10 Greatest Classic Rock Albums You Need To Hear Before You Die
6. A Night At The Opera - Queen
Freddie Mercury always seemed to believe in the more ambitious sides of rock and roll. From Queen's beginnings, the band was never content with making the standard hard rock of the day. With a few hits under their belt, this British foursome decided that it was time to take their audience to the opera.
All across this record, the focus is on rock while still feeling incredibly orchestrated. The way the band builds vocal passages creates a perfect wall of sound that was absolute ear-candy to listen to. The band also flirt with many different genres on each cut, from metal on "Sweet Lady" to pop on "You're My Best Friend" to even jazzy numbers on "Good Company." For any other band this would sound disjointed, but each track is draped in the Queen aesthetic, which makes them stand out more as a coherent whole.
It all boils down to "Bohemian Rhapsody," which was the brainchild of Mercury himself. Though the lyrics veer through different passages, the song is a brilliant musical journey which brings classical music constructions to the hard rock stage. There have been many great musicians in hard rock throughout the years, but Queen proved themselves to be the mad scientists of rock and roll on A Night At the Opera.