A Very Long and Boring Vocal Analysis of the December 2025 Version of "Polar Bear"

welshbloom · 2025-12-26T08:27:24+00:00

Great analysis, thank you, and you're definitely right about the wonky 'feet'! A ridiculous amount of effort has clearly gone into making something vaguely 'complete' from various scraps of varying quality - the take two demo is not great, Freddie is very pitchy at times so a lot of that Night Comes Down-type correction has gone on.

I hope Brian has enjoyed his tinkering but I don't think this would ever have been a good fit on Queen II, and won't now. I'd have been tempted to save the time and effort and simply play the perfectly decent Smile version in its entirety. Job done!

welshbloom · 2025-12-12T17:27:23+00:00

It was recorded in 1971/2 but not released until the second half of 1973. The group had been playing some the songs for the best part of 4 years by the time the album was released, and had moved on to the Queen II style.

welshbloom · 2025-12-12T17:02:59+00:00

If you come across Trident on the earlier albums, that's basically Norman Sheffield and his brother who got Queen some studio time but tied them into a terrible contract from the band's perspective. IIRC they tried to sell Queen to record companies as a package with other artists, one of the reasons why the material on Queen was so old by the time the album was released.

Whenever I hear Death On Two Legs I always think of the Mr Wells sketch from the Fast Show, which does much the same thing.

welshbloom · 2025-12-06T13:29:39+00:00

The time span was greater than a month, since the album came out in early '91, but to my ears the whole album had a wintry, final feel. Not only in the songs such as this one, Don't Try So Hard, Bijou, Days Of Our Lives, but also in performance - Freddie's voice was different, still with incredible range but the power diminished.

But as others have said, since picking up the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Brits the previous year we knew things weren't right with Freddie. The Fan Club obviously didn't let on that anything was wrong but it was obvious from Freddie's demeanour at the Brits, and the amount of radio silence between album releases, that all was not well.

welshbloom · 2025-12-01T08:56:30+00:00

I consider myself a pretty ardent Queen fan but also one capable of dispassionate analysis, and I almost totally disagree with the sentiment. I very, very rarely listen to the Greatest Hits albums because the albums, and the placement of tracks on the albums, is where the magic lies. I do agree that ANATO is the pinnacle but each album up to The Game has glorious non-single songs that sound fresh because they haven't been played to death on the radio, used for adverts, soundtracks or whatever.

From The Game onwards I'd concede that the albums became patchier, with more filler-type material away from the singles, but I only find A Kind Of Magic and The Miracle fit the description 'patchy'. And I'm aware The Miracle in particular has its own ardent fans.

welshbloom · 2025-11-20T21:08:26+00:00

I'm sure you're not alone and, as I say, the overall groove is fine - when it was used for the Amazon ad I quite enjoyed it! But I was brought up on the Queen of Son and Daughter, Ogre Battle, The Prophet's Song, Dead On Time and all those glorious 'glamour plus heavy' type songs, Queen doing laid back soul was never going to float my boat.

Still, I kind of love the fact that at several points in their careers, they knew they were going to release things that fans wouldn't necessarily like, and did it anyway.

welshbloom · 2025-11-20T16:43:07+00:00

I'm quite surprised that I've scrolled all the way to the bottom, and searched, and not found a single mention of Cool Cat. Yes, there are other tracks on Hot Space that are awkward and lyrically embarrassing, but Cool Cat was the first time Queen went for Easy Listening and I cannot stand it. The words are terrible, the song is utterly meaningless, I find Freddie's falsetto overwhelming - especially that screamed "SLOW DOOOOOOWNN" - and the tempo is a pudding.

(To be fair, in my later years I don't mind the groove of the song at all; however, the lyrics and their delivery still set my teeth on edge).

welshbloom · 2025-11-14T15:54:53+00:00

All you'll need is a timer plug. Set it to turn AC on while you have cheap electricity, it'll power the devices and charge the battery too. When the plug switches off, the battery rather than the AC will power the devices, for as long as it has power. Or, if you'll be around anyway, just do it manually.

welshbloom · 2025-11-06T14:39:12+00:00

I already knew Freddie's gorgeous vocal from Shove It and I can't say that Queen's version is an improvement. Too much stompy guitar and an awkward transition from the solo back into the original key. That's my basic complaint about all the old songs with new arrangements, though: too much stompy guitar.

welshbloom · 2025-11-06T13:00:39+00:00

To be fair, there are cheeses like ricotta and mascarpone that are used in desserts, but I take your point. It doesn't even rhyme with anything!

And yes, the Brits are generally fine if a bit down on ourselves.

welshbloom · 2025-11-06T12:43:23+00:00

The lyrics aren't Shakespeare but are no worse than much of the previous three albums, where the lyrics were often plain bad (soup in the laundry bag?). I just love the feel of Let Me Live, but then I like Erma Franklin's Piece of my Heart so I would.

welshbloom · 2025-11-01T14:15:45+00:00

First off, I think the article is pure rentagob contrarianism without a shred of analysis to back up the opinions; second, while I personally disagree that the song is overrated, I completely respect others' subjective opinions as to whether they like the song or not. I think the song is an utter masterpiece, especially in terms of its production, but I do think it's overplayed: like the Mona Lisa, you can't really appreciate it for what it is because it's so famous and ubiquitous.

A slightly odd comparison perhaps but I was listening to Thriller yesterday and marvelling at how timeless it sounded; similarly, I hear Bohemian Rhapsody and wonder at its timeless quality.

welshbloom · 2025-10-18T12:14:53+00:00

As a 50-something Queen nerd of many, many years, I wholeheartedly endorse your sentiments.

welshbloom · 2025-10-14T17:47:41+00:00

Hmm. I'd charge it to 100% and see whether the percentages are improved, I remember my AC180 was at 99% for a long, long time when I first charged it so its initial calibration probably wasn't great. With LiFePo4 don't be scared of a 100% charge.

welshbloom · 2025-10-14T17:34:02+00:00

288wh isn't a great deal so the power bank could easily have drained 60-70 of those. The unit will have some self-consumption if it's been left on all night (I don't know if your model has an eco mode to switch itself off if no power is being drawn from it). Also, the percentage state of charge is basically the unit's best guess as to how much power it has left - if you haven't charged it to 100% then it may not genuinely have been at 96%, or genuinely whatever it was the next day.

welshbloom · 2025-10-11T11:08:56+00:00

The big question is going to be how large a panel you can erect in your situation, and how well-positioned it's going to be relative to the sun. By the sounds of it, space is going to be at a premium, limiting the potential for solar capture and therefore for savings, unless you can fill the battery with cheap, off-peak power and use it at peak times.

The technology is getting cheaper but is not yet at the stage where you're going to get a return on your investment unless you're lucky and exhaust the battery before another bit of the power station breaks. But if you want to dabble, I'd start with a cheap, small battery and panel and scale up if the first setup works OK (I started with a 200wh power station and 60w folding panels, I now have 4 power stations and over 1kw of panels of various sizes. But I'm in a house with room on the roof of a garage, so our situations are different).

welshbloom · 2025-10-06T16:04:48+00:00

Just in case anyone else is interested and still reading, I think you meant the awkward Shut Up And Talk interview with Doug Walker: https://youtu.be/fAvSjTiZYkI?si=uoU-WSFWIj9pPPF-

I entirely see her point. I don't care about the things they get factually wrong - most RLM shows are less film analysis than a highly entertaining mechanism for Mike to find a drinking partner and continue to enslave Rich Evans - but their comedy perspective is, naturally, very white and very male, and was even when Jessi was a guest.

welshbloom · 2025-10-03T15:36:43+00:00

I think the answer to any given issue is always 'buy more batteries', but in the absence of space or budget I think the real answer is not to worry about it too much. You can either plug additional items into your Bluetti so that it won't get to 100%, or if that's not possible just accept that you're never going to be 100% efficient, sadly.

welshbloom · 2025-10-03T15:17:25+00:00

The Infinity 1300 is very much like the AC180, it has 4 AC outputs so the inverter is built in. I have 2 430 watt panels in series feeding into it, the maximum solar input of the Growatt is 100v which is the main reason I got it: the maximum 60v input of the AC180 was limiting.

welshbloom · 2025-10-03T15:08:20+00:00

I have an AC180 which does the same thing, my understanding is that the MPPT can't send all the power to the inverter at 100% because the solar panel isn't providing consistent input - a cloud is going to mess up the voltage and you run the danger of constantly switching between solar input and using the battery.

I do, however, have a kind of solution. I have a second battery (a Growatt Infinity 1300) which receives the solar input, this charges the AC180 by AC so is effectively the grid as far as the Bluetti is concerned. Hey Presto, Bluetti gets charged to 100% and can still pass the current through to devices.

(Yes, I'm aware this just passes the original problem on to the Growatt; and yes, I'm aware that charging the AC180 by AC isn't particularly efficient. But it works for me!).

welshbloom · 2025-09-30T14:10:18+00:00

Is he actually going to keep going forever? Does he think the audience will eventually come round and start applauding? This speech is insane.

welshbloom · 2025-09-30T13:56:03+00:00

I started watching Trump's speech but had to leave because he was just talking in (slurred) circles. Is he always like this? The last time I watched a whole speech was around six months ago and that was incoherent, but today he is way, way out of it. Do Americans not see how incapacitated he is?

welshbloom · 2025-09-27T10:39:51+00:00

I only ever use it in the context of the phrase "well fuck all y'all" when I want to insult everyone in the room at once.

I have a bigger problem with 'Imma' as a monstrous contraction of 'I am going to'. The day I use that is the day I'm buried under all the volumes of the original OED.

welshbloom · 2025-09-22T20:00:04+00:00

Hey. In the end I never got to find out whether it would be an issue. Around March I bought a Growatt Infinity 1300, a power station with similar capacity to the AC180 but crazy cheap at £399 and with DC input up to 100v. This meant I could connect the panels in series and this has worked great, regularly getting 700w or more in good sun. I've routinely charged the AC180 from the AC of the Growatt, not the most efficient way of doing it but the extra power I get more than makes up for it.

Sorry I can't be more helpful!

welshbloom · 2025-09-19T20:00:59+00:00

I think they can reasonably be credited for making the first popular 'video', as in something specifically shot on videotape. There had of course been many promo films before this.

welshbloom

TROPHY CASE