Ah, the pomp, the finery, the hair, the rock. Queen were unique in all of those departments and continue to hold sway upon successive legions of rock bands, with Messrs May and Taylor turning up to play with the latest young pups - most recently, Five. This limited edition 3-CD box set couples the three previously-released 'Greatest Hits' sets in one handy package.
The original set from 1981 runs through the early years (in non-chronological order) from the driving rock of 'Seven Seas Of Rhye' and 'Now I'm Here' through the grandiose, absurd-but-magnificent 'Bohemian Rhapsody' to the pumping 'Don't Stop Me Now' and 'Flash'.
There are a few notable omissions from this period in the band's history, notably the barnstorming 'Tie Your Mother Down' and live favourite 'Love Of My Life'. However, as a representative collection of their first seven years it can't be faulted, tracing the band's transistion from heavy beginnings to radio-friendly, stadium anthems like 'We Will Rock You' and 'We Are The Champions' with aplomb.
The second album features the band's later years, as they move from the ill-advised disco of the 'Hot Space' album to the soft rock likes of 'Radio Ga Ga', 'I Want To Break Free' and 'A Kind Of Magic' before the theatrical bombast of tracks like 'Who Wants To Live Forever' and 'I'm Going Slightly Mad'. A patchier affair, as the band lose some of their creative spark and drift into maudlin AOR territory but nonetheless still well worth the price of admission.
The recent third volume compiles various album favourites, remixes, live tracks and Freddie and Brian solo stuff. It might be a churlish criticism but, given the attention lavished on Mr Mercury's back catalogue recently, wouldn't it have been neater to keep his (and Mr May's) solo material off a Queen album. But then again as solo and band material overlapped in their final years, who's to say they should be segregated?
Anyway, tracks like 'Barcelona' show off Mercury's vitality and lustre for trying every possible style of music. The big criticism of this set is that feels like things have just been thrown onto the album for the sake of it rather than for a specific purpose. The duplication of certain tracks (albeit in live and remix form) is also annoying. It would have been far better to have mixed live versions of tracks not included on the first two albums with the solo material.
Which, all in all, means that if you're a novice Queen fan you'd probably be better picking up the first two volumes and give the third one a miss, unless you're a particular fan of the later band/solo material. Those two are almost worth full marks, but due to the third album's presence this nice package only scores...
