Amazon.co.jp
1974年、初期クイーン美学全開の2枚目のアルバム。前半を“ホワイト”、後半を“ブラック”と分け、明暗のコントラストを生かしたトータルな作品に仕上げている。格調高い「ホワイト・クイーン」、殺気みなぎるハードな「オウガ・バトル」、いずれも英国の香りが漂ってくる名曲ばかりで、ロック・ファンにもイギリス好きにもたまらない豊潤な1枚だ。初のヒット・シングル「輝ける7つの海」も胸が躍る名曲。初心者からマニアまで、クイーンを愛する者すべてが一度は通らなくてはならない、そして最後に還ってくる大傑作!(山崎智之)
From Amazon.co.uk
A mesmerising and at times ferocious album, reportedly much-admired by
Beck and
Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore. Coming hard on the heels of their eponymous debut--which found them a little too much under the spell of
Led Zeppelin--this was the first work to approximate, in sonic terms, the group's loftier ambitions: the group and producer Roy Thomas Baker painstakingly multi-tracking vocals and guitar tracks, so as to achieve an appropriately orchestral richness of sound. The subsequent album,
Sheer Heart Attack, would see them borrow from Noel Coward and the English music hall, but the sources here are more self-consciously literary; and while the result can occasionally seem too precious by half--lyrically, tracks like "The Fairy Feller's Masterstroke" and "Ogre Battle" (both Freddie Mercury compositions) betray the influence of too much Tolkien and Richard Dadd--in terms of musicianship, arrangements and melodic invention, this constitutes a staggering achievement.
--Andrew McGuire