Every Queen Album, Ranked
Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon each wrote hit singles for Queen, so ranking the albums is partly a vote on whose songs win. NME, Louder, Far Out, MOJO and classical-music.com just sort the records into two bands, the upper for any record 3 or more of those 5 put in their top five, the lower for the rest, the ballot ordering each. Membership is separate: an album sold by itself, credited to Queen whatever its sleeve shows, made mostly of studio recordings first released on it, not concert or BBC radio tapes, which admits Flash Gordon's film score. Queen reissues, deluxe, collector's or remixed, share their album's slot and boxes get none, so each Queen studio record is in however feeble, and nothing else is. Links go to Spotify's oldest edition with the original songs in number and title (a misprinted, shortened or renamed title on an unchanged recording counts), whatever date it prints; a record ListWorld already links elsewhere stays on that link, and entries name any remaster year or mix on their tracks.
Queen — Queen II (1974) is #1 on “Every Queen Album, Ranked”.
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Queen — Queen II (1974)
Side White and Side Black were the vinyl's own names for its two halves, and the writing splits along that line: May wrote four of the first five songs, Taylor the fifth, and Mercury all six on the Black side, The March of the Black Queen included. Far Out and MOJO both have it second and NME fourth, a 3 of 5 tally of top-five slots, and every Spotify track wears a Remastered 2011 tag.
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Queen — A Night at the Opera (1975)
Named for the Marx Brothers film the band watched during the sessions, it gives each writer room: Taylor sings his own I'm in Love with My Car and May sings '39, a shanty about space travellers home a century late. On Seaside Rendezvous, Mercury and Taylor fake a woodwind and brass break with their voices. Louder and MOJO each crown it, while Far Out is stingiest with a fifth place, and that still counts toward 5 of 5.
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Queen — Sheer Heart Attack (1974)
Brian May was diagnosed with hepatitis in Boston on the US tour before these sessions, then collapsed partway through them with a duodenal ulcer that needed an operation. Stone Cold Crazy carries all four writing credits because nobody could remember who wrote the words, and on the rankings classical-music.com and Far Out both print the album first, NME second, Louder and MOJO third, so all five seat it top five, 5 of 5.
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Queen — News of the World (1977)
Frank Kelly Freas repainted his October 1953 Astounding Science Fiction cover here, with Mercury and May dead in the giant robot's hand in place of the original's one dead man and Taylor and Deacon falling. Taylor plays drums, rhythm guitar and a borrowed bass on his Fight From The Inside, and his song Sheer Heart Attack, half-written in 1974, finally landed here. NME's number one plus thirds at Far Out and on classical-music.com make 3 of 5 top-five seats.
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Queen — A Day at the Races (1976)
Their first record finished without Roy Thomas Baker producing, and it bookends itself: the rising figure after the guitars that open Tie Your Mother Down returns on harmonium at the close of Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together), May's thank-you to Japanese fans with two choruses sung in Japanese. Louder slots it fifth, and the fourth places it earns from MOJO and from classical-music.com lift the count to 3 of 5.
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Queen — Innuendo (1991)
Steve Howe of Yes dropped in on the sessions and played the flamenco interlude in the title track, and Bijou turns a song inside out, guitar carrying the verses and Mercury singing over the break. The record came out in February 1991, the last Queen album released in his lifetime, and its peak placing is Far Out's seventh, which leaves it without a single top-five finish, 0 of 5.
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Queen — Jazz (1978)
A tax bill sent them out of Britain to make it, between Mountain Studios in Montreux and two studios in France, and Dead On Time closes on a thunderclap May recorded during a storm, which the liner notes credit to God. Louder at fourth and MOJO at fifth add up to 2 of 5 top-five spots, so it misses the upper band by one, while Far Out puts it fifteenth, its last slot.
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Queen — The Game (1980)
Made at Musicland in Munich with Reinhold Mack, it's where Queen first used a synthesizer, an Oberheim OB-X, and Play The Game opens on its overlapping synth sounds. Another One Bites the Dust was released as a single on Michael Jackson's suggestion and topped the American chart. One ranking, classical-music.com's, places it fifth, the lone top-five slot, for a tally of 1 of 5, and Spotify serves a 2011 remaster.
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Queen — Queen (1973)
Cut at Trident mostly in downtime, once paying clients had left, plus one De Lane Lea demo kept as recorded. Doing All Right goes back to Smile, written by May and Tim Staffell, and Mercury copies Staffell's way of singing it. Louder, on Malcolm Dome's byline, has it second, but classical-music.com's list and Far Out's sink it to fourteenth, so its tally stops at 1 of 5. Spotify tags its opener 2011 Mix and the other nine Remastered 2011.
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Queen — The Works (1984)
Its run on the British albums chart lasted ninety-four weeks, after sessions split between Los Angeles's Record Plant and Musicland in Munich. Mercury wrote Keep Passing The Open Windows in 1983 for the film of John Irving's The Hotel New Hampshire, and when that soundtrack deal fell through the song came here. NME slots it fifth and none of the other four go that high, which leaves 1 of 5, on tracks remastered in 2011.
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Queen — Hot Space (1982)
Arif Mardin arranged the Staying Power horns, and the record leans into funk and disco, a turn Taylor later said went too far. By Mercury's account, David Bowie sang on Cool Cat until he asked, days before release, for his vocals to come off, and the album take has Mercury in falsetto. Far Out's fourth stands apart from the other four lists, NME's fifteenth among them, holding its count at 1 of 5; every linked track is tagged Remastered 2011.
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Queen — A Kind of Magic (1986)
Six of its nine songs turn up in Highlander in other versions, and with no official soundtrack album ever issued, this record does that job unofficially. Deacon's One Year Of Love swaps the guitar solo for Steve Gregory's saxophone, and May isn't on it at all. NME's eighth is its peak across the five lists, leaving 0 of 5, on a 2011 remaster holding the nine LP tracks without the CD's three extras.
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Queen — Made in Heaven (1995)
Mercury sang what he could in early 1991, and after his death May, Taylor and Deacon built the album around those takes and older ones. Mother Love has his last vocal, from May 1991; he never came back to finish the final verse, so May sang it. Classical-music.com's eighth is its highest placing and Louder's fifteenth, last on that list, its lowest, so its tally sits at 0 of 5, with both hidden closing tracks intact on Spotify.
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Queen — The Miracle (1989)
Every song is credited to Queen as a band, and Richard Gray's cover merges the four faces into one. Taylor says the working title, The Invisible Men, changed about three weeks before release, and The Invisible Man name-checks all four members in its vocal. MOJO bottoms it out at fifteenth, classical-music.com too, and Louder's tenth is the high-water mark, so 0 of 5, from a 2011 remaster at the ten LP tracks.
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Queen — Flash Gordon (1980)
Mostly score for the 1980 film, with its dialogue cut into the theme and the cues, produced by May with Reinhold Mack and with Howard Blake adding orchestral arrangements. Flash's Theme opens it, and the record peaked at 10 on the UK chart and 23 on the Billboard 200. Three of the rankings slot it thirteenth and Far Out tenth, leaving it on 0 of 5, and Spotify's eighteen tracks are each tagged Remastered 2011.
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