Critical reaction to News of the World was initially mixed, with many reviewers commenting on the band's change in musical style.

[5] After recording all the backing tracks, work moved to Wessex Sound, again preceded by two days dedicated to drum kit set up.

However, the staple of the Queen sound – multi-tracked harmonies and guitar orchestrations – still exist on this album, albeit more subtly than previously.

[9] Brian May stated in an interview that "We'd already made a decision that...[after] A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races, we wanted to go back to basics for News of the World.

in response to a comment the singer had made in an interview with NME, to which Mercury called him "Simon Ferocious" (a playful reference to Vicious' stage name) and replied "We're doing our best, dear.

According to Bill Price, who engineered Never Mind the Bollocks, Rotten crawled on all fours across Queen's studio to Mercury, who was playing piano, and said "Hello Freddie" before leaving.

[12] News of the World shows Queen's songwriting less dominated by Mercury and May than previously, with Roger Taylor and John Deacon composing two songs each.

[2][14] Chuck Eddy said the album was widely regarded as a "back-to-basics" offering, minimising the group's more ornate and "multi-part-epic tendencies", with some even dubbing it Queen's response to punk rock.

He added, however, that the record "sounds even more often like a response to funk", citing "Fight from the Inside" and "Get Down, Make Love", as well as the "proto-rap sparseness" of "We Will Rock You".

It was a conscious decision by Brian May to make the song simple and anthemic ('stomp, stomp, clap, pause' per 4/4 measure), so that their live audience could be more directly involved in the show.

[20] On 27 October 2017, in celebration of the album's 40th Anniversary, Queen released a specially created "hybrid version" of the track with previously unheard lead vocals by Mercury.

It was accompanied with an animated lyric video of a cat exploring a place that is later revealed to be the inside of the robot of the album cover lying motionless in a field.

Eddy calls it one of the album's funkier tracks, with a "proto-industrial-music perviness" which eventually morph into "sex-moaning psychedelic spaces" that constitute a form of 'dub-metal' comparable to similar parts of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love".

[15] The song was introduced into the band's live show immediately after its release, and remained a staple of their "medley" until the end of the Hot Space Tour of 1982.

The distinctive 'psychedelic' sound effects heard in the song were not produced on a synthesiser, but on May's Red Special and an Electroharmonix Frequency Analyzer pedal, which he would often do live.

A more aggressive version of this song was covered by the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails as a B-side for the 1990 single, "Sin".

May sings with an American accent and measures the aforementioned trumpet player's success by "bucks" (dollars), as opposed to pounds or "quid".

The band's web site states they were unaware that they were being recorded,[23] but May has cast doubt on the authenticity of this, though has confirmed the first take of the backing track was used.

Taylor had an issue of Astounding Science Fiction (October 1953) whose cover art depicted a giant intelligent robot holding the dead body of a man.

The inner cover (gatefold) has the robot extending its hand to snatch up the petrified fleeing audience in the shattered auditorium where the corpses were removed.

Queen played 26 shows in North America and 21 in Europe, beginning on 11 November 1977 in Portland, United States and concluding the tour on 13 May 1978 in London.

On 4 September 2017, Queen released a multi-format deluxe boxset marking the 40th anniversary of the album's original issue by the Virgin EMI label.

The set contains previously unreleased outtakes and rarities from the band's archives, in the form of a newly created "alternative" version of the entire album, dubbed Raw Sessions.

[37] The Daily Mirror hailed it as the "most intriguing Queen album since their finest, Sheer Heart Attack," commenting that "whether all the obvious tension within the band will spur them on, or simply pull them apart, remains to be seen.

[38] The Valley News criticised it as being "tamer" than the band's first four albums, but concluded that "Queen still pulls off top honors," particularly praising the production, Mercury's vocals and May's guitar work.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic noted the eclecticism in comparison to "A Day at the Races", describing it as "an explosion of styles that didn't seem to hold to any particular center."

He praised May's contributions for giving the album "some lightness", and concluded that "when it works, it's massive, earth-shaking rock & roll, the sound of a band beginning to revel in its superstardom.

[41] The 40th anniversary release prompted several more reviews, with David Chiu of The Quietus calling it "a work that had swagger and attitude",[10] while Loudersound wrote that "Despite damping down their instincts so punks wouldn't spit at them, they still sound like flamboyance has burst through the wall, riding a Harley and wearing a tiara.

[47] The cover, by artist Mike del Mundo, depicts a Sentinel holding Old Man Logan and Kitty Pryde as Colossus plummets to the ground.

The multi-format deluxe box set, released in 2017, contains previously unreleased outtakes and rarities from the band's archives, as well as a newly created "alternative" version of the entire album, dubbed Raw Sessions.