Queen Bohemian Rhapsody

As Queen's second live album, Live Magic might appear to be a bit unnecessary, but a closer look reveals that it's a better record than the previous Live Killers. Culled from a variety of dates from the 1986 Kind of Magic tour but concentrating on the final show at Knebworth, Live Magic captures Queen, and Freddie Mercury in particular, at the height of their powers. While the set list might rely a bit too heavily on mediocre mid-'80s material for some tastes, the band is tight and professional, and Mercury has an undeniable hold over the crowd. It's to Queen's credit that the energy rarely dips over the course of the record.

Queen were straining at the boundaries of hard rock and heavy metal on Sheer Heart Attack, but they broke down all the barricades on A Night at the Opera, a self-consciously ridiculous and overblown hard rock masterpiece. Using the multi-layered guitars of its predecessor as a foundation, A Night at the Opera encompasses metal ("Death on Two Legs," "Sweet Lady"), pop (the lovely, shimmering "You're My Best Friend"), campy British music hall ("Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon," "Seaside Rendezvous"), and mystical prog rock ("'39," "The Prophet's Song"), eventually bringing it all together on the pseudo-operatic "Bohemian Rhapsody." In short, it's a lot like Queen's own version of Led Zeppelin IV, but where Zep find dark menace in bombast, Queen celebrate their own pomposity.

With Queen officially enshrined in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Hollywood Records reintroduces the band yet again with the release of Platinum Collection, Vols. 1-3. While Vols. I & II are full of Queen classics you already know by heart, the third cobbles together odds and sods from the far corners of Queen's canon along with solo cuts from Freddie Mercury and Brian May…

Following their hugely successful 32 date European arena tour Queen plus Paul Rodgers release this double CD capturing the magic of their performance. Featured alongside some of the most famous Queen songs are Bad Company and Free classics such as "All Right Now" and "Can't Get Enough"…

Compilation album from Taiwan. Nice compilation of some unknown & unusual tracks.

The latest in a long line of Queen compilations stretching back to 1981's Greatest Hits, 2009's Absolute Greatest runs a generous 20 tracks yet still manages to miss several classic Queen songs, such as "Fat Bottomed Girls," "Bicycle Race," "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy," "Flash's Theme," and "Tie Your Mother Down." In their place are several latter-day singles that were hits in Europe but not America ("The Show Must Go On," "Who Wants to Live Forever," "These Are the Days of Our Lives"), so it makes sense that this compilation in its various formats – a single-disc set, a double-disc where the second CD contains commentary by Brian May and Roger Taylor, one with a hardcover book, one with LPs – appeared in the U.K. and Europe first, because it was tailored for this market.