Queen - Queen II [Hollywood Records] [EAC-FLAC] [RePoPo]

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Queen - Queen II (1974)

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In 1993, Hollywood Records released the Queen studio albums in USA, including

exclusive bonus tracks on each album. This rip comes from that batch.







CD: Queen - Queen II

YEAR: 1974



01. Procession [0:01:10.65]

02. Father To Son [0:06:14.62]

03. White Queen (As It Began) [0:04:35.43]

04. Some Day One Day [0:04:21.65]

05. The Loser In The End [0:04:03.30]

06. Ogre Battle [0:04:07.22]

07. The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke [0:02:33.18]

08. Nevermore [0:01:26.25]

09. The March Of The Black Queen [0:06:33.00]

10. Funny How Love Is [0:02:50.52]

11. Seven Seas Of Rhye [0:02:48.70]



Bonus tracks:



12. See What a Fool I've Been [Original B-Side] [0:04:38.28]

13. Ogre Battle (1991 Bonus Remix By Nicholas Sansano) [0:03:29.47]

14. Seven Seas of Rhye 1991 Bonus Remix By Freddy Bastone) [0:06:35.15]







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THE ALLMUSIC REVIEW

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Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine



In one regard, Queen II does indeed provide more of the same thing as on the

band's debut. Certainly, of all the other albums in Queen's catalog it bears the

closest resemblance to its immediate predecessor, particularly in its lean, hard

attack and in how it has only one song that is well-known to listeners outside

of their hardcore cult: in this case, it's "Seven Seas of Rhye," which is itself

more elliptical than "Keep Yourself Alive," the big song from the debut. But

these similarities are superficial and Queen II is a very different beast than

its predecessor, an album that is richer, darker, and weirder, an album that

finds Queen growing as a band by leaps and bounds. There is still a surplus of

ideas, but their energies are better focused this time around, channeled into a

over-inflated, pompous rock that could be called prog if it wasn't so heavy.

Even with all the queens and ogres that populate Queen II, this never feels as

fantastical as Genesis or Uriah Heep, and that's because Queen hits hard as a

rock band here, where even the blasts of vocal harmonies feel like power chords,

no matter how florid they are. Besides, these grandiose harmonies, along with

the handful of wistful ballads here, are overshadowed by the onslaught of

guitars and pummeling rhythms that give Queen II majesty and menace. Queen is

coiled, tense, and vicious here, delivering on their inherent sense of drama,

and that gives Queen II real power as music, as well as a true cohesion. The one

thing that is missing is any semblance of a pop sensibility, even when they

flirt with a mock Phil Spector production on "Funny How Love Is." This hits like

heavy metal but has an art-rock sensibility through and through, which also

means that it has no true hook in for those who don't want to succumb to Queen's

world. But that kind of insular drama is quite alluring in its own right, which

is why Queen II is one of the favorites of their hardcore fans. At the very

least, it illustrates that Queen is starting to pull all their ambitions and

influences into a signature sound, and it's quite powerful in that regard.





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SOME SONGS REVIEWED BY ALLMUSIC

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WHITE QUEEN (AS IT BEGAN)



Song Review by Donald A. Guarisco



Much of Queen II concerned itself with grandiose, fantasy-inflected tales of

ogres and fairies but a few of its songs had an earthier, more emotional pull to

them. The best example of this tendency on the album is "White Queen (As It

Began)," a lilting ballad that has become a cult favorite amongst many Queen

aficionados. The lyrics create a somber mood as they mourn a graceful woman who

is no longer around: "Dear friend, goodbye/No tears in my eyes/So sad it ends/As

it began." The music combines gentle verse built on fluttering runs of notes

with a grittier staccato chorus that wrings its few notes for all the emotion

they’re worth. Queen’s recording of "White Queen (As It Began)" is as lushly-

textured as the rest of the Queen II album yet much more subtle in its overall

approach: the verses slowly add and subtract layers of guitar textures and

backing vocals to dramatic effect and power chords and thunderous drum rolls are

sparingly doled out on the chorus. The real bombast is saved for the

instrumental break, which trots an array of guitar riffs that are woven into one

overpowering (yet lovely) cascade of sound. Freddie Mercury tops it off with a

tender yet impassioned vocal that captures the heartache of the lyrics nicely.

All these carefully deployed elements made "White Queen (As It Began)" a strong

mood piece and as effective in its own way as heavier, more overtly complex

items like "Seven Seas Of Rhye." This song never got an official single release

but was later included on 1977 British release Queen’s First EP, a maxi-single

that gave the song a belated top-20 charting in the U.K.







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OGRE BATTLE



Song Review by Donald A. Guarisco



Although they would tackle a variety of style and musical textures over the

year, Queen began its life pursuing combination of metal and prog elements

usually dominated by fantasy lyrics. An interesting sample of this early style

is "Ogre Battle," a stomping tune that would be perfectly at home on a Ronnie

James Dio-era Rainbow album. The lyrics feel like they were lifted directly from

a J.R.R. Tolkien novel as they chronicle a battle with a race of ogres: "The

ogre men are coming out/From the two-way mirror mountain/They’re running up

behind and they’re coming all about/Can’t go east ‘cause you gotta go south."

The music crossbreeds pop and rock elements, using fanciful, fluttery pop

phrasing in the verses to put across the verbose lyrics with speed but taking on

a punchier, rock-inflected tone for the chorus to give it shot of power that

balances the song’s purely pop elements. Queen’s recording of "Ogre Battle"

pushes the song into hard-rock overdrive thanks to an arrangement that starts

with psychedelic backwards tape loops that give way to a powerhouse sound driven

by choppy, churning guitar riffs and pounding drums. The group enriches the

sound with a dense layer of high-pitched backing vocals that add sweetness to

balance out the song’s metallic content and Freddie Mercury completes the song

with an exuberant vocal that captures the excitement of the lyrics. The result

was a densely layered rocker that pointed the way towards future Queen studio

epics like "The Prophet’s Song" and "Bring Back That Leroy Brown."







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SEVEN SEAS OF RHYE



Song Review by Ed Rivadavia



Though it had failed to chart, Queen's eponymous 1973 debut album had generated

enough of a buzz to secure them a support slot on Mott the Hoople's U.K. tour.

This, in turn, served to introduce the band's bombastic stage show to large

audiences and earned them quite a reputation, leading to their being voted

Britain's "third most promising act" in the January 1974 by the respected music

weekly Sounds ( Nazareth and Blue took the top spots). Interest in the band was

clearly building, but they still needed one more stroke of luck to break

through. Then, shortly after returning from a dismal visit to Australia (and

being met at the airport by hordes of confused press agents mistakenly expecting

her majesty, the Queen), the band was offered a last minute replacement slot on

Top of the Pops. Understandably, they jumped at the opportunity, premiering

"Seven Seas of Rhye" from their as yet unreleased second album Queen II on

February 21st. Once little more than an instrumental musical sketch closing

their first album, the track had been properly fleshed out for Queen II, and was

rush-released as a single (backed with a non-album track, "See What a Fool I've

Been") a mere two days later. A short, compact slice of Queen's "anything goes"

creative mentality, the song combined majestically chorused vocals with an

energetic Freddie Mercury piano figure and Brian May's soon-to-be trademark

guitar orchestrations, before concluding with a sea chantey of sorts. And while

it is now one of Queen's least remembered singles, "Seven Seas of Rhye" became

their first chart entry after being accepted for airplay by BBC's Radio One -- a

landmark event for Queen which persuaded Mercury to finally quit his day job

working at his clothes stall at Kensington Market.





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CUETOOLS' ACCURATERIP STATUS REPORT

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[Verification date: 20/06/2009 9:50:06]

[Disc ID: 001b8e62-012671a3-d00d010e]

Track [ CRC ] Status

01 [374c5c6a] (00/06) No matches

02 [9ea266b3] (00/06) No matches

03 [498a7969] (00/06) No matches

04 [473418d2] (00/06) No matches

05 [701a5ec2] (00/06) No matches

06 [6d4c4313] (00/06) No matches

07 [b86c0d23] (00/06) No matches

08 [54b882e9] (00/06) No matches

09 [494ee1f3] (00/06) No matches

10 [0950ae20] (00/06) No matches

11 [a619c1d9] (00/06) No matches

12 [a4ae3527] (02/07) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #2

13 [43b26f31] (02/07) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #2

14 [3d9b257c] (02/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #2

Offsetted by -48:

01 [486ab7c2] (06/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1

02 [b46b6d74] (06/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1

03 [43c43404] (06/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1

04 [ffd330cb] (06/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1

05 [a69d0a19] (06/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1

06 [9cad134d] (06/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1

07 [a459d10e] (06/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1

08 [3c09388c] (06/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1

09 [eceb023a] (06/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1

10 [fc2e1e39] (06/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1

11 [54690c89] (06/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1

12 [f9628967] (05/07) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1

13 [68a283b1] (05/07) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1

14 [cf307bac] (04/06) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1



Track [ CRC32 ] [W/O NULL] [ LOG ]

-- [2BB698FA] [99C3A222]

01 [79361303] [40838175] CRC32

02 [59039D95] [6981DAD7] CRC32

03 [C2B63800] [75ADE7EA] CRC32

04 [1DB90A4C] [EF15EE4B] CRC32

05 [12C25E17] [5A5B2A07] CRC32

06 [CA278996] [BA506F56] CRC32

07 [B78BA36E] [84A45D9F] CRC32

08 [E1975CA2] [F83A57A6] CRC32

09 [48649AE3] [16454A9E] CRC32

10 [369CFF57] [9C5834A1] CRC32

11 [A9F93537] [F34866B2] CRC32

12 [96570DD9] [34622EEA] CRC32

13 [AF490268] [CA8E0589] CRC32

14 [E6FA072E] [240D7DFA] CRC32







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IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ (A REQUEST)

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It's usual to post comments only to complain about a torrent which doesn't work

in your configuration. It's normal, after a few hours/days downloading and

expecting a release, to feel deceived if it doesn't work properly, and

expressing this is legitimate.



I've often found one comment (negative) on a movie/CD downloaded by 2000+

people, and since that single negative feedback, people simply stop downloading

and therefore, sharing. But a few times it was due not to the torrent itself,

but to some issues on the downloader side (not updated codecs, misused

tools...), and that's unfair for the person who took the time to share it for

free.



IF YOU FIND THIS RELEASE DESERVES TO BE RECOMMENDED TO OTHERS, HELP BY DROPPING

A LINE AFTER YOU'VE CHECKED IT. This way, You'll help in keeping the torrent

alive, almost as much as keeping it in your HDD until a 1:1 ratio is

reached.



Thanks



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