A Day at The Races (album) - Reception and Legacy

Reception and Legacy

The Washington Post described A Day at the Races as "a judicious blend of heavy metal rockers and classically influenced, almost operatic, torch songs." The Winnipeg Free Press was also appreciative, writing, "Races is a reconfirmation of Queen's position as the best of the third wave of English rock groups." Circus offered a mixed review, writing, "With A Day at the Races, they've deserted art-rock entirely. They're silly now. And wondrously shameless." Lifelong Queen detractor Dave Marsh, writing in Rolling Stone, was less appreciative, describing Freddie Mercury as possessing a merely "passable pop voice", and concluding, "Queen will probably top the charts until one or the other of its leaders grows restless and spins off another version."

Allmusic awarded the album 3.5/5 stars, naming singles "Tie Your Mother Down" and "Somebody to Love", along with ballad "You Take My Breath Away", as the best tracks on the record, and saying it marked a point where Queen "entered a new phase, where they're globe-conquering titans instead of underdogs on the make". while Q awarded it 4/5 stars, writing, "The breadth of its ambition remains ever impressive, as do tracks such as May's stomping 'Tie Your Mother Down' and Mercury's baroque one-two, 'Somebody To Love' and 'Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy'." George Starostin wrote, "considering that it does have its fair share of undisputable classics and that the boys' songwriting and arranging are still at an all-time high, I give it a nine with no remorse."

In 2006, a national BBC poll saw A Day at the Races voted the 67th greatest album of all time. The same year, in a worldwide Guinness and NME poll to find the "Greatest 100 Albums of All Time", A Day at the Races was voted #87. It was also featured in Classic Rock and Metal Hammer's "The 200 Greatest Albums of the 70s," being listed as one of the 20 greatest albums of 1976. Out ranked it No. 20 of 100 in a poll of "more than 100 actors, comedians, musicians, writers, critics, performance artists, label reps, and DJs, asking each to list the 10 albums that left the most indelible impressions on their lives." In the 1987 edition of the The World Critics List, the BBC's Peter Powell ranked A Day at the Races the 6th greatest album of all time, and Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun-Times included the record in his "The Great albums" in 2006.