Queen Rogue Xxx

Queen II was a breakthrough in terms of power and ambition, but Queen's third album Sheer Heart Attack was where the band started to gel. It followed quickly on the heels of the second record – just by a matter of months; it was the second album they released in 1974 – but it feels like it had a longer incubation period, so great is the progress here. Which isn't quite to say that Sheer Heart Attack is flawless – it still has a tendency to meander, sometimes within a song itself, as when the killer opening "Brighton Rock" suddenly veers into long stretches of Brian May solo guitar – but all these detours do not distract from the overall album, they're in many ways the key to the record itself: it's the sound of Queen stretching their wings as they learn how to soar to the clouds.

Five Live is an EP released in 1993, featuring five (in some countries, where it is considered to be a reduced-length long-playing album, six) tracks, performed by George Michael, Queen, and Lisa Stansfield. "Somebody to Love" and "These Are the Days of Our Lives" were recorded at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, held on 20 April 1992, at Wembley Stadium. All proceeds from the sale of the EP benefited the Mercury Phoenix Trust. Sales of the record were very strong throughout Europe, where it debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart, and several European countries, either considered as a single, or charting on album charts as an extended play or an LP.

Hear an incredible assortment of 70s Japanese session player legends (Makoto Yano, Akiko Yano, Ray Ohara, Kenji Omura, Kiyohiko Senba, Toshiyuki Honda) band together to play… easy listening instrumental Queen covers!

Queen II was a breakthrough in terms of power and ambition, but Queen's third album Sheer Heart Attack was where the band started to gel. It followed quickly on the heels of the second record – just by a matter of months; it was the second album they released in 1974 – but it feels like it had a longer incubation period, so great is the progress here…

Like any patchy but promising debut from a classic rock group, it's often easy to underrate Queen's eponymous 1973 debut, since it has no more than one well-known anthem and plays more like a collection of ideas than a cohesive album. But what ideas! Almost every one of Queen's signatures are already present, from Freddie Mercury's operatic harmonies to Brian May's rich, orchestral guitar overdubs and the suite-like structures of "Great King Rat." That rich, florid feel could be characterized as glam, but even in these early days that appellation didn't quite fit Queen, since they were at once too heavy and arty to be glam and – ironically enough, considering their legendary excess – they were hardly trashy enough to be glam.

Five Live is an EP released in 1993, featuring five (in some countries, where it is considered to be a reduced-length long-playing album, six) tracks, performed by George Michael, Queen, and Lisa Stansfield. "Somebody to Love" and "These Are the Days of Our Lives" were recorded at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, held on 20 April 1992, at Wembley Stadium. All proceeds from the sale of the EP benefited the Mercury Phoenix Trust. Sales of the record were very strong throughout Europe, where it debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart, and several European countries, either considered as a single, or charting on album charts as an extended play or an LP.

Queen had long been one of the biggest bands in the world by 1980's The Game, but this album was the first time they made a glossy, unabashed pop album, one that was designed to sound exactly like its time…