Queen

Queen Rock Montreal is a live album by English rock band Queen. It was released in October 2007 as a double CD / triple vinyl / DVD. It was recorded in Montreal, Quebec, Canada at the Montreal Forum on 24 November and 25 November 1981, ten years to the date before lead singer Freddie Mercury died of complications related to AIDS. Allmusic.com described Queen's performance in Montreal as being "deliberately theatrical and often majestic".

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. They might be posed in leather jackets on the cover, but they hardly sound tough or menacing – they rarely rock, at least not in the gonzo fashion that's long been their trademark…

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.

At last, the long wait to have Queen's greatest music clips in your rock music DVD collection is finally over…… well, for now at least. EMI and all involved have done a superb job with this release.