Queen brought a whole new meaning to the phrase over the top. While rock & roll flamboyance stretched back at least as far as Little Richard, Freddie Mercury continued to camp it up, taking little seriously and smirking at the music's growing pretensions while partaking in them no small bit. Many of the band's singles hold up extremely well, such as "Killer Queen" and "You're My Best Friend". The quartet's canny sense of melody and sophisticated vocal harmonies--not to mention Mercury's raised eyebrow--have traveled well through the years. --Rickey Wright
What once seemed Queen's greatest liabilities--a preening flamboyance and pompous, overwrought theatricality--have ironically become their most enduring charms in a gray, postmodern pop-music landscape. While it eschews the glammy, pre-punk hard rock of live faves like "Stone Cold Crazy" and "Tie Your Mother Down" for the band's more quirky club-beat string of latter-day hits, this 51-track triple-CD anthology goes a long way toward documenting the true dimensions of the band's music and fame. Some songs may not be instantly familiar to American fans because of yet another irony: just as their U.S. fortunes waned during the punk and new wave era, the band was exploding into true international superstars. Thus, there may be a sense of discovery here, whether of latter-day Queen material or solo work by Brian May and Freddie Mercury, whose duet on "Barcelona" with diva Montserrat Caballé transcends boundaries of both time and genre. A previously unreleased live performance of "The Show Must Go On" featuring Elton John on vocals is also included. --Jerry McCulley
Queen brought a whole new meaning to the phrase over the top. While rock & roll flamboyance stretched back at least as far as Little Richard, Freddie Mercury continued to camp it up, taking little seriously and smirking at the music's growing pretensions while partaking in them no small bit. Many of the band's singles hold up extremely well, later tracks such as "Hammer to Fall" as much as prime-era numbers such as "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Killer Queen," and "You're My Best Friend." The quartet's canny sense of melody and sophisticated vocal harmonies--not to mention Mercury's raised eyebrow--have traveled well through the years. --Rickey Wright
