THE 50(ISH) GREATEST ALBUMS OF ALL TIME
A Night At The Opera? Bit Rich.
Album #50 : Queen — A Night At The Opera
It is fitting that this album should come up at this time of year, when so many of us are stretching ourselves thin spending money on Christmas presents and Christmas night’s out. After all, what is Christmas without a healthy dose of consumerism?
Why is it fitting I hear you ask? Well, apparently, at the time of its release, A Night At The Opera was reportedly the most expensive album ever made, with the estimated cost being around £40,000 (£343,000 in today’s money)…
What a colossal waste of money.
I know that is going to make a lot of Queen fans very angry but so be it. Be honest with yourselves, most of this album isn’t great. You’re My Best Friend is quite good and Bohemian Rhapsody is obviously a classic but the rest is pretty mediocre.
No, not mediocre… naff. What has happened here, Queen (and Queen fans), is that you’ve spent a lot of money on something and it hasn’t turned out how you thought it would. That’s fine, you don’t have to pretend you got great value for money.
Once, I really wanted a particular pair of Adidas shoes. I couldn’t find them in stock anywhere, I looked for ages. Then, one day, I found a pair on eBay — they were a little overpriced but I knew they were the ones I’d obsessed over and so I splashed out.
They were fake. And not even a good fake. They fell apart after one, maybe two, trips out.
I learned a valuable lesson that day, just because you can spend money on something it doesn’t mean you should. If only Freddie Mercury had eBay, eh!?
This album is big, massive even. Even the quieter tracks are gargantuan. Bigger than a post-Christmas dinner belly. As well as spending, it feels like there’s a Christmas link in other way. Now… how do I put this delicately to save offending more Queen fans…
Well, it is Christmas party season, isn’t it? So how many of us have been on a Christmas doo and… overdone it slightly. Gotten a little carried away in the moment and lost ourselves. (I’m looking at you, the Conservative Party). Wouldn’t it have been nice to have someone in the background just saying ‘do you really need to get another round of Jaeger-bombs in James? Do you not think you’ve had enough?’
The same applies here; “Do you really think another vocal track is important lads? We are running out of tape… Maybe we could chop 3 to 5 minutes out from that song? Are you sure you want to keep that one in about being in love with your car? Really? Ok, it’s your album I guess…”
“And Freddie, are you sure those Adidas trainers are real? You lot will never learn.”
Thanks for reading — over the course of 2021, I’ll be reviewing 50(ish) of the greatest albums ever recorded. You can see the list here:
There is also a playlist featuring the best song from each album here.
