When I began collecting records, Queen’s “News of the World” was one of the records from my parents’ collection that was at the top of my list of albums I wanted to replace.

During all my years of collecting, though, this record remained rather elusive as I’d never seen it in the racks. Then one Saturday morning (a few months ago, actually) I found this 1977 album in the racks on a trip to one of my favorite local record stores, Mad City Music Exchange in Madison, Wis. The funny thing is, I only went there to pick up a record-cleaning brush.

With iconic artwork from Frank Kelly Freas on the sleeve, a good mix of ballads and hard rock, and one of my favorite Queen songs ever, “News of the World” was a must. I have memories of listening to the album on vinyl as a child, but those memories usually began and ended with the album’s hit singles “We Will Rock You” and “We Are The Champions” – and that probably had nothing to do with one of Queen’s most sexually-oriented songs existing on the B Side. (I also have memories of listening to “Radio Gaga” and “Another One Bites The Dust,” but was too young to realize these songs weren’t on this album.)

My memories of this album revolve largely around the artwork. The robot, with blood on his fingers, as lifeless representations of the band are either resting in his hand or are falling, is quite vivid – especially when you’re a toddler. The more frightening image for me, though, was when you open up the gatefold and see the look (and discoloration) of the people’s faces as they run away from the robot who has torn a hole in the roof and is looking in at them. When I finally saw the “Family Guy” episode where Brian buys Peter’s copy of “News of the World” and tortures Stewie with the image, I could sympathize (while I was laughing hysterically).

I rediscovered Queen on my own, thanks in part to “Wayne’s World,” when I was 10 and 11. “Bohemian Rhapsody” resurfaced and kids my age learned about Queen. One of the first CDs I owned was “News Of The World,” largely because I recognized the album cover.

The real winner here, though, is the music. There is a lot to like here. Even though “News” doesn’t follow a single concept and is far from the progressive nature of Queen’s previous albums, the album is progressive in its own right. The album kicks off with the sports arena anthems “We Will Rock You”/”We Are The Champions,” two pop songs that give way to the sports-arena crowd that would begin to discover the band before seguing into the frenetic “Sheer Heart Attack.”

Then the album transitions into one of my personal favorite Queen songs, “All Dead, All Dead.” Written by guitarist Brian May, the song features May on vocals while Freddie Mercury provides piano and backing vocals. I think it’s this combination that makes this song work. Mercury’s accompaniment is absolutely beautiful. The introduction is melodic, the chords are moving, the beat catchy and the harmonies are some of the best that May and Mercury produced together.

The album moves back into power ballad territory with John Deacon’s “Spread Your Wings,” transitions into Roger Taylor’s bass/drum-heavy “Fight From The Inside,” one of the few Queen songs largely recorded by one member, before breaking into Mercury’s experimental “Get Down, Make Love,” one of Queen’s most sexually-suggestive songs, although it doesn’t leave a lot to the imagination about what’s going on here.

At times, “News of the World” is pop. Yet the album is a bit colder. There’s more sadness and the ballads are less love songs and more about strained love or crushed hopes and dreams. In all honesty, the lyrics play more like the grunge rock that was to come 15 years later in Seattle. The thing this album does very well, though, is it showcases the many things this band is and the many things this band is good at.

The album’s gatefold.

It has rock, it has ballads and love songs, and it showcases the band’s jazz  influences – whether it’s the walking bass lines of “Sleeping on the Sidewalk,” the Latin-sounding “Who Needs You,” or the piano jazz of “My Melancholy Blues” and it’s blues influence with “It’s Late,” even though the song is a bit more complex and is more than “just a blues song.” The song feels like the song that sums up every style of music on this album, except they all appear at once in “It’s Late” – from experimental noodling in the intro, to heavy, fast rock by the chorus, to a blues/jazz feel in the later verses. The song changes rhythm and syncopation multiple times over, yet never really loses its tone or focus.

The album also shows that the band is more than Mercury and May as all four members have active hands in the song-writing process. “News” feels much more complete than the works that preceded it and, in my opinion, it’s much more complete as an album than what would follow.