Queen – Queen (UHQCD)

Over the course of their career, Queen have released 18 albums, scored 18 number one singles and sold more than 300 million records worldwide. Formed in the 1960s by Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, later joined by bassist John Deacon, the band initially played a series of sessions for the BBC. It was not until Trident producer Robin Cable invited Queen to record in the studio that their debut album, Queen, was released in 1973. The opening track, Keep Yourself Alive, became one of the band’s early anthems.

The UHQCDs of the Queen tracks are based on an earlier digitisation, which was done in 24 bit and partly at 88.2 kHz and partly at 96 kHz sampling rate. Accordingly, the encoded MQA signal is only present in this form. In terms of sound, the UHQCDs differ from the earlier MFSL Gold CDs in that they have a more open and engaging soundstage, with spatial depth as well as width. The bass is drier and more driving than on previous editions, and you can clearly hear that Queen is a rock band.

UHQCD stands for Ultimate High Quality Compact Disc and is a joint development of the Japanese CD replication company Memory-Tech and the Audio Quality CD Company from Hong Kong. Unlike conventional CDs, UHQCDs are not pressed from polycarbonate, but cast from a photopolymer and cured with UV light. Another layer of high-purity polycarbonate is applied to the softer photopolymer for scratch protection. The combination results in significantly reduced reflection of laser light inside the CD and an unmatched precise edge transition between pits and lands of the CD. UHQCDs are 100% compatible with standard CD players. Musically, the result is a sound image strongly reminiscent of analog master tapes.

While Universal Music Japan’s first UHQCD series relied on the DSD data of previous SHM-SACD releases, with increasing popularity, albums that had not previously been released as SHM-SACD are now appearing. Typically, the Universal Archive master tapes are re-converted to DSD for this purpose. UHQCDs are ideal for music lovers who want to get as close as possible to the sound of the recording, but do not own an SACD player.

Lista pieselor

1. Keep Yourself Alive

2. Doing All Right

3. Great King Rat

4. My Fairy King

5. Liar

6. The Night Comes Down

7. Modern Times Rock ‘N’ Roll

8. Son And Daughter

9. Jesus

10. Seven Seas Of Rhye