I think 70's because it had great albums like Queen, Queen II, Sheer Heart Attack, A night At The Opera, A Day At The Races... wait, they were all great
I like all of it... early 70's + The Miracle are the best Queen times...(Maybe not best I suppose seeing as Fred was pretty much half dead around The Miracle :/)
The 70's queen without a shadow of a doubt never will there be a better sounding queen but of course sounds evolve and generate new stuff and the 80's/90's queen only one sticks out in my opinion.... INNUENDO.
Well summed up Seb,
I often listen to their later work and, while there's no doubt they were still skilled in the art of recording, I miss the sheer talent they displayed musically on the earlier albums that, for whatever reason, was not so clearly evident in the later albums.
My, wholly subjective, view of their output was
'70's - 70% brilliance, 25% take it or leave it, 5% leave it.
80's and on - the 70% and 5% figures gradually reversed, although I will grant that Innuendo had some good stuff on it that clearly blew the previous 4 studio albums out of the water.
Hot Space - not great, but funnily enough not my least favourite
The Works - wholly predictable, very cliched, an obvious "let's try the things that worked before" release after HP failed critically.
...Magic - Generally poor
The Miracle - Ugh!
Anyway, not looking to cause arguments, just my VERY subjective view on things.
Personally, I have little or no interest musically in them from 1980 onwards, as you'll have guessed.
Take care all,
Steven
70s by far. They were hungry in the 70's. By the 90's they were well fed. Lame analogy maybe but they were much more inventive. Bands in the 70's period were the best bands because of "new" recording methods of the time and they had to work for success. Plus, corporate control was in it's infancy letting bands still make the music they wanted to.
Sebastian wrote: In the 80s they were entertainers, in the 70s they were musicians.
What's the difference really?
I have to agree that the music in the 70s was better, but seriously speaking Queen has always been both.
The difference, IMO, is that in the 70's they made music that featured entertainment; in the 80's they made entertainment that featured music. The gravity centre changed.
in the 70s freddies voice was different because he didnt smoke and they also wrote better songs in the early days because they were trying to become famous but in the 80s/90s they already were famous
Well, I like all of those eras of Queen, but I just have to say that the 70's era was their best. 80's was great too and the 90's was fantastic, with the albums, not Freddie's passing. May he rest in peace..