Queen: Queen II (2026 mix) [HOLLYWOOD RECORDS]

Why you'll love it

This edition presents a brand new 2026 mix made from the original multitrack masters, overseen by Brian May and Roger Taylor. Queen II reached No. 5 in the UK, and "Seven Seas of Rhye" gave the band their first hit single.

This edition

• New 2026 mix from the multitrack masters

About the album

Before the operatic heights of A Night at the Opera, Queen made an album with a light side and a dark side, and labelled them that way. Recorded at Trident Studios in London with Roy Thomas Baker, Queen II splits into Side White, led by Brian May's songs, and Side Black, Freddie Mercury's dramatic fantasy suite.

May's "Father to Son" and "White Queen (As It Began)" are big, layered and romantic, and Roger Taylor steps up with "The Loser in the End." Then Side Black kicks off with the thundering "Ogre Battle," drifts into "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke," inspired by Richard Dadd's painting, and builds to "The March of the Black Queen," a multi-part epic that sketches the blueprint for Bohemian Rhapsody. Stacked harmonies and Brian May's guitar orchestras are everywhere, the sound the band would make their own, and the album closes with "Seven Seas of Rhye" in full flight.

Mick Rock's cover photo, the four faces lit from above against black, came back to life in the Bohemian Rhapsody video the following year. A good idea, like a good haircut, deserves a second outing.

Also at Kops: more Queen on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Hollywood Records (cat# D004921001), a reissue of the 1974 album.