 "Great Box Set Containing Their First Eight Albums" | 2008-08-10 |
| - Reviewed By rock777 |
If you are a Queen fan and still don't have any of their first eight albums, then this is a must buy! Queen was easily one of the best rock bands in the history of the universe!
The albums included were remastered and they are "Queen" (1973), "Queen II" (1974), "Sheer Heart Attack" (1974), "A Night At The Opera" (1975), "A Day At The Races" (1976), "News Of The World" (1977), "Jazz" (1978), and "The Game" (1980).
All these albums are great and show diverse songwriting styles. These guys, (singer/piano player Freddy Mercury, guitarist Brian May, bassist John Deacon, and drummer Roger Taylor), were never afraid of trying any style that they could think of. All four members of the group get a chance to show their songwriting skills and with the exception of John Deacon, they also get to sing lead vocals throughout too.
Throughout this box set there's hard rock ("Keep Yourself Alive", "Liar", "Great King Rat", "Sweet Lady"), folk rock ("Night Comes Down", "39", "Leaving Home Ain't Easy"), lots of piano driven ballads ("Doing Alright", "Nevermore", "Dear Friends", "Jealousy"), excellent pop singles ("Killer Queen", You're My Best Friend", Seven Seas Of Rhye", "Don't Stop Me Now"), progressive rock ("The March Of The Black Queen", "The Prophet's Song"), jazzy ballads ("My Melancholy Blues", "Dreamer's Ball"), funk rock ("Fun It", "Another One Bites The Dust", "Fight From The Inside", "Dragon Attack"), new wave-influenced tracks ("Coming Soon", "Rock It"), heavy metal ("Stone Cold Crazy", "Brighton Rock", "Dead On Time"), a latin-infused pop number ("Who Needs You"), arena rock ("It's Late", "Spread Your Wings", "We Are The Champions"), punk rock ("Sheer Heart Attack"), rockabilly ("Crazy Little Thing Called Love"), blues-rock ("Sleeping On The Sidewalk"), opera-influenced passages ("Bohemian Rhapsody"), and even an eastern influenced song ("Mustapha"). Man! Talk about diversity!
Some minor complains:
The live album released in 1979 "Live Killers" was left off. So don't forget to get that one too!
The albums come in mini LP style cardboard covers that look really nice, however they are quite fragile. Of course the booklet, while containing an essay and all song lyrics, is a little disappointing though. More rare pictures could have been added. Also, some unreleased songs would have been a good addition too.
But those are only minor complains. It's still an excellent box set with awesome remastered sound so this is, by far, the best way to get these eight classic albums in one package. |
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 "Queen's Best Music, Box Needs Better Treatment" | 2008-06-25 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1M0DHHB1K2MEG |
This box set captures Queen at their highest peak. Every album is essential Queen.
BUT, as a box set, I feel like Hollywood Records could have done a much better job. The blue velvet box is quite nice, but the racks inside the box are cheapy vacuum-formed plastic, and not even very well glued in. The booklet is long, but it's primarily just the lyrics and a single essay. No extra photos, no critical analysis. Bummer.
I love the mini-LP jacket reproductions, especially the gatefold covers! It's too bad the shortcomings really subtract from the nostalgic geeky joy of the packaging. The inner sleeves are all plain white, so we're missing out on a lot of the original packaging. The Game's chrome treatment is missing, and it has a different (inferior) cover photo (oddly, the correct photo is reproduced inside the lyrics booklet). Jazz's gatefold photo is poor quality. And what happened to the cover of News Of The World? There's a horrible green border around all the front and back covers.
Anyway, enough ranting. If you don't have this music already, buy this set! As for me, I'm going to listen to the great Crown Jewels CDs and drag out my old albums to enjoy the full experience of the sleeves, art and inserts. |
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| "Wow, what an exelent Box - Queen will never die." | 2008-01-23 |
| - Reviewed By hcoels |
It was my very first time with Queen and I would like to say, WOW.
This Box includes the first 8 records and all of them are "remastered".
The musik of Queen don't need any emplaination, she is timeless good. |
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| ""Crown Jewels'' they are." | 2007-08-14 |
| - Reviewed By rich-a-billy |
| This is my opinion but this was the height of their career. Although the 80's and 90's Queen was good, it didn't come up to their epic grandeur embodied in their 70's recordings. This box set has all the good stuff from Queen to The Game. Queen did it all progressive, hard rock, heavy metal, speed metal, ballads, rockabilly, vaudeville, glam etc. like no other band. No other band could pull off this pastiche with such skill. All the band members strengths shine through. Freddie's Operatic vocals, Brian's texture laying guitar, John's throbbing bass lines and Roger's expert rippling on percussion. Though they had a awesome career after the 70's this still was their best and a good band at it's prime. Buying all these albums seperately used comes to the same price as this set, so if you are a fan of classic rock and a good band, by all means get this set you won't be disappointed. |
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| "Like no other group in history..." | 2007-08-07 |
| - Reviewed By User: A10TLF93N4TTQX |
...they conquered the world on their own conditions and terms. Few bands could have done what Queen did in the 70's (and even in the 80's and 90's). This box show so much talent, creativity and guts. It really took and (still are) takin` a big demand on the listener. You have to be open minded about music. There is no bounderies and rules of what you can do as a rock band, and that's what I love about Queen. If you want to go on a musical journey and open up all doors in music history - this is what you're looking for. It's hard to pick one album, I love them all like my own children. But I have always had a soft spot for Queen II and News of the world (NOTW). The march of the black Queen (Queen II) was before Bohemian Rhapsody and you could already tell that Freddie Mercury was able to go over the top at anytime. NOTW really is so much more than WWRY/Champions. Listen to the break 2.30 into Sheer heart attack, and it shows the fantastic energy that Roger Taylor delivers with his guitars (yes it's not Brian May). It's Late is something of an overlooked gem on NOTW, fantastic singing from Fred and guitarwork from the old Red Special creator Dr May. And don't forget the live favourite Spread your wings (written by John Deacon who's an underrated bass player).
I really wish that Hollywood could release Crown Jewels II so people in the States could learn a thing or two about all the classics that were missed after Hot Space in 1982 (and were big time all over the world accept in the US). I mean songs like Radio Ga Ga, I want to break free, A kind of magic, Who wants to live forever, I want it all, The Miracle, Innuendo, These are the days of our lives and The show must go on (and more). They are really up there among all the classics on this Jewels box. Buy The Platinum Collection and you will know what I mean. |
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| "Queen's Library" | 2007-07-21 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3DNW5BNV9V6OH |
| I got this for my husband who is a big Queen fan!!! He loved it and so did I....it's remastered so it sounds great and it filled in the missing pieces of our Queen music library!!! Worth every penny!!!! |
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| "Great collection, interesting packaging, essential listening." | 2007-07-16 |
| - Reviewed By gizmosprocket |
| This is the box set for those ready to dive feet-first into the back-catalog of queen. After many years of being in the mainstream through "Best-of" compilations, this collection offers fans (old and new) something compelling. The packaging is a solid attempt to capture the days of Vynal two-fold packaging and included lyrics. All said, a great value and essential to any classic rock library. |
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| "Box Fit For The Kings Of Rock,Queen" | 2007-06-28 |
| - Reviewed By tom15706 |
| Some good reasons to get this box set:1)Eight albums from Queen's most popular and fruitful years:Queen(1973),Queen II(1974),Sheer Heart Attack(1974),A Night At The Opera(1975),A Day At the Races(1976),News Of The World(1977),Jazz(1978) and The Game(1980) all in cool,attractive mini-original LP-style jackets 2)Most of the band's biggest and best-loved hits are here,including "We Will Rock You","We Are The Champions","Bohemian Rhapsody","Another One Bites The Dust","Killer Queen","Somebody To Love","You're My Best Friend","Crazy Little Thing Called Love","Bicycle Race" and "Fat Bottomed Girls",plus their most prized classic album tracks like "Keep Yourself Alive","Seven Seas Of Rhye","Stone Cold Crazy","39","Tie Your Mother Down","Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy","Get Down Make Love","Its Late","Dragon Attack" and many more.3)Excellent remastered sound,much better than the individual Hollywood CDs.4)No bad bonus tracks!5)Nice booklet featuring lyrics to every album contained here.and 6)It's a real steal to get all these great Queen albums at the price of $89.99.That may be steep,but considering the artifically high prices of the individual ones at $13.99-16.99,and the fact that this box set has such superior sound quality over the ones still on the shelves(still with those horrid bonus tracks!),its worth every penny! |
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| "Queen" | 2007-06-24 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2CBISV5D24HPO |
Great boxed set. Dark Blue velvet box with logo. "nice" Each CD is in an carboard replica jacket of it's album. It would've been a perfect set if the CD's were in an hard case instead of cardboard.
8 CD's and a companion booklet with all the lyrics and some pictures.
If you like Queen's music this is a great collection. I love it. |
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| "The Ultimate Highlight of Queen's Reign" | 2007-01-20 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2JZPCMOTA44DV |
| Any true Queen fan knows that these first eight albums represent the epitome of one of the greatest rock bands of the 1970s. The remastered albums are of excellent sound quality, and the sleeves are cardboard replicas of the original album covers. Queen II, Night at the Opera, Day at the Races, News of the World, and Jazz are accurately reproduced in their original gatefold format. Jazz even includes a miniature reproduction of the original notorious poster of nude female bicycle racers! The accompanying booklet has all the original lyrics, as well as some great photos. All of this is beautifully packaged in a blue velvet covered box. Although not inexpensive, you get a lot for your money, musically and otherwise. For anyone who loves Queen, this set is a must! |
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![Queen - The Works [Bonus Tracks]](product_images/169000/169965_thumb.jpg)
