Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| Daily Herald | (favourable) |
| Q | |
| Rolling Stone | (favourable) |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
| Winnipeg Free Press | (favourable) |
Rolling Stone wrote, "There's no doubt that this funky, energetic English quartet has all the tools they'll need to lay claim to the Zep's abdicated heavy-metal throne, and beyond that to become a truly influential force in the rock world. Their debut album is superb." The Winnipeg Free Press opined that Queen borrowed from other artists, but also compared it favourably to Led Zeppelin, writing, "the group manages to inject such a fresh, energetic touch to most of it that I don't mind a bit... With its first album, Queen has produced a driving, high energy set which in time may be looked upon with the same reverence Led Zep 1 now receives." Illinois' Daily Herald also commended the record, writing "Good listening is guaranteed in songs like 'Keep Yourself Alive,' 'Great King Rat' and 'Doing All Right'."
In later years, Allmusic awarded the album 3 out of 5 stars, calling it a "patchy but promising debut from a classic rock group," while Q awarded the album 5/5 stars, citing it as an "essential purchase." In 1994, Guitarist magazine ranked Queen the 19th most influential guitar album of all time. In 2008, Rolling Stone ranked "Keep Yourself Alive" 31st in the "100 Greatest Guitar Songs Of All Time", describing it as "an entire album's worth of riffs crammed into a single song".
Read more about this topic: Queen (album)
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