The audiophile disc will be available on June 13th
“This is not just a remaster, this is a brand new 2024 rebuild of the entire Queen debut album” quoted Brian May when announcing the release of the band’s revisit of their eponymous debut album late last year, retitled Queen I for this stunning new update. May further elaborated, “Every instrument has been revisited to produce the ‘live’ ambient sound we would have liked to use originally.”
Now, Queen take the release to the next stage, announcing a new, limited edition immersive Dolby Atmos release of the album, set to be available on Audiophile Blu-ray on June 13th. This new release arrives in the US by Sony Music. Universal Music Group is releasing for the rest of the world.
With Brian May and Roger Taylor acting as executive producers, and overseen by Queen’s long-standing audio-production team of Justin Shirley-Smith, Joshua J Macrae and Kris Fredriksson, this enhanced spatial surround sound format release breathes stunning new life into the band’s epic and unique multi-layered sound.
To mix Queen I in Dolby Atmos, the team made stems from the 2024 stereo mix, allowing them to process and pan each musical part individually, bringing new depth and dimensions to an album already bursting with invention.
“It’s always fun working in Atmos because we are confident that the mix is already good from the stereo and this expanded sound field gives us an opportunity to feature the backing track without masking some of the intricate multi-layered elements that Queen are famous for,” explains Shirley-Smith. “We finished the mix with Lewis Jones at Abbey Road where they have a great mix studio equipped with all the speakers required. Lewis has worked on a great many significant immersive projects and is a crucial part of the Atmos mix team.”
Originally released in 1973 and featuring the iconic line-up of Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon, Queen’s self-titled debut album marked the start of the band’s stellar journey, showcasing a band whose staggering musical talents and breadth of ambition remain unmatched.
Songs such as “Keep Yourself Alive,” “Liar,” “The Night Comes Down,” “Great King Rat,” “My Fairy King,” and “Modern Times Rock ’n’ Roll” are the work of a band able to deliver everything from surging hard rock anthems and delicate ballads to ornate, visionary mini-symphonies.
Queen’s landmark debut album was reissued to widespread acclaim in 2024 as a remixed, remastered and expanded 6 CD/1 LP box set edition. Retitled Queen I, it restored the “lost” track “Mad The Swine” to the final track listing and saw the band return to the UK album chart, providing them with their highest chart placing since Live Around The World, recorded with current singer Adam Lambert, reached No. 1 in 2020.
“I’m particularly excited about this new Dolby Atmos version of what we now call Queen 1,” May shares. “When the boys were converting the stereo rebuild into a surround experience, I was unable to be there, due to a health hiccup. So I was very happy to have the opportunity to go back in with them recently and add my own contribution to this multichannel mix. There are now a few nice adventurous Easter eggs in there, which those who know the album intimately will hopefully enjoy. So the Blu-ray version is an update from the version that has currently been available to stream. Nobody has ever heard our first album quite like this !!!”
“At last,” concludes Taylor, “we get our first album to sound as we imagined it should sound….phew!”
Now, more than 50 years after Queen’s debut was originally released, this immersive Dolby Atmos mix shines a whole new light on this iconic album.
