"A Day At The Races" review by Tim Lott - from 'Sounds', 4 December 1976
Jan 19, 2024 7:19:49 GMT
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Post by fabiogminero on Jan 19, 2024 7:19:49 GMT
Hi everyone.
Below I post a review of the album 'A Day At The Races': written by the English journalist Tim Lott and entitled Back in the saddle again, it was published in the music magazine Sounds on 4th December 1976 (just under a week before the UK release).
It's a negative review, as Lott - who listened to the album in preview only once - defines it as "a professional failure" and little different from 'A Night At The Opera'; however, he is keen to specify that his assumptions about the new Queen album could be overturned in the future after more careful listening. He still defines 'You Take My Breath Away' as an exceptional piece of music, but rejects the other trackss on the album: for example, he defines 'You And I' "a little improvement compared to the most irritating piece of music on 'A Night At The Opera', 'You're My Best Friend'", 'Somebody To Love' as "little more than a 'Bohemian Rhapsody' part 2", 'Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy' as "insignificant as 'Seaside Rendezvous'" and 'Drowse' as "slow, pompous, somnolent". It also indicates that 'White Man' was played in Hyde Park, which was not the case (Barry Cain said the same thing in his review of the album, published the same day on Record Mirror - queenchat.boards.net/thread/4879/races-review-record-mirror-december).
Below is an image of the article (almost illegible) and a transcription of it. Enjoy the reading!
Below I post a review of the album 'A Day At The Races': written by the English journalist Tim Lott and entitled Back in the saddle again, it was published in the music magazine Sounds on 4th December 1976 (just under a week before the UK release).
It's a negative review, as Lott - who listened to the album in preview only once - defines it as "a professional failure" and little different from 'A Night At The Opera'; however, he is keen to specify that his assumptions about the new Queen album could be overturned in the future after more careful listening. He still defines 'You Take My Breath Away' as an exceptional piece of music, but rejects the other trackss on the album: for example, he defines 'You And I' "a little improvement compared to the most irritating piece of music on 'A Night At The Opera', 'You're My Best Friend'", 'Somebody To Love' as "little more than a 'Bohemian Rhapsody' part 2", 'Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy' as "insignificant as 'Seaside Rendezvous'" and 'Drowse' as "slow, pompous, somnolent". It also indicates that 'White Man' was played in Hyde Park, which was not the case (Barry Cain said the same thing in his review of the album, published the same day on Record Mirror - queenchat.boards.net/thread/4879/races-review-record-mirror-december).
Below is an image of the article (almost illegible) and a transcription of it. Enjoy the reading!
Back in the saddle again
I PROBABLY have a little idea of what this album is like. I heard it just once at a specially laid-on pre-listen last Friday. So any opinions expressed during this dangerously ignorant review could be reversed in the future, because they are first impressions and conceivably worthless.
Having said that, I have a strong impression that 'A Day At The Races' is a highly professional failure, for reasons that I can only outline in frustratingly general terms.
For a kick-off, the album is in no way a radical change from 'A Night At The Opera'. It sticks close to the vocal multi-track May pyrotechnics formula but in a perturbingly less than inspiring fashion. It is too formulated, too smartass, too reliant on trickery as a substitute for inspiration. The production is classy, but nowhere does it achieve the controlled elegance of, say, 'Bohemian Rhapsody' or 'Killer Queen'. There is an important exception to the overall paucity of material – Freddie Mercury’s 'You Take My Breath Away', a voice/piano ballad much along the lines of 'Love Of My Life'. Anyone who heard the number at Hyde Park in September will know just what an effective piece of music it is. Mercury's voice is perfectly suited to ballads, a fact that is underexploited on 'A Day At The Races'. 'You Take My Breath Away' is simple, uncluttered and beautiful, the lone piano a perfect foil for Mercury's high pitched, flyaway vocals. The Mercury vocal chords are not used so intelligently elsewhere on this album, they are cheapened by an excess of double, triple and God-knows-how-many overdubs. The sound is crowded, too much compressed into too small a space. So much for what is really the only standout piece. On to the depressing remainder. Side One opens with Brian May's 'Tie Your Mother Down' and the instrumentally elaborate but atmospherically straight-forward 'You Take My Breath Away' follows, then the second May composition 'Long Away'. Mid-pace, fat harmony vocal, very typical Brian May solo that sounds disturbingly similar to every other Brian May solos on the album. Standard, lowgrade studio product. Next, another Mercury song, 'The Millionaire Waltz'. Powerful bass work from John Deacon establishes some sort of atmosphere, vocals dominate, slow rather ponderous feel. It doesn't seem to go anywhere, it just revolves hopelessly on a stylistic treadmill. Admirably proficient production as with all Queen material, but console embellishments do little to salvage the track. 'You And I', John Deacon's only composition of the album, ends side one. Deacon contributed what was probably the most irritating piece of music on 'A Night At The Opera', 'You're My Best Friend'. This appears to be little improvement. Apologetically, I must admit I can’t think of much to say except it's below-par Queen, crassly commercial, damaged by too much incorrectly channelled flash.
Side Two opens with 'Somebody To Love', the single, little more than 'Bohemian Rhapsody' part two, but vocally impressive all the same. 'White Man' May's power piece which was also featured at Hyde Park, follows. In the same vein as the excellent 'I'm In Love With My Car', it brims with energy but imprecise direction mars the effect. It’s a number that could easily improve with every listen, but on first hearing there is no indelible impression. 'Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy', Mercury's final contribution, is reminiscent of 'Seaside Rendezvous', and about as unimpressive.
Roger Taylor, who, with 'I'm In Love With My Car', wrote the finest number on 'A Night At The Opera', makes his sole contribution to 'A Day At The Races' with 'Drowse' which invites unhappily accurate, glib comments about the appropriateness of the title. Slow, pompous, somnolent.
The closing track is 'Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)', Brian May's final invention. Interesting bass support again, pedestrian velocity, classical layering. The trademark choral passages are as lumbering as they are un-surprising. An almost indecipherable squiggle in my notebook seems to translate as 'snooze'.
So that’s it. An inevitably shallow review — but not coloured by any anti-Queen preconceptions. I am not one of the back-to-the-roots-and-mono-lives brigade; in fact I believe that Queen have produced some of the most impressive, majestic, sophisticated music of the decade over the past few years.
But there has to be substance behind the frills, solidity of ideas behind the production glass; this dearth of essential inspirations is where this album falls down with a multi-tracked thud.
If I am wrong about this album — which is perfectly possible — then apologies to anyone misled by premature opinion.
If I am right, then 'A Day At The Races', in its self-importance and directionless ostentation, exists as the most definitive justification of punk ever recorded.
Tim Lott
I PROBABLY have a little idea of what this album is like. I heard it just once at a specially laid-on pre-listen last Friday. So any opinions expressed during this dangerously ignorant review could be reversed in the future, because they are first impressions and conceivably worthless.
Having said that, I have a strong impression that 'A Day At The Races' is a highly professional failure, for reasons that I can only outline in frustratingly general terms.
For a kick-off, the album is in no way a radical change from 'A Night At The Opera'. It sticks close to the vocal multi-track May pyrotechnics formula but in a perturbingly less than inspiring fashion. It is too formulated, too smartass, too reliant on trickery as a substitute for inspiration. The production is classy, but nowhere does it achieve the controlled elegance of, say, 'Bohemian Rhapsody' or 'Killer Queen'. There is an important exception to the overall paucity of material – Freddie Mercury’s 'You Take My Breath Away', a voice/piano ballad much along the lines of 'Love Of My Life'. Anyone who heard the number at Hyde Park in September will know just what an effective piece of music it is. Mercury's voice is perfectly suited to ballads, a fact that is underexploited on 'A Day At The Races'. 'You Take My Breath Away' is simple, uncluttered and beautiful, the lone piano a perfect foil for Mercury's high pitched, flyaway vocals. The Mercury vocal chords are not used so intelligently elsewhere on this album, they are cheapened by an excess of double, triple and God-knows-how-many overdubs. The sound is crowded, too much compressed into too small a space. So much for what is really the only standout piece. On to the depressing remainder. Side One opens with Brian May's 'Tie Your Mother Down' and the instrumentally elaborate but atmospherically straight-forward 'You Take My Breath Away' follows, then the second May composition 'Long Away'. Mid-pace, fat harmony vocal, very typical Brian May solo that sounds disturbingly similar to every other Brian May solos on the album. Standard, lowgrade studio product. Next, another Mercury song, 'The Millionaire Waltz'. Powerful bass work from John Deacon establishes some sort of atmosphere, vocals dominate, slow rather ponderous feel. It doesn't seem to go anywhere, it just revolves hopelessly on a stylistic treadmill. Admirably proficient production as with all Queen material, but console embellishments do little to salvage the track. 'You And I', John Deacon's only composition of the album, ends side one. Deacon contributed what was probably the most irritating piece of music on 'A Night At The Opera', 'You're My Best Friend'. This appears to be little improvement. Apologetically, I must admit I can’t think of much to say except it's below-par Queen, crassly commercial, damaged by too much incorrectly channelled flash.
Side Two opens with 'Somebody To Love', the single, little more than 'Bohemian Rhapsody' part two, but vocally impressive all the same. 'White Man' May's power piece which was also featured at Hyde Park, follows. In the same vein as the excellent 'I'm In Love With My Car', it brims with energy but imprecise direction mars the effect. It’s a number that could easily improve with every listen, but on first hearing there is no indelible impression. 'Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy', Mercury's final contribution, is reminiscent of 'Seaside Rendezvous', and about as unimpressive.
Roger Taylor, who, with 'I'm In Love With My Car', wrote the finest number on 'A Night At The Opera', makes his sole contribution to 'A Day At The Races' with 'Drowse' which invites unhappily accurate, glib comments about the appropriateness of the title. Slow, pompous, somnolent.
The closing track is 'Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)', Brian May's final invention. Interesting bass support again, pedestrian velocity, classical layering. The trademark choral passages are as lumbering as they are un-surprising. An almost indecipherable squiggle in my notebook seems to translate as 'snooze'.
So that’s it. An inevitably shallow review — but not coloured by any anti-Queen preconceptions. I am not one of the back-to-the-roots-and-mono-lives brigade; in fact I believe that Queen have produced some of the most impressive, majestic, sophisticated music of the decade over the past few years.
But there has to be substance behind the frills, solidity of ideas behind the production glass; this dearth of essential inspirations is where this album falls down with a multi-tracked thud.
If I am wrong about this album — which is perfectly possible — then apologies to anyone misled by premature opinion.
If I am right, then 'A Day At The Races', in its self-importance and directionless ostentation, exists as the most definitive justification of punk ever recorded.
Tim Lott
