231 - Queen - A Night at the Opera

Big and bombastic, A Night at the Opera is grand without being gauche and is over the top without going overboard. Somehow, Queen is able to take metal, turn of the century British pop standards, pop, and opera and mold them in such a way that the variety of genres on the album mesh. The band jumped right into the pursuit of spinning their own version of these far-flung musical genres. There's a humor and camp to the overall tone that helps add a wink to some of the excesses.

There is a limit to my adoration for such variety. The throwbacks of "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon," "Seaside Rendezvous," and "Good Company" because automatic skips after repeat listens to the album. I appreciate their presence on the album, the sound of them just

Songs I Knew I liked: "You're My Best Friend" and "Bohemian Rhapsody"

Songs I Now Like: "Death on Two Legs," "I'm In Love With My Car," "'39," and "The Prophet's Song" (Well, I like most of it a lot.)

Songs I Can Go the Rest of My Life Never Hearing Again: "Seaside Rendezvous" and "Good Company" I think "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" gets a pass from this group because it's only a minute long and the harmonies are really great.

New Music That Has Distracted Me From Rolling Stone Top 500 Album List

There have been two albums that have kept me quite distracted over the past few of months. First was the release of Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience in March. I was curious about the new music, but was disappointed with my first impressions of "Suit & Tie." One day while mowing grass, I decided to put the album on Rhapsody. I fell in love with the overall sound of the album and with the majority of the songs. There was a timelessness about how he blended the influences and instrumentation. Repeat listens kept revealing little changes or flourishes that made me appreciate the songs the more I listened. It wasn't "brilliant;" it was tremendously interesting for me, though.

The obvious trait of the new collection of songs from Justin is the length. These are songs that aren't here for a quickie - each song is going to woo you, spank you, and cuddle with you afterward. "Pusher Love Girl" can easily be cut down to 3-4 minutes for the radio, but -for the album, honey- it lounges next to you on the couch and stretches around your shoulders for an eight minute grope session. "Strawberry Bubble Gum" follows the same romantic techniques...but, you know, it pushes all the right buttons for me and I'm hooked despite my singing along with "And it all started when she said/ Hey hey hey, smacking that strawberry bubblegum." TO TOP IT OFF, you know what Justin did? He closed the album with a soft, slow jam. *gets the vapors*

My adoration for The 20/20 Experience was then blown away by the release of "Get Lucky" and Random Access Memories by Daft Punk. I had been waiting for the new release even more eagerly after enjoying the Tron: Legacy soundtrack. When the first single had the magic words "Ft. Pharrell," I jumped to hear it when the song was released. The song was a dream come true and I'm thrilled that it is a song that the entire family enjoys, so most of our trips around town have that song (sometimes on repeat or going from single edit to album cut) as the soundtrack.

What I love most about Random Access Memories is the nostalgic feel of the album and how much it coincides with my own musical nostalgia. There are some real quirky aspects to the influences, but they are a good fit for me. (many words could be wasted going on and on about the peculiarities of Paul Williams' writing and performing contributions to "Touch") I feel comfortable getting emotional while Paul's conversational singing style expresses the emotional plea of a robot desiring to experience touch over music saturated with squeaky synths, wah-wah pedals, and a choir. My second favorite track on the album is "Fragments of Time." It is so far from what I think most anyone would readily identify as being a "Daft Punk song." The influence of 70's and early 80's pop and soft rock is overwhelming. The song sounds like it could have easily been the b-side to Al Stewart's "Time Passages" single. Someone I read online stated that the song sounded like Phoenix covering Steely Dan.

Collaborations definitely stand out on the album. Not only does Pharrell Williams sing on "Get Lucky," but he's also on "Lose Yourself to Dance." The Stroke's Julian Casablancas worked with Daft Punk on "Instant Crush." Niles Rodgers worked on three different songs on the album. While some of the collaborations focus on exploiting nostalgic sounds, Panda Bear's work on "Doin It Right" gave the song a contemporary sound more along the lines of M83 and Matt & Kim.

Really, my only real criticism is that I wish it had a better Side1/Song1. "Give Life Back to Music" is a perfectly fine song, however, I yearn for a greater anthemic song or maybe some sort of intro or overture when I think of this collection as an "album."