A Night At The Opera
QueenI hadn’t heard most of the tracks on this album since 1975 or 1976 when one of my classmates (I can’t remember who) brought it into school, to Mr Jones’ music appreciation lesson. The standout track is of course Bohemian Rhapsody, which stayed at number one on the UK singles chart for nine weeks and was universally loved by everyone I knew. I have a very clear memory of being fourteen years old and trying to remember all the lyrics to that song while trudging the dark cold streets of Freckleton on my morning paper round. Listening to A Night at the Opera now, some 26 years later, my overall feelings about it are much the same as they were back then; although the musicianship and songwriting are obviously second to none, much of the actual music leaves me a bit cold. Many of the songs are a little too experimental for my taste, a little too avant-garde. That’s not to say that there aren’t highlights; Besides Bohemian Rhapsody, You’re My Best Friend, Love of My Life and ’39 (a cautionary tale about the dangers of Einsteinian time dilation) stand out to my ear. Overall I would give A Night at the Opera three stars out of five, mainly for the inclusion of the wonderful Bohemian Rhapsody, but also for the inevitable sense of nostalgia for my long-lost misspent youth that comes with revisiting an album I haven’t heard in so many years. Perhaps I won’t wait another quarter of a century before listening to it again.