Listen to A Night At The Opera right now. Everything from its title (one that is borrowed from The Marx Brothers 1935 movie) to the music, the album’s artwork, and the whole pomp and circumstance of the entire package is majestic. A Night At The Opera, as we all now know, is a masterpiece. Work on Queen’s fourth album, another co-produced by the band along with Roy Thomas Baker, began in August 1975, and it was only finished shortly before the opening date of their tour at Liverpool’s Empire Theatre on November 14. Between the band’s return and the start of another UK tour on November 14, 1975, Queen recorded the album that would turn them from big stars to superstars. Album DescriptionThe UK tour to support the release of Sheer Heart Attack got underway during the autumn of 1974, and after taking in Europe and America, it finished at the Budokan in Tokyo, Japan, on May 1, 1975. See More Your browser does not support the audio element. © Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo More info It's prog rock with a sense of humor as well as dynamics, and Queen never bettered their approach anywhere else. But the appeal - and the influence - of A Night at the Opera is in its detailed, meticulous productions. No one in the band takes anything too seriously, otherwise the arrangements wouldn't be as ludicrously exaggerated as they are. 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. 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. Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.

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