Because it was released between their classic albums A Night At The Opera and News Of The World and because it didn't have a huge hit single, A Day At The Races isn't usually mentioned among Queen's finest work. That's a shame because it is one of their best albums and is a more consistent album overall than the excellent A Night At The Opera.

It does appear they were trying to make A Night At The Opera II here with its mix of hard rock and schmaltzy pop, sometimes in the same song. "Somebody To Love" was the hit single here and remains one of their most enduring tracks. Brian May's tracks are all great, whether it's the hard rockers "Tie Your Mother Down" and "White Man" or the melodic tracks "Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)" and "Long Away." Freddie Mercury's excellent operatic vocals and arrangements are on full display here on "The Millionaire Waltz", which sounds similar to "Bohemian Rhapsody", and "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy." John Deacon's "You and I" is great as well. Although Roger Taylor tends to write the weakest material of the four members, his track "Drowse" is one of his better compositions. But the best track here and worth the price of the album alone is Freddie Mercury's "You Take My Breath Away", one of the most beautiful ballads ever recorded in rock music. No, there isn't an all-time classic here like "Bohemian Rhapsody" but there isn't anything as long-winded as "The Prophet's Song" either. If you like Queen and only know them for their classic albums and/or hit singles, this album will surprise you. Highly recommended.

This is a great cd, but I would advise many people not to compare this to the previous album. It's best to just look at it as A Day At The Races, on it's own. It starts off with a 1-minute theatrical guitar orchestration then segues into "Tie Your Mother Down", the heavy rocking hit, which I'm personally not too in love with like many others. "You Take My Breath Away", is a soft piano track, almost in the same vein as Love Of My Life, featuring Freddie's sensous vocals and vocal overdubs. "Long Away", is another stunner on this album. More pop oriented, but beautiful and almost Paul McCartney-like. "The Millionaire Waltz", is Queen at their operatic, pomp rock best featuring classical like orchestrations guitar wise, piano wise and vocal wise. One of my favorites, if not my favorite on the disc. "You and I", mixes pop/rock, and hard rock together. "Somebody to Love", is amazing, and nevertheless became a hit, featuring the overdubbed three-man gospel choir. "White Man", is good but if I had to compare it to The Prophet's Song, it falls flat. "Good Old Fashoned Lover Boy", is the typical artsy Queen/Freddie Mercury that I love. Very playful, quirky and somewhat operatic. "Drowse", is very catchy, yet acquired, as it features Roger Taylor on lead vocals, and it features slide guitar. "Teo Torriate", is arguably the highlight of the disc, as it is a soft, beautiful singalong type song sung in english and in japanese. The cd ends with the guitar orchestration that opened the cd.

Overall, this is a great cd from Queen and should be looked at on it's own rather than a 'sister' or a part II of A Night At The Opera, although in some respects it is.

After this, Queen would drift away from the art rock they started doing in the beginning, and change their sound drastically years later.

Released shortly after the blockbuster, genre-defining success of 'A Night at the Opera', this album was constructed not as something to try and top it, merely an attempt to refine what ANatO accomplished, a 'sister album' so to speak. In this sense, it doomed the album's reputation from the start as an inferior cousin of ANatO instead.

In retrospect, A Day at the Races, as a whole, is a much better, tighter, more focused album than A Night at the Opera. Where the latter had it's outstanding moments like Bohemian Rhapsody, I'm in Love with my Car, and Prophet's Song, it was severley hampered by meaningless filler songs and one of the worst overall songs Queen ever did (Sweet Lady). A Day at the Races doesn't contain any of Queen's biggest hits (save Somebody to Love), but the material is executed better, the excessess have been refined, and there isn't a true clunker on the album (a feat that Queen didn't accomplish too often).

Kicking things off is probably their best early-period rocker, the hilarious (if not a wee bit disturbing) Tie your Mother Down. After that, the subject matter is much the same as A Night at the Opera, Brian May contributes his McCartney homage 'Long Away', and Roger Taylor turns in one of his best vocal performances on the meandering, slow-burning 'Drowse'. Mercury takes the rest, and he delivers one of his most inspiried vocal performances on the gospel-tinged Somebody to Love as well as the simply beautiful album closer 'Teo Torratie'. 'Good old Fashioned Lover Boy' manages to finally show Queen focusing the lighthearted, high-society style into a single, irresistable song, as opposed to album filler (such as Seaside Rendevous and Good Company from ANotA), and You and I is an almost Elton John style radio-ready piano ballad.

And if this wasn't enough, this is one of the few re-released Queen albums where the remixes are actually better than the original songs, especially 'Tie Your Mother Down', which the production is cleaned up tenfold, making for a much better listen. A Day at the Races deserves to be in any Queen fans collection, there's no 'Bohemian Rhapsody' here (although Somebody to Love comes close) but there's certainly none of the filler that plauged all Queen releases previous (saving Queen II). Every song here's a winner.

This was the second Queen album in a row named after a

. I guess that would make Freddie Mercury "Groucho" (the mustached one), John Deacon "Harpo" (the silent one) and...oh, forget it. This album spawned only one hit song, "Somebody to Love", but it's still about as good as the other Queen albums from the same time period. Other good songs besides the hit include "Tie Your Mother Down", "You Take My Breath Away", "The Millionaire Waltz" and "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy". This CD includes useless remixes of "Tie Your Mother Down" and "Somebody to Love", which don't sound all that different from the "regular" versions of the songs.

I remember reading of interview with Freddie a while back saying how he always wished he waited and released ADATR and ANATO as a double album. Truly it is a shame that people always put this album in the shadow of ANATO. It's a very strong album and pay no attention to people who say otherwise. The songs are as follows.

Tie Your Mother Down: Brian May's rocker that he still plays today. Someone else said in their review that they didn't like the opener and its perfect Queen opening and flows right into this song. People say its too raunchy and violent, which I just laugh at because its just a fun song. Great way to start the album off with energy with some classic queen fun 8/10

You Take My Breath Away: Truly overlooked, it's extremely beautiful and touching espicially the desperacy in Freddie's voice in the lyrics "So please don't go don't leave me here all by myself I get ever so lonely from time to time.... I will find you anywhere you go." Don't overlook this song showcases Freddie's ballad songwriting. 9.5/10

Long Away - Really great song from Brian it's alot of peoples favourite on the album 8.5/10

The Millionaire Waltz - A great example of the true genious of Freddie. This is one of the Queen songs that grows on you and at first you hear it and it doesn't catch you but if you give it a chance it is truly an enjoyable song. 8.5/10

You and I - John Deacon CANNOT be underestimated his songs are really good and I do not dislike one Deacon song. 8.5/10

Somebody To Love - Could be the best song on the album, one of Queen's masterpieces. As strong as Bohemian Rhapsody in the vocal department. Amazing Song! 10/10

White Man - Good song, tight guitar work! 7.5/10

Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy - Like Millionare Waltz, it really grows on you. It's classic artsy, original, playful Freddie Mercury. Fun Song 9/10

Drowse - Taylor's song...... its not bad its just a little boring. 6/10

Teo Torriatte - Another beautiful song by Freddie, more beatiful vocals and piano great way to close the album. 9/10

It's a strong album by Queen that deserves its place in the top best Queen Albums.