[2] It was produced by the band and Roy Thomas Baker, and launched Queen to mainstream popularity in the UK and throughout the world.

[3] Retrospectively, it has been listed by multiple publications as one of the band's best works and has been deemed an essential glam rock album.

The bands would remain on friendly terms for the rest of their career, with Ian Hunter performing "All the Young Dudes" at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert.

[5] At the climax of the tour in Boston, Brian May was discovered to have hepatitis, possibly from the use of a contaminated needle during vaccinations the group received before travelling to Australia.

[16] On 20 September, it was announced the band were attempting to secure a release date for the album of 1 November, though it seemed unlikely they would be done in time to meet that deadline.

[4][22][23] The Daily Vault described it as "an important transition album" because it showcased "what the band would soon become while giving a nod to their hard-rock past,"[21] while Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic observed that, although there are still references to the fantasy themes of their earlier works, particularly on "In the Lap of the Gods" and "Lily of the Valley", "the fantasy does not overwhelm as it did on the first two records".

"Brighton Rock" was written by Brian May during the Queen II sessions, but was not recorded at that time, as the group felt it would not fit with the rest of the album.

[24] Lyrically, it tells the story of two young lovers named Jenny and Jimmy, who meet in Brighton on a public holiday.

It grew out of May's experimentation with an Echoplex unit while he attempted to recreate his guitar orchestrations for live performances of "Son and Daughter".

He had made modifications to the original unit so he could change the delay times, and ran each echo through a separate amplifier to avoid interference.

Roger Taylor wrote "Tenement Funster" about youth and rebellion and sang lead vocals, while John Deacon played the song's prominent acoustic guitar parts in May's absence.

[citation needed] "Stone Cold Crazy" was one of the earliest tracks that Queen performed live, and had several different arrangements before being recorded for Sheer Heart Attack.

No band member was able to remember who had written the lyrics when the album was released, so they shared the writing credit, the first of their songs to do so.

This cover version won a Grammy Award in 1991; it also appeared on the band's compilation Garage Inc. "Dear Friends" is a ballad written by May and sung by Mercury.

"[46] The Winnipeg Free Press commended "Brian May's multi-tracked guitar, Freddie Mercury's stunning vocalising and Roy Thomas Baker's dynamic production work", calling the album "a no-holds barred, full-scale attack on the senses".

"[49] John Mendelsohn, however, was unimpressed, writing: "I hunted all over both sides of this latest album for something, anything, even remotely as magnificent as 'Keep Yourself Alive' or 'Father to Son', only to end up empty-eared and bawling.

[51] In a review for the Chicago Tribune, Greg Kot awards the album a generally positive rating of 2 and a half stars, while noting that this album was where "...the songs became more concise"[52] In a retrospective review, AllMusic said that "the theatricality is now wielded on everyday affairs, which ironically makes them sound larger than life.

And this sense of scale, combined with the heavy guitars, pop hooks, and theatrical style, marks the true unveiling of Queen, making Sheer Heart Attack as [sic] the moment where they truly came into their own.

[45] Pitchfork wrote: "Sheer Heart Attack not only improves on every aspect of their sound suggested by the first two records, but delivers some of the finest music of their career ... this is the band at the height of its powers.

"[43] Jon Bryan of Backseat Mafia described it as "the first album where Queen got it unarguably right", noting that "such obvious arrogance suited them".

[40] Benjamin Ray of the Daily Vault felt that "Queen somehow manages to sound like every rock band of the 70s on here, including Rush, Zeppelin and even Uriah Heep."

However, he noted the difference was that "Queen actually tries to be pretentious and bombastic, and often they are so over the top one can't help but be entertained", finally concluding that it was "their most fun and showcases everything they did right.