Queen created albums of lasting energy and majesty, with a fizzy amalgam of energy pop, rock, opera and steel. Then they introduced all of it to life with eye-popping in-concert theatrics earlier than shedding Freddie Mercury within the ’90s.

Fortunately, Queen’s stay albums preserved these experiences. They tended to strip away the ornate studio splendor in favor of one thing much more nervy and lean. However Queen remained an attention-grabbing mixture of seemingly contradictory issues.

On stage as on vinyl, Queen could possibly be cocksure but profoundly weak. These juxtapositions, these foundational contradictions, made Queen — then, as now — a galvanizing pressure.

READ MORE: Prime 10 Queen Songs

Their stay discography begins with 1979’s multi-platinum Reside Killers and 1986’s Reside Magic. Each have been Prime 5 hits in Queen’s native U.Ok. however sadly grew to become the one albums launched earlier than Mercury succumbed to AIDS problems. There clearly was an viewers: Reside at Wembley ’86, Queen’s lone in-concert album launch from the ’90s, went platinum in America and hit No. 2 within the U.Ok.

Lastly, Queen started making up for misplaced time in a brand new century. The Prime 20 U.Ok. hit Queen on Fireplace: Reside on the Bowl started a string of well-received live performance recordings. A number of of them reached the U.Ok. Prime 40, together with 2014’s No. 11 smash Reside on the Rainbow ’74.

A whopping three LPs (Reside Magic, Reside at Wembley and 2012’s Hungarian Rhapsody: Queen Reside in Budapest) showcase reveals from Queen’s 1986 tour. It could be their final with Mercury. However the bigger focus has been evenly matched between the group’s edgier early years and big ’80s-era concert events.

This is a glance again as we rank each Queen stay album.

You Assume You Know Queen?