10 Most Overrated Rock Albums Of The '70s
9. Queen - A Night at the Opera
After releasing an album of terrific pop rock - 1974’s Sheer Heart Attack - the following year saw Queen return to their novelty prog comfort zone with the slick, overproduced A Night At The Opera. It was the album that truly broke the band, but for those who aren’t devotees of Mercury et al, the problems with it are hard to get over.
It’s a lovely idea to let everyone in the band write a song for your album, and no doubt contributes to a harmony that the surviving members seem to share decades later. But does any album actually need John Deacon’s harmonically rich but diabetically saccharine “You’re My Best Friend”? Or Roger Taylor’s “I’m In Love With My Car”? We submit that they do not.
The work by Mercury and May is unsurprisingly better - particularly the former’s “Love Of My Life”, the delicate highlight of this overblown record. It culminates, though, with “Bohemian Rhapsody”. While many will think otherwise, it’s almost unthinkable to imagine purposefully listening to that most overplayed of songs.