Come 1977, the rock music world took some drastic turns. We witnessed the glory days of progressive rock, which started around the late 60s, and the creativity exhibited in that period seemed to only blossom and intensify up until the mid-70s. Ambitions were the order of the day, and it seemed like many bands - more or less - were trying to outdo one another in terms of technical prowess, intelligent lyrics, orchestral ambition and/or originality. However, the hyper-ambitious, long-winded, intelligent (some would say pompous) art that was popular shortly before began to wear thin, as many music fans wanted things to return to it's raw, dirty (and simple) roots.

The punks seem to appear on the scene at the right time to bring rock back to it's dangerous and dirty roots. The Sex Pistols seemed to be the band who led the charge, and guys like Johnny Rotten (frontman of the Pistols) and Joey Ramone (The Ramones) have verbally attacked Yes, Pink Floyd, Queen, and several others of the art-rock ilk for their long-winded arrangements, grand ambitions and fantasy/cosmic/literary material. (One of the members of the Sex Pistols wore a t-shirt that read the words, "I hate Pink Floyd," while another member reportedly had a brief bit of words with Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, as a few reviews below state.)

1977 also saw genres like disco, and what many call "corporate" rock, running wild. While bands like Yes and Pink Floyd continued to release "long-winded" material, Queen took an entirely different approach. Making art-rock albums since their inception, their creativity culminated with the ambitious, diverse and operatic A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (1975), and it's stripped-down, but no less ambitious companion A DAY AT THE RACES (1976). So, on NEWS OF THE WORLD, Queen wisely chose to cut down on the sophisticated operatic arrangements, and focus their attention on a more straightforward, harder-edged album -- with attitude. They basically dropped the "art" rock, and made more "hard" rock this time out. Complex arrangements are still present, but are so subtle, some may not recognize them.

But Queen's well-known diversity still remains intact. You get Latin-infused, elegant numbers like "Who Needs You," bluesy workouts like Brian May's "Sleeping On the Sidewalk," in which he also performs the lead vocal, sophisticated piano-driven pop numbers like "All Dead, All Dead," a song written for Brian May's deceased cat I believe, and an elegant late-night jazz workout on Freddie Mercury's "My Melancholy Blues." The versatility of this band was simply awe-inspiring, and possibly the envy of many.

Now that all of that's out of the way, Queen ROCKS with the rest of the tracks. Everyone knows "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions." The latter exhibits brilliant arrangements - not to mention the apparent 12/8 time (7+5?) - which may be obfuscated for it's overplaying time on the radio. "Sheer Heart Attack" (not to be confused with the album of the same name) is just a lethal super-heavy monster. A fast-paced, supercharged heavy-hitter which may be able to induce a heart attack if played too loudly. There may also be a biting jab made toward the punks in one of the lyrics ("I feel so in-ar, in-ar, in-ar...ticulate.") Written by drummer Roger Taylor, he shares the vocal with Freddie Mercury, as well as contributing bass and rhythm guitar parts, which give the track it's extra heaviness. The prog rock epic of the album, however, is "It's Late," a love tale written by Brian May, and written in three parts (or scenes), and features an explosive John Bonhamesque drum solo at the end. I'll be the first to mention that the comparisons some people (and critics) make between Queen and Led Zeppelin are atrociously ridiculous, inaccurate and shallow (Queen sounded like nobody but themselves to me), but this part of the song is the closest Queen ever got to resembling Zeppelin.

With this album, Queen would abandon their unique brand of art rock for good. Is it ironic that the cover art of this album shows a gigantic robot killing the members of Queen? Was it a symbol that the operatic, original "queen" was no more? Or, was it purely coincidental? They would not make music resembling their 70s material for years to come (even if the small resurgences were slightly transformed.) NEWS OF THE WORLD is 70s Queen at their most straightforward and heavy. Highly recommended.

Queen's sixth album News of the World was released in November of 1977 in the States.

The album was recorded in the height of the punk rock movement in the UK at Wessex Studios with the band self-producing once again with Mike Stone engineering (last time Mike would work with the band as he went on to produce albums for Journey, Asia and Styx member Tommy Shaw among others).

Aside from the graphic album cover depicting a giant robot-like creature who killed the four Queen band members (thank drummer Roger Taylor for that concept) but also meaning it was a baby robot who injured the human like a baby injuring a bug and saying "what have I done"), there are nothing but great songs throughout.

The album opens with the one-two punch of the US #4 charting "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions". The former was written by guitarist Brian May and is known for its stomp-stomp-clap beat and rally cry. The latter was frontman Freddie Mercury's victory cry which has become a victory song when sports teams would win championships. Next, is drummer Roger Taylor's answer to the punk movement "Sheer Heart Attack" (which was written for the album with the same title three years earlier but not finished until 1977). The song was as punk as Queen ever got (ironically The Sex Pistols were in the studio next door recording their only album when this track was recorded) and Roger plays drums, bass and rhythm guitar on this track. Brian's "All Dead, All Dead" is a soft beautiful ballad sung by Brian with Freddie on backing vocals. Bass player John Deacon's "Spread Your Wings" follows and is a mid-tempo rocker about one not giving up on his dreams. That track was released as a single in Europe and was the first single released where there were no backing vocals from the other Queen members. The first side closed with "Fight From The Inside" is another heavy rocker sung and written by Roger (whom also played guitar and bass on the track and did all the vocals on this track).

Side two began with the lyrically dirty "Get Down Make Love" and is one of the few blatant sexual anthems that Freddie wrote with raunchy guitar playing by Brian (lets see Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Christina Aguilera and/or Beyonce sing (let alone attempt to write) something like that). Brian steps out in front on "Sleeping On The Sidewalk" which is a bluesy shuffle track with some great guitar work and was recorded without overdubs (save Brian's harmony vocals). John's "Who Needs You" is another great track with Freddie's elegant vocals and featuring Brian and John on acoustic guitars. Brian's "It's Late" is almost in the same vein as some of the epics they wrote in the past, but alot heavier and not strange. The ending is great as Roger goes into this insane Bonham/Peart like drumming, if not better. It was released as a heavily edited single in the US and flopped but the song rocks. The lyrically depressing but superb "My Melancholy Blues" is an all-out jazz song featuring Freddie's sorrowful vocals which is a great song for those whom have had either broken hearts or bad days and ends the album in a relaxing fashion (and like "Spread Your Wings" has no backing vocals on it).

News Of the World peaked at #3 in the US and sold over 4 million in the US alone to date because of the songs and not the personalities in the band and News of the World became Queen's best American selling album until The Game in 1980 tied this.

In September of 2011, Queen re-releases this classic masterpiece as well as the next four studio albums (Jazz, The Game, Flash Gordon Soundtrack and Hot Space) as all newly remastered as 2-CD Deluxe Editions painstakingly remastered by Bob Ludwig (who did a remaster of A Night at the Opera for its 30th Anniversary in 2005) for most of the world (the outside US release was in July) and these new remasters buries any previous CD version of the back catalog.

The bonus CD for News Of The World contains a nice outtake of the fabled "Feelings Feelings" which was recorded for News but scrapped. Then you get BBC versions of "Spread Your Wings" and "My Melancholy Blues" done a month before News Of The World's release. Then you get a live recording of "Sheer Heart Attack" recorded in Paris in 1979 (different from the Live Killers take). Then a live version of the fast version of "We Will Rock You" recorded in Japan in 1982. The booklet that comes with this has just about everything that came with the original LP artwork, lyrics and credits plus extra photos of the band.

Some will say why buy again but I say go for it because of the remastering!

This album is highly recommended!

1977 was the year punk and disco exploded on the pop scene. It was also the year that Queen's fellow rock dinosaurs Pink Floyd sang about pigs,dogs and sheep (as opposed to sex, drugs and rock'n'roll), Sun worshippers YES came up with "Going for the One" with an album cover of a naked man gazing at a tall building ...whatever Mr. Anderson meant by that, Genesis thought the timing was right to release a double live album featuring a 25 minute ditty about a SUPPER that is READY for consumption...and Led Zeppelin did not have any new albums to offer whatsoever.

No wonder, then, that The Sex Pistols and their spitting likes as well as Serious-groin-problem-bros Bee Gees had an easy task of topping the charts. The world had been fed on heavy prog rock as main course for a whole decade, and now wanted some light dessert to ease up on the digestive system.

Sure, Queen could have released their "A Night at the Opera part III"(more Marx Brothers titles anyone? ) and join the brigade of "boring old farts" as the prog rockers were called by the late 70s. But having covered most themes in the art rock book, i.e. mad prophets, adventure, pseudo religious "good vs. evil" themes and science fiction they instead simplified their approach and delivered a no nonsense and refreshing hard rock album that was more in tune with the new musical directions of the times.

"News of the World" was leather rather than silk and ballet. The Stomping "We Will Rock You", the ultra heavy "Sheer Heart Attack", "Fight from the inside" (which somehow makes me think of the colour black)and the steamy "Get Down Make Love" sum up their raunchy new styles very nicely.

Pomp is of course still here, but in controlled proportions, in the shape of the lone tongue in cheek "We are the champions". It just functions SO WELL sandwiched as it is by "We will rock you" and "Sheer Heart Attack".

Ballads like "All Dead All Dead" and "My Melancholy Blues" have a bitter taste to them rather than sugary, the latter sounding naked and lonely as opposed to previous album closers by the group which were mostly pomp and circumstance.

Pop tunes are inventive and differ greatly in styles. "Spread Your Wings" has Queen written all over it...irresistably catchy chorus. "Who Needs You", features wonderful spanish guitar runs from Brian May as well as a playful Freddie Mercury. Then there's "Sleeping on the Sidewalk" which has groove to last a whole blues festival...

"It's Late" proves that there was still some heavy progrock left in them, epic in proportions as it is. However, instead of multilayered vocal mid sections or guitar orchestras for that matter, you get pure and true heavy metal thrown in your face somewhere in the middle. Furthermore, a simple love story makes the framework of the piece. No madmen in sight.

If you are new to Queen, News of the World is definately an essential FIRST.

Other musts? One idea for a newcomer to the world of Queen could be building a collection by getting one album from each "stage" (as I see it) of their prolific career:

1. 73-74 Heavy Metal: Queen II 2. 75-76 Art Rock: A Night At the opera 3. 77-79 Hard Rock: News Of the World 4. 80-82 Pop/Funk: The Game 5. 84-86 Pop/Rock: A Kind of Magic 6. 89-91 Hard Rock revisited: Innuendo

Then you could start "filling it up" by sticking to whatever personal preferences you may have in musical styles (HM, pop, disco...), or follow my excample:BUY EVERYTHING IN SIGHT!

Finally one plead to EMI: PLEASE, PLEASE RELEASE "EARL'S COURT 1977" !

Let me say right up front that I have been a Queen fan since I was approximately 14 years old (let's just say a couple of decades and leave it at that!), so I may not be the most objective when it comes to reviewing their albums. However, I felt I had to put down my thoughts on what I consider their best work. I think I like this one the best because it flat out rocks in comparison with the rest of Queen's output. From the tribal drumming of the classic opener "We Will Rock You" to the final strains of the epic rocker "It's Late", this album rarely lets up. The anthem "We Are The Champions" is a modern standard; "Sheer Heart Attack" and "Get Down Make Love" are wild stompers; "Spread Your Wings" should've been a massive hit (was it ever a single?); drummer Roger Taylor takes the lead on "Fight From The Inside", another one of his great rockers; and Brian May's "Sleeping On The Sidewalk" is just fun, straight-ahead rock 'n' roll. If you have any doubt that Queen truly rocks, check this one out. The album closer, "My Meloncholy Blues", is fitting. You'll need something to chill out to after rocking out for so long. A classic in a canon that is hard to match in rock history, IMHO.

In many ways this is Queen's most powerful album, and is very close to being their best. Queen never again sounded as heavy as they do on this album. The song SHEER HEART ATTACK is the heaviest song of the seventies, period! You've got to hear it to believe it! GET DOWN, MAKE LOVE, SPREAD YOUR WINGS, IT'S LATE, FIGHT FROM THE INSIDE AND ALL DEAD ALL DEAD...THE LIST GOES ON AND ON, JUST A TREMENDOUS ALBUM! It's timeless rock-n_roll and I highly recommend it.

In a nutshell, this is Queen's BACK IN BLACK, rock solid and immensely consistent.