Release, due in the spring, also features a remix of the original album that adds new clarity to the sound
Queen‘s second album, Queen II, home to the single “Seven Seas of Rhye” and Mick Rock’s iconic cover shot, will be expanded into a lavish box set this spring with the addition of previously unreleased takes of the album’s songs, a version of the album that’s just backing tracks, live recordings from the BBC, and live versions of he song recorded in front of audiences. The box set, Queen II Reimagined: Deluxe Collector’s Edition, will come out on CD and LP, as well as digitally, on March 27.
The centerpiece of the release is a remix of the original album by three engineers: Justin Shirley-Smith, Joshua J Macrae, and Kris Fredriksson. The new mix aims to clean up instances in the original mix where the sound of the instruments overwhelmed the equipment of the time. “Rather than add anything, we wanted to reveal more of what was there and get that desired sound,” Shirley-Smith said in a statement.
The album, originally released on March 8, 1974, showed the band focusing more on making grand, overarching statements than on the previous year’s Queen. It opens with “Procession,” a guitar symphony constructed by May with volume swells, and the songs that follow straddle heavy metal and prog rock, split in half on the original LP with “Side White” and “Side Black.” The album’s “Ogre Battle” and “White Queen (As It Began)” were staples of Queen’s set lists through the end of the Seventies. “Seven Seas of Rhye,” which featured Freddie Mercury’s piano fanfares, became the band’s first U.K. hit. The album subsequently made ardent fans out of Axl Rose, Billy Corgan, and Judas Priest’s Rob Halford, who’ve all sung its praises.
“Queen II was the single biggest leap we ever made,” May said in a statement. “That’s when we really started making music the way we wanted to, rather than the way we were being pushed into recording it.”
“With Queen II, I couldn’t believe how much work we put into it,” drummer Roger Taylor said. “I think we felt we were evolving our own sound. We were pioneering this sort of multitracking thing. It gave you a tremendous palette, massive choral effects with just three of us singing.”
Editor’s picks
The collection includes alternate sessions and outtakes from the album’s sessions at Trident Studios and includes curiosities like guide vocals and studio banter. Notable tracks include Brian May’s “As It Began,” a 1969 recording that later became “White Queen,” and Taylor’s two demos for “Loser in the End.” The disc also features “Not for Sale (Polar Bear),” a song the band worked on during the Queen II sessions but never finished. May teased it around Christmas during a radio broadcast.
The “backing tracks” disc presents versions of every song without vocals to highlight the band’s musicianship. The “At the BBC” disc includes sessions the band recorded with John Peel and Bob Harris in 1973 and ’74. And the final disc features every song from Queen II recorde