! The riff is pretty tame as well until May delivers a solo. The solo is pretty good and easily the best part, but it's fairly short and then we're back to the main beat to play until the end. Track 9 is another Deacon-written song, "Who Needs You". May plays acoustic guitar and this song is another unique one, with an interesting beat to the riff. Taylor plays some reggae-like percussion as they slowly jam along and Mercury sings in his always great voice. May's acoustic playing is pretty good and he also adds some soft electric to the next verse. It doesn't sound like Queen, but it does sound pretty good! May plays a sweet acoustic solo that sounds great before Mercury returns to sing a new bridge. They move nicely back into the main verse and complete another short song with a final verse and chorus. Up next is the longest song at almost 6 and a half minutes, "It's Late". May starts by himself with some sad sounding guitar, but settles into a faster main riff that sounds pretty good. Mercury sings with him and it's just the two of them for a whole verse. Taylor and Deacon finally come in as we hear the full band's force in this decent chorus. The next verse has the whole band and Deacon's bass makes the sound much more full. May's guitar is solid as well throughout this one and of course he gets a chance to solo. He does a great job soloing over this slower beat and then he speeds things up for the next part! This faster bit sounds pretty great with May leading the way with some great guitar! Taylor's drum fill brings it back to the main riff as they play another verse and chorus. The final 30 seconds they speed it up again and Taylor plays some nice drums at the end as they play a short rock and roll flourish. The final song on the album is "My Melancholy Blues" and Mercury opens with some beautiful piano and his wonderfully high voice. This whole song is basically a Mercury solo piece: the bass, drums and guitar are all very quiet and it's the piano and vocals that carry the whole thing. Mercury does a fantastic job throughout as he ebbs and flows and shows why he was one of the best singers out there. I thought it was a great closing number that brings what was a mostly good album to an end.

That is the end of "News Of The World" and while it did have a few lesser numbers, for the most part it was a pretty great album. They definitely left the grand epics of albums past behind, but they are pretty good at playing hard rock songs as well! Even though I didn't think any song was really awesome, I enjoyed most of the songs on this record. But how does it compare to their other albums? I think it was a step up from their last album "A Day At The Races" but I still don't think it's good enough to beat "Queen" or any of their earlier material. 5th out of six doesn't seem great, but they are back on the upswing at least and hopefully that continues next time!