This album was suffering the fate of many of the things I have on vinyl, which means it's been sitting unplayed on the shelf. I don't listen to the radio any longer (does anyone?) so I've not had the occasion to listen to much queen.

Amazon had this release on special, so I purchased and downloaded it. It was refreshing to listen to again, almost as if for the first time, though it did bring back a lot of good memories.

This is a very strong album with a sold mix of music showcasing just how talented and versatile the band was.

I guess I'm going to have to download the rest of the queen catalog now.

I've listened to this album since it was released back in the 70's. I continue to listen to it regularly. It never leaves my cd player. Brings back great memories... with a little bit of rock and little bit of sort of easy listening.

If Queen had released this album and called it a day, they would be remembered as the band that gave the world an anthem for the ages. Go to any sports match around the world, and eventually the boom-boom-clap of "We Will Rock You" will thunder through the stadium. Watch any final series recap and you'll likely hear "We Are The Champions." Over 30 years later, and they are the reason "News Of The World" remains an essential seventies album for Queen, even as the ferocity of punk was beginning to make its presence felt.

Not that Queen didn't take notice. The third song on the CD is "Sheer Heart Attack" (and not Sheer Heart Attack oddly enough) rates as one of Queen's hardest rockers next to "Stone Cold Crazy." As usual, however, Queen took as many musical detours on this album as they did on their previous discs. "Get Down Make Love" is a detached grinder, while "Sleeping On The Sidewalk" veers into Latin Rhythms (and is ably covered by Los Lobos on the Killer Queen Tribute CD). "All Dead All Dead" is a melancholy piece from Brian May, and ends with Freddie Mercury's typical camp crooning on "My Melancholy Blues."

It has been rare that any band could become so massively huge and yet be so willing to spin their styles all over the map. By having such divergent personalities along with Mercury's flamboyant, charismatic front person, Queen was a one of a kind band where the chemistry mixed perfectly. It made "News Of The World" an album where a band, so ambitious and bent on extravagance, simultaneously hit their commercial and artistic peak. "News Of The World" is, in my opinion, the last brilliant Queen album.

I didn't realize it at the time but the disappointment that was "News of the World" wasn't just a temporary setback, it set the tone for things to come. If you have the first two tracks, "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions" on a compilation, consider that not having purchased this, you have dodged a bullet.

Apart from the first two tracks which gained quite a bit of airplay, the only two salvageable moments from the rest of this dreck would be the two rockers penned by Roger Taylor, the title track and "Fight from the Inside". Of the remainder only "It's Late" attempts to rock but it reeks of a song issued before it was done baking and as such becomes the most painful listening experience that Brian May had given us to this point. It really could have been something given enough time and polishing but instead it sounds clumsy and studied.

I cringe to think of how horrible the rest of the album was. Oh, if you were a 14 year old girl in 1977 I'm sure this would have been a glorious experience for you, but the ardent Queen fan could only be heartbroken by utter schlock such as John Deacon's "Spread Your Wings" (send this to Bette Midler and be done with it already) or Freddie's wannabe-"Melancholy Baby" song, "Melancholy Blues". Brian's song about sidewalk life and "All Dead All Dead" were, well, all dead.

Please, add the hits to your collection via individual downloads or perhaps a best of compilation, but if you're going to invest in an entire Queen CD, make it Queen II, Sheer Heart Attack, or A Night At The opera. Until this point the punk rockers had no reason for existence, but after this travesty they had every justification to cast stones at the arena rockers who had become bloated, lazy and irrelevant. I still remember how mortified and sad I was in November of 1977 when I first heard this thing.

This album, News of the World is an album every rock fan should own. Just like the Cars debut album, Boston's debut album to name a few, this album is full of hard rock that will last forever. We listened to this 8-track till it was worn out back in high school and today it sounds just as good on a CD player. People tend to forget just how hard these boys ROCKED !!!