Albums that weren't big at the time of release

What are 3 Queen albums that were considered disappointments when first released but now regard them as great? Mine are Queen, Queen 2 Just for the lack of support they got for those 2 albums. Both are excellent.....and A Day At The Races, which was considered a copy of Opera but not as good. A few critiques even said they ripped themselves off back then.....Now I love Races to bits. Every song is great and is really impressive listening to it now.

...Races is my favourite - just an absolute peak of performance, songwriting and production. I wonder if some albums by Queen and other artists get overlooked as whole pieces because they didn't have many singles released from them? Was it just 'the norm' back in the early to mid 70s for albums to only generally have a couple of single releases from them (excluding specific territory releases for some places), or was this limited in Queen's case because of the relatively prolific speed at which they released those albums?

QII: Seven Seas of Rhye
SHA: Killer Queen, Now I'm Here
ADATR: Bo Rhap, You're My Best Friend
ADATR: Somebody To Love, Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy (as part of an EP), Tie Your Mother Down (not a huge hit)
NOTW: We Are The Champions, Spread Your Wings (not a huge hit)

The 70s were very very different to now as I'm sure you know. You'd be lucky to have 2 big singles on an album, and the gap between albums was far less than it is now. 1 a year was almost lazy :)

I guess with Queen, Jazz would be considered their first real 'BAU' album and lacked much interest - especially with it's weird cover and bland name (I say that as a BIG fan of the album). Perhaps ADATR was them just going through the motions of being Queen for the first time. Everything until then was developing into what they are now recognised for.

Also I was always interested by the Queen discography saying the debut peaked at number 24 in the UK. They always said it flopped but I thought (as a young lad) '24 is good!' However it was only later I realised that chart position was attained much later.

I know none of that is probably relevant to the original post :D

Mercury rising, I forget his name stated at the time of Races in 1976 it felt like a let down after ANATO, and Somebody To Love was a let down after Bo Rhap, but also say's the album is impressive when he listens to it now. I think Jazz to a lesser extent is another album that falls into that category, while not as sharp as earlier albums it beats the crap out of anything from Hot Space to The Miracle.

I think we've been here before :D

Jazz and Hot Space are to me like 2 peas in a pod. They were directionless and picked up some pretty random ideas and ran with them. I guess that's why those are my 2 favourite albums.

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A Day At The Races, Jazz and Hot Space or Queen II.

A Day At The Races and Queen II are milestones. However all of the others have great ideas, beautiful music, Jazz maybe needs a remix, it has pioneer ideas but lacks on the production. But hot space has brilliant production far ahead of its time, Mack was great producer.

Maybe the production was in itself one of the pioneer ideas?

Personally I've never had an issue with the sound. It's punchy!

It's punchy but everything is sunk in the mix. Even the bass drum on jealousy had been forgotten...
Jazz was an experiment and very promising unfortunately it didn't work due to production.

[QUOTE] [b]Dim wrote:[/b]

A Day At The Races, Jazz and Hot Space or Queen II.

A Day At The Races and Queen II are milestones. However all of the others have great ideas, beautiful music, Jazz maybe needs a remix, it has pioneer ideas but lacks on the production. But hot space has brilliant production far ahead of its time, Mack was great producer. [/QUOTE]

Interesting, another Hot Space Fan. Queen 2 And Races are the obvious ones but like you said Jazz potential was great. They somehow messed up the production and the Track order is debatable, but it has some cracking tunes. I'm a fan of the album. In the end the most Important thing is the songs. Queen 1 has weak production but many fans still think It's Queens best. What made me think of this discussion is watching the Documentary Mercury Rising where they said said Races was a weak moment in their career, then came back strong With NOTW. I disagreed, I love News, but Races might edge it for me.

Explain the weak production on Jazz

Weak production is debatable...It does have a thin sound, but unlike some fans I do like the drum work and think Roger in some ways peaked as a drummer on Jazz. I just wish it had a fuller sound like on News Of The World. The Game was well produced as well.

So it's really a mix issue?

Exactly dysan. Production an mix are two separate things.

True, the album had a mix issue. Production was fine.