'Queen II' album from 1974 to get deluxe box set treatment

Queen’s second album, Queen II, has been remixed, remastered and expanded for a new box set. It was originally released in 1974. Brian May and Roger Taylor executive produced the new release, which was mixed by Justin Shirley-Smith, Joshua J Macrae and Kris Fredriksson.

The 5CD+2LP Queen II Collector’s Edition box set features the 2026 mix of the album, plus audio of Queen in the recording studio, previously unheard outtakes and demos, live tracks and radio sessions.

The Queen II Collector’s Edition box set also comes with a 112-page book featuring previously unseen photographs, handwritten lyrics, diary entries, and special memorabilia, as well as memories of writing and recording the album from the band members.

“Queen II was the single biggest leap we ever made,” says Brian May. “That’s when we really started making music the way we wanted to, rather than the way we were being pushed into recording it.”

“With Queen II, I couldn’t believe how much work we put into it,” adds Roger Taylor. “I think we felt we were evolving our own sound. We were pioneering this sort of multitracking thing. It gave you a tremendous pallet, massive choral effects with just three of us singing.”

“The idea was to reveal more of the clarity of the songs,” says Justin Shirley-Smith of their approach this time around. “Rather than add anything, we wanted to reveal more of what was there and get that desired sound.”

“The lengths the band went to achieve what they achieved with the technology they had at the time was incredible,” says Joshua J Macrae. “Some of it is so ahead of its time. Working on this was like entering a room of fabulousness.”

Queen’s self-titled 1973 debut album had a troubled recording process, which resulted in a sound the band were unhappy with (subsequently rectified on the 2024 reissue). 

For the follow-up, recorded once again at Soho’s Trident Studios with Queen I co-producer Roy Thomas Baker, Queen recorded “Father To Son” and “Ogre Battle” having featured them in the live shows as far back as September 1973. 

“I wanted to give it everything – to be self-indulgent,” said Freddie Mercury at the time. “But the whole band in particular, we don't go in for half-measures and I'm pretty hard with myself. There are no compromises.”

Rather than the traditional sides one and two, the album is divided into Side White and Side Black. The former is dominated by Brian May’s songs, including “Father To Son” and “White Queen (As It Began),” with Roger Taylor’s “The Loser In The End” ending off the white side.

Side Black is given over to Mercury’s complex musical excursions, from the “Ogre Battle” and “The Fairy Feller’s Masterstroke” (inspired by a 19th century painting by maverick artist Richard Dadd) to “Seven Seas Of Rhye,” which gave the band their first UK hit single. The centrepiece of Side Black was “The March Of The Black Queen,” a multi-part mini epic.

“’The March Of The Black Queen’ was definitely a forerunner of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’” says Brian May. “Freddie’s mind was just working on a different level, even at that point. “Father To Son,” “The Fairy Feller’s Masterstroke” – you can hear the seeds of what was to come in those songs.”

QUEEN II: Collector’s Edition 2026 Mix (5CD+2LP)

CD1: Queen II - 2026 Mix

1 Procession
2 Father To Son
3 White Queen (As It Began)
4 Some Day One Day
5 The Loser in the End
6 Ogre Battle
7 The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke
8 Nevermore
9 The March of the Black Queen
10 Funny How Love Is
11 Seven Seas Of Rhye

CD2: Queen II - Sessions

1 Procession (Stage Intro Tape - April 1973)
2 Father To Son (Takes 4 & 9 - with Guide Vocal)
3 As It Began (Brian's Studio Demo - October 1969)
4 Some Day One Day (Take 1 - with Guide Vocals)
5 The Loser In The End (Roger's First Demo)
6 The Loser In The End (Roger's Second Demo)
7 Ogre Battle (Takes 2 & 6 - with Guide Vocal)
8 The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke (Takes 4 & 9)
9 Nevermore (Take 6)
10 The March Of The Black Queen (First Section Takes 3 & 5)
11 The March Of The Black Queen (Second Section Take 1)
12 Funny How Love Is (Take 4)
13 Seven Seas Of Rhye (Takes 4, 5 & 6)
14 I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside (Take 4)
15 See What A Fool I've Been (B-side Version 2026 Mix)
16 Not For Sale (Polar Bear)

CD3: Queen II - Backing Tracks

1 Procession
2 Father To Son
3 White Queen (As It Began)
4 Some Day One Day
5 The Loser in the End
6 Ogre Battle
7 The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke
8 Nevermore
9 The March of the Black Queen
10 Funny How Love Is
11 Seven Seas Of Rhye

CD4: Queen II - At The BBC

1 See What a Fool I've Been (BBC Session 2, July 1973 - 2011 Mix)
2 Ogre Battle (BBC Session 3, December 1973)
3 Nevermore (BBC Session 4, April 1974)
4 White Queen (As It Began) (BBC Session 4, April 1974)
5 Procession - Intro Tape (Live at Golders Green Hippodrome, 13th September 1973)
6 Father To Son (Live at Golders Green Hippodrome, 13th September 1973)
7 Son And Daughter (Live at Golders Green Hippodrome, 13th September 1973)
8 Guitar Solo (Live at Golders Green Hippodrome, 13th September 1973)
9 Son And Daughter - Reprise (Live at Golders Green Hippodrome, 13th September 1973)
10 Ogre Battle (Live at Golders Green Hippodrome, 13th September 1973)
11 Liar (Live at Golders Green Hippodrome, 13th September 1973)
12 Jailhouse Rock (Live at Golders Green Hippodrome, 13th September 1973)

CD5: Queen II - Live

1 Procession - Intro Tape (Live at the Rainbow, March 1974)
2 Father To Son (Live at the Rainbow, March 1974)
3 Ogre Battle (Live at the Rainbow, March 1974)
4 White Queen (As It Began) (Live at the Hammersmith Odeon, December 1975)
5 The March Of The Black Queen (Live at the Rainbow, March 1974)
6 The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke (Live at the Rainbow, March 1974)
7 Seven Seas Of Rhye (Live at the Rainbow, March 1974)
8 See What A Fool I've Been (Live at the Rainbow, March 1974)

Additional Formats:

2x CD: Queen II: Deluxe Edition
CD1: Queen II - 2026 Mix
CD2: Queen II - Sessions

Also available in Download / Streaming / Atmos

www.queenonline.com

Foo Fighters news

“Your Favorite Toy” is the first single off Foo Fighters' forthcoming 12th full-length studio album of the same name, due out April 24 via Roswell Records/RCA Records.

In a prepared statement, Dave Grohl commented, “'Your Favorite Toy' really was the key that unlocked the tone and energetic direction of the new album. We stumbled upon it after experimenting with different sounds and dynamics for over a year, and the day it took shape I knew that we had to follow its lead. It was the fuse to the powder keg of songs we wound up recording for this record. It feels new.”

Preceded by its title track and last year’s “Asking For A Friend," the album was recorded at home, co-produced by Foo Fighters and Oliver Roman, engineered by Roman and mixed by Mark “Spike” Stent.

Foo Fighters' Take Cover world tour kicks off in June in Oslo, following a pair of US festival headlines at Welcome to Rockville and Bottlerock. For more information on the tour, go to https://foofighters.lnk.to/ShowsPR

Foo Fighters are Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett, Pat Smear, Rami Jaffee and Ilan Rubin.

Track listing: 

1. Caught In The Echo

2. Of All People

3. Window

4. Your Favorite Toy

5. If You Only Knew

6. Spit Shine

7. Unconditional

8. Child Actor

9. Amen, Caveman

10. Asking For A Friend

U2 drops surprise new EP

U2's 'Days Of Ash,' a new standalone six-track EP, was released today via Interscope. Out now, listen HERE. Watch lyric videos HERE.

In advance of a new album in late 2026, the EP is a self-contained collection of five new songs and a poem - "American Obituary," "The Tears Of Things," "Song Of The Future," "Wildpeace," "One Life At A Time," and "Yours Eternally" (ft. Ed Sheeran & Taras Topolia) - an immediate response to current events and inspired by the many extraordinary and courageous people fighting on the frontlines of freedom. Four of the five tracks are about individuals – a mother, a father, a teenage girl – whose lives were brutally cut short. A soldier who’d rather be singing but is ready to die for the freedom of his country.

“It’s been a thrill having the four of us back together in the studio over the last year… the songs on Days of Ash are very different in mood and theme to the ones we’re going to put on our album later in the year. These EP tracks couldn't wait; these songs were impatient to be out in the world. They are songs of defiance and dismay, of lamentation. Songs of celebration will follow, we’re working on those now… because for all the awfulness we see normalized daily on our small screens, there’s nothing normal about these mad and maddening times and we need to stand up to them before we can go back to having faith in the future. And each other.

“If you have a chance to hope it’s a duty…” is a line we borrowed from Lea Ypi. A laugh would be nice too. Thank you.”

-Bono

“Who needs to hear a new record from us? It just depends on whether we’re making music we feel deserves to be heard. I believe these new songs stand up to our best work. We talk a lot about when to release new tracks. You don’t always know… the way the world is now feels like the right moment. Going way back to our earliest days, working with Amnesty or Greenpeace, we’ve never shied away from taking a position and sometimes that can get a bit messy, there’s always some sort of blowback, but it’s a big side of who we are and why we still exist.” 

-Larry Mullen Jr.

“I’m excited about these new songs, it feels like they’re arriving at the right time.”

Adam Clayton

“We believe in a world where borders are not erased by force.

Where culture, language, and memory are not silenced by fear.

Where the dignity of a people is not negotiable.

This belief isn’t temporary.

It isn’t political fashion.

It’s the ground we stand on.

And we stand there together.”

-The Edge

"American Obituary" speaks to the shocking event the world witnessed in Minneapolis, Minnesota on January 7, 2026 where Renée Nicole Macklin Good, an idealistic mother of three, was shot at almost point-blank range while exercising her right to peacefully protest, a right that is protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. This unarmed mother was then described as a “domestic terrorist” by a government who will not withdraw the description even though they know it’s not true. Or mount a proper enquiry into what happened for the sake of everyone involved.

"The Tears Of Things" borrows its title from a book by Franciscan friar Richard Rohr, which examines, through the writings of the Jewish prophets, how one can live compassionately in a time of violence and despair. The song imagines a conversation between Michelangelo’s David and his creator… where the young man with the sling and five smooth stones refuses the idea that he has to become Goliath to defeat him... he’s also revealed as having heart shaped pupils half a millennia before the heart shaped emoji, which puzzles visitors at the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, Italy, to this day.

The star of the lyric, Sarina, in "Song of the Future" honors the life of 16-year-old Sarina Esmailzadeh, one of thousands of Iranian schoolgirls who took to the streets as part of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in 2022. These protests were sparked by the death of Jina Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in Tehran on September 16th that year from injuries sustained following her arrest by the so-called "morality police" for not wearing a hijab in accordance with government standards. Seven days later, Sarina was beaten by the Iranian security forces and died from her injuries, the regime claiming she killed herself. The song aims to capture Sarina’s free spirit, the promise and hope of her short life.

The Days of Ash EP includes a reading of "Wildpeace" - a poem by Israeli author and poet Yehuda Amichai - by Nigerian artist Adeola of Les Amazones d'Afrique, with music by U2 and Jacknife Lee.

"One Life At A Time" is written for Awdah Hathaleen, a Palestinian father of three. A nonviolent activist and English teacher, Awdah was killed in his village in the West Bank by Israeli settler Yinon Levi on July 28th, 2025. Awdah was a consultant on the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land,” made by Palestinians and Israelis. At his funeral, one of the directors, Basel Adra, spoke of the slaughter of his friend and the experience of Palestinians being erased “one life at a time.” U2 took that line and turned it around to suggest that a peaceful resolution will be wrought “one life at a time.”

"Yours Eternally" sees Bono and The Edge joined on vocals by Ukrainian musician-turned-soldier Taras Topolia, as well as Ed Sheeran. In the spring of 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Bono and The Edge traveled to Kyiv to busk in a metro station at the invitation of President Zelensky. A couple of days prior to that, Ed connected Taras Topolia, and by extension his band Antytila, with Bono. Bono, Taras and The Edge met for the first time on that subway platform. They’ve been friends ever since. Taras is the inspiration for "Yours Eternally," a song written in the form of a letter from a soldier on active duty with a bold, mischievous spirit to match Ukraine’s.

"Yours Eternally" will also be proudly accompanied by a short 4½ minute documentary film directed by Ukrainian cinematographer and filmmaker Ilya Mikhaylus, that will be released on Tuesday, February 24th - the 4th anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Shot in December 2025 while Mikhaylus and his crew were embedded alongside the 40,000-strong Khartiya Corps, the film captures the extraordinary daily lives of Alina and her fellow soldiers fighting on the frontlines of the war.

U2 Days of Ash EP is accompanied by the return of Propaganda as a one-off digital zine, with a limited-edition print run. Forty years ago, in February 1986, the first issue of Propaganda dropped through the letterboxes of U2 fans around the world. Aspiring to match other fan magazines at that time, Propaganda was born out of the punk-era D.I.Y. zine culture that embraced attitude, ideas and dialogue. In the spirit of those early issues, this standalone EP will be accompanied by a one-off limited edition print run plus digital e-zine drop of Propaganda titled "U2 - Days Of Ash: Six Postcards From The Present… Wish We Weren’t Here." 

This 52-page special publication accompanies the release of the Days Of Ash EP and includes exclusive interviews with "Yours Eternally" film director Ilya Mikhaylus and film producer Pyotr Verzilov, as well as musician and soldier Taras Topolia. It also includes song lyrics; notes from the four band members; plus a Q&A interview with Bono. Read Propaganda HERE.

Contributions in support of freedom and human rights will be made to the following organizations:

● Amnesty International - Amnesty.org

● The Committee to Protect Journalists - CPJ.org

● UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency - UNHCR.org

The one-off special edition of Propaganda, "U2 - Days Of Ash: Six Postcards From The Present… Wish We Weren’t Here," is available digitally HERE and as a limited print run at select independent record stores across Europe and North America.

U2 Days of Ash - EP 

Track listing:

1. American Obituary

2. The Tears of Things

3. Song of The Future

4. Wildpeace - by Yehuda Amichai, read by Adeola, with music by U2 and Jacknife Lee.

5. One Life At A Time

6. Yours Eternally (ft. Ed Sheeran & Taras Topolia)

Album Reviews: Cast, Kula Shaker

Inspiring Sounds from Across the Pond

This week, the spotlight focuses on British alt-rock bands who came to prominence during the Nineties.

Artist: Cast  

Title: Yeah Yeah Yeah (Scruff of the Neck)

When Liverpool’s Cast emerged with its excellent 1995 debut album All Change, singer/guitarist John Power already had a respected pedigree as a member of The La’s, whose chiming ’88 single “There She Goes” and lone album were widely considered classics. 

He carried a bit of that band’s jangle pop sensibility over to Cast, but with a rockier thrust. At the height of the Britpop era, Cast notched several UK top 10 albums and singles before dissolving in ’01. They returned nearly a decade later. The new album, produced by Youth, is their fourth since then and a real corker. 

Hot on the heels of opening the Oasis reunion tour (Noel Gallagher is an avowed fan), Yeah Yeah Yeah still finds the musicians firing on all cylinders. Standout “Poison Vine” is a joyous raveup featuring a Stonesy sound and soulful female backing vocals from legend P.P. Arnold (among two tunes she appears on). “Don’t Look Away,” another strong rocker, contains the potent pipes of another veteran, Mary Pearce. 

Often enriched with brass and strings, other songs like “Free Love” (guitarist Liam Tyson adds familiar hallmarks), the retro 1960s pop-leaning “Teardrops” and a majestic “Birds Heading South” (think mid-period Echo & the Bunnymen) will appeal to longtime fans. An early year-end best contender. 

Info: amazon.com

Artist: Kula Shaker

Title: Wormslayer (Strange Folk)

Led by the Crispian Mills, the mystical, Indian-influenced Londoners definitely stood out from the Britpop pack when their first album K (like Cast’s bow, produced by John Leckie) appeared in 1996. 

Amid a six-year period, the group had five singles UK top 10 hits and crossed over to US alternative/mainstream rock radio with “Hey Dude,” “Tattva” (partially sung in Sanskrit) and a cover of the Deep Purple-popularized “Hush.” 

Kula Shaker was also a special guest for Oasis during the famous Knebworth ’96 gigs. They split a few years later and returned to make 2007’s Strangefolk. Mills said having keyboardist Jay Darlington back in the original lineup has brought a “huge burst of energy” and was like “a shot of life.” 

Such vitality is clear throughout engaging eighth album Wormslayer. The appealing glam-styled stomp “Lucky Number” is infused with Kula Shaker’s usual positive vibes; the same is true of the spacey and fun, party-hearty “Good Money” (featuring a British Punjabi dhol percussionist). Intriguingly, some tunes were based on ancient poems, including WB Yeats. Elsewhere, the ambitious title track clocks in at nearly 8 minutes, the pastoral folk-styled numbers are charmers, “Little Darling” is a dreamy standout and “Broke as Folk,” where the musicians simultaneously channel Pink Floyd and The Doors - truly mesmerizing. Highly recommended. 

Info: amazon.com 

My reviews originally appeared in the Feb. 18 issue of Desert Star Weekly.

Bleachers return with new album in May

Bleachers' new album Everyone for 10 Minutes will be released on May 22 via Dirty Hit. The first single and its video "You and Forever" are available now. Watch the clip: Bleachers - you and forever (Official Video)

This is the first new music from Jack Antonoff and company since one-off 2024 holiday single, "Merry Christmas, Please Don't Call." The musician/producer recently added two more Grammy awards to his total for work on Kendrick Lamar's 2024 album GNX.  

Pre order the album: Bleachers - ‘everyone for ten minutes’

Available in limited edition lilac and clear LP variants, signed CDs, cassettes and art cards through the Dirty Hit Records store.

Track list:

Sideways
The Van
We Should Talk
You And Forever
Dirty Wedding Dress
Take You Out Tonight
I Can’t Believe You’re Gone
Dancing
She’s From Before
I’m Not Joking
Upstairs at ELS

Coachella Festival '26 news: Lykke Li set to release new album in May

Swedish pop singer Lykke Li, among the many acts scheduled to perform at Coachella '26, has unveiled “Lucky Again,” the first track to be released from her forthcoming album The Afterparty due out May 8 via Neon Gold Records. 

Regarding previous albums, which date back to 2008, in a statement, she said, "I was twirling around in love addiction for all those albums...Now I’m going into my existential era."

Listen to “Lucky Again” HERE. Watch the video HERE.

Since breaking out with her debut Youth Novels (2008) and achieving mainstream success with “I Follow Rivers,” Li followed with Wounded Rhymes (2011), I Never Learn (2014), So Sad So Sexy (2018), and the immersive audiovisual album EYEEYE (2022). 

On The Afterparty album cover art, her face warped by translucent tights. “I find that we’re in an era where everyone is talking about, ‘My higher self', F- that. This is an album dealing with your lower self: your need for revenge, your shame, despair, all of it." 

Written in Los Angeles and recorded in Stockholm with a 17-piece string orchestra, “apocalyptic bongos,” and a whole lot of flute, The Afterparty is a dance record in scope. 

Pre-order/add/save the album HERE.

Track listing:

Not Gon Cry

Happy Now
Lucky Again
Famous Last Words
Future Fear
So Happy I Could Die
Sick Of Love
Knife In The Heart
Euphoria

Live Dates:

04/10 – Coachella Music Festival – Indio, CA
04/17 – Coachella Music Festival – Indio, CA
05/22 - Vivo Rio - Rio de Janeiro
05/24 - Parque Ibirapuera - São Paulo
06/19 - Metronome Festival, Prague
07/05 - Finsbury Park – London^
07/10 - Pohoda Festival - Slovakia (Headline)
09/19 - Palacio de los Deportes – Mexico City, MX*
* w/Robyn
^Wolf Alice

Andrew McMahon tour news

Veteran indie-pop singer-songwriter-pianist Andrew McMahon has announced the return of Three Pianos: An Evening with Something Corporate, Jack's Mannequin, and Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, taking the special career-spanning event to three cities this August.

Camp Wilderness fan club presale started today (February 17th) at 12pm ET/9am PT with various presales available Wednesday, February 18th and Thursday, February 19th starting at 10am local time. The public on-sale will commence on Friday, February 20th at 10am local time. PRESS HERE to sign up for fan club access, ticketing details, and to purchase. $1 from every ticket sold will be donated to the Dear Jack Foundation, McMahon’s nonprofit charity assisting adolescents and young adults diagnosed with cancer.

Additionally, McMahon has announced two intimate “An Evening With Andrew McMahon” shows for Philadelphia on August 6th and Chicago on August 12th. Tickets for these shows will be available first for Camp Wilderness fan club members starting today (February 17th) at 12pm ET/9am PT.

Any remaining tickets will go on sale for the public on Friday, February 20th at 10am local time. See below for all upcoming show dates. Andrew McMahon uses Ticketmaster’s Face Value Exchange to help fans get tickets at the original price. Tickets will be non-transferable and can only be resold on Ticketmaster at face value. In Illinois where laws prevent resale restrictions, tickets can be transferred but Ticketmaster will still honor McMahon’s terms by keeping resale prices at face value on its site.

“Last summer’s Three Pianos show was life changing,” shares McMahon. “Nothing could have prepared me for the magic I felt that night. Sharing the stage with the members of all three of my bands and getting to weave a lifetime’s worth of songs and memories into a single show is something I’d wanted to do for years but was too scared to try. Having done it once, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was a moment deserving of a few more stages and a few more nights with my friends and collaborators and the fans that gave our music a home.”

Before their shows together this August, McMahon will gather with all of his bandmates for his Holiday From Real Cruise. The 2nd annual experience, produced by Sixthman, sails from February 28-March 4 from Miami to the Dominican Republic and features performances from Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, Jack’s Mannequin, Something Corporate, The Maine, The Starting Line, The Rocket Summer, and more. Visit www.holidayfromrealcruise.com for more information.

ANDREW MCMAHON – 2026 TOUR DATES

Holiday From Real Cruise

February 28-March 4 – Miami, FL → Dominican Republic

An Evening With Andrew McMahon

August 6 – Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts

Three Pianos

August 8 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Mann Center

An Evening With Andrew McMahon

August 12 – Chicago, IL @ Garcia’s

Three Pianos

August 14 – Chicago, IL @ Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island

Three Pianos

August 22 – Long Beach, CA @ Long Beach Amphitheater