Queen II – Queen
Queen II is the second studio album by the British rock band Queen. It was released on 8 March 1974 by EMI Records at midnight in the UK and by Elektra Records in the US. It was recorded at Trident Studios and Langham 1 Studios, London from February to August 1973 with co-producers Roy Thomas Baker and Robin Cable, and engineered by Mike Stone.
Described as “arguably the heaviest Queen album”, Queen II is notable for its combination of a heavy rock sound with an art rock sensibility and has been called “a pillar of grandiose, assaultive hard rock” by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Queen II is not a concept album but a collection of songs with a loose theme running throughout. The two sides of the original LP were labelled “Side White” and “Side Black” (instead of the conventional sides “A” and “B”), with corresponding photos of the band dressed in white or in black on either side of the record’s label face. The white side has songs with a more emotional theme and the black side is almost entirely about fantasy, often with quite dark themes. Mick Rock’s album cover photograph was frequently re-used by the band throughout its career, including the music videos for the songs “Bohemian Rhapsody” (1975), and “One Vision” (1985).
Track List
- Procession
- Father to Son
- White Queen (As It Began)
- Some Day One Day
- The Loser in the End
- Ogre Battle
- The Fairy Feller’s Master‐Stroke
- Nevermore
- The March of the Black Queen
- Funny How Love Is
- Seven Seas of Rhye
