Sheer Heart Attack by Queen

I remember the first time that I saw Freddie Mercury on Top of the Pops, with long hair, a fur jacket and half a microphone singing Killer Queen. It was thrilling and transgressive in a way that I couldn’t articulate at that age, but it felt like the future. I didn’t listen to the rest of the album until I was much older, but it still brings back the same feelings.

This was the album where Queen perfected their sound, particularly Brian May’s unique guitar, but all of them were firing on all cylinders. There’s a lot going on here, with a mischievous sense of humour in the opening of Brighton Rock and the jaunty Leroy Brown, combined with some of the hardest rock that Queen ever produced.

It’s sometimes overlooked in the Queen discography, falling between Queen II and Night at The Opera, but I think it’s one of my favorites that never grows old. Listening to Now I'm Here on headphones this morning was still a spine tingling experience to hear Freddie’s voice coming from different directions of the soundscape, and as with all of the studio tricks on this album was one they managed to pull off in live gigs too.

Dynamite with a laser beam-tastic!