| Review
by Collectors
music reviews
Queen Multitracks Mixes presents two hours of
isolated instrument and vocal tracks of “Another One Bites The Dust,”
“Play The Game,” “Somebody To Love,” “Under Pressure,” “We
Are The Champions,” “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” “I Want To
Break Free,” “Keep Yourself Alive,” “Hammer To Fall,” “Now
I’m Here,” “Tie Your Mother Down” and “We Will Rock You.”
Probably surfacing because of the Guitar Hero
video game, everything from these mixes comes from the officially released
songs so there is nothing different from what has been out before.
And the sound quality on every track is excellent, as to be expected.
Most of the songs have three tracks. “Somebody
To Love” has four and three songs, “Keep Yourself Alive,” “Tie
Your Mother Down” and “We Will Rock You,” have only two.
The first is “Another One Bites The Dust” with
three tracks. Dating from the 1980 Munich sessions for The Game,
it was written and almost wholly performed by John Deacon. The first
track has Roger Taylor’s drum loop and some of the guitar effects added
by Brian May with Deacon’s hand claps. The second covers
Deacon’s bass line with both Deacon’s and May’s guitar
embellishments. The final track isolates Freddie Mercury’s vocal
performance from the official release.
“Play The Game” is the leading song on The Game,
dating from the same Munich sessions that produced “Another One Bites
The Dust.” The first track features the rhythm section and May’s
soaring guitar lines. The guitar works well with the piano,
but isolated it sounds almost melodramatic.
The second “Play The Game” features the synthesizer
flourish and Freddie’s emotional piano playing. The drums are
buried deep in the mix. The third and final track has the same
flourish before continuing with the lead and backing vocal tracks.
It also includes a bit of May’s guitar breaks between the verses.
“Somebody To Love,” because of its complexity, is
the only song with more than four tracks. It dates from the 1976
sessions at Sarm East Studios in London for A Day At The Races,
and starts with the backing vocals used on the official release. At
points the drums are audible deep in the mix, but the gospel chorus
dominates the track. The other three tracks focus upon drums, piano, and
Freddie’s lead vocal.
“Under Pressure” was recorded in the summer Hot
Space sessions in Montreux in 1981. The first two tracks are
instrumentals, featuring Deacon’s famous bass riff, guitars, piano and
drums. But the best is the final featuring the vocals of both
Freddie and David Bowie. It’s not only their singing of the lyrics
that is impressive, but the way they augment one another with backing
vocals which truly impresses.
“Crazy Little Thing Called Love” was recorded in
the summer of 1979 in Munich and was released as a single in October, a
full nine months before the release of The Game. It hit
number one in both the UK and US (their first number one in America) and
even gave name to the UK Crazy tour in December that year.
The first of three tracks focuses upon the drums.
The second has both the acoustic and electric guitars and bass, and the
final is Freddie’s vocal performance isolated from the other
instruments.
“I Want To Break Free” comes from the long
recording sessions that produced The Works. The first track
isolates the drum beats including the phased cymbal crashes. The
second focuses upon all of the guitars, both acoustic rhythm and May’s
snotty sounding electric guitar melody and the bass. The final has
Freddie’s vocals and synthesizers.
“Keep Yourself Alive” is Queen’s first single,
dating from 1973 and even predates the release of Queen in July.
Although it did not chart, it was played live for many years and was named
by Rolling Stone number 31 of the “100 Greatest Guitar Songs”
in 2008. There are only two tracks included. The first has the
drum track and the vocals, both lead and back up. The second has the
guitars, both lead and bass, together.
“Hammer To Fall” dates from the 1983 Los Angeles
sessions which produced The Works. A Brian May song, it’s
an obvious gesture to the critics who savaged the band and Hot Space
for being too dance-oriented. But the blatant stab at the heavy
metal riff, arena rock drums and explosions are campy, but a lot of fun.
The first track has Taylor’s drums, the second May’s guitar and
Deacon’s bass, and the final with lead and backing vocals and keyboards.
“Now I’m Here” was written in 1974 for Sheer
Heart Attack. It had much longevity in the live set, and is one
of the Queen songs with the most variations. The first track is the
isolated drum track. Unlike the others, which were very clean, this
one has the guitar and bass audible. The second is the guitar and
bass track (with no drums audible). All of May’s overdubbed
guitars are present. The third and final is Freddie’s vocals
isolated from the other instruments.
“Tie Your Mother Down” dates from the 1976 A
Day At The Races LP. The first track isolates the drums.
Brian May’s guitars are still plainly audible underneath, however.
The second isolates the vocals.
The second disc ends with a track from News Of The
World. Recorded in 1977, the first track isolates the drums and
footstamps, and the second has the vocal and scant guitar found in the
track.
Having new studio outtakes is always interesting.
This new trend to release discs with isolated “multitracks” is
something quite different. These do not differ at all, but do make
one appreciate all of the elements that go into making a song great.
Multitracks Mixes is an interesting release worth having for the die hard
Queen collector. |
