8.23.14 Q + AL start conquest of OZ with sold out show

Sheer Heart Attack (November 1974)

“Above all, however,” writes Greg Kot, “there was an intense and effervescent musicality abetted by producer Roy Thomas Baker, a flood of excess that presaged the Queen stadium-rock bombast on the albums for which the band is best known.”

Kot was writing about Sheer Heart Attack, and like so many out-of-the-closet Queen fans, felt the need to pepper his love of Queen’s third – and first truly outstanding – album with certain words, such as “excess” and “bombast,” code-words aimed at preserving some street cred with his colleagues whilst simultaneously indicating he kind of likes the damn thing. “I know they’re absurd, mates, but these couple of songs over here are kinda good for this reason…” That sort of thing. But after Sheer Heart Attack, there was no longer any need to consider Queen any kind of guilty pleasure.

It’s a strange attitude to take nowadays anyway. After being the critics’ whipping boy during their actual operational years, it’s become very fashionable in the last 20 years to talk about what a brilliant band Queen was. And these johnny-come-latelyies are excused for suddenly loving Sheer Heart Attack, the best album of 1974.

Not all vestiges of their chalice-quest days were purged their third album, but lyrics about Neptune of the Seas and magical spells are kept to a bare minimum, and what emerges – at long last – is a genuine rock’n’roll band.

It almost doesn’t make sense, considering how quickly Attack followed Queen II. You’d think a band so addicted to Great King Rats and Fairy Fellers would need a good year or so in detox, but instead, as easily as throwing a light switch, Queen turned a keen eye towards teen angst, historical references, Chuck Berry-worship, and full-bore (Freddie) narcissism just eight months later.