1/ "...... Toxic by Britney Spears...…"
unanimous about the multi-syllabled melismatic R&B wailing of certain artists, count me in.
2. I agree about May's guitar, it sounds horrible. It being home-made is no excuse - make one that sounds much better, Dr May. Queen did some good stuff, there's some great rock music on Sheer Heart Attack but they weren't that good.
1/ Little known factoid about "Toxic" - It was allegedly inspired by Noel Fitzpatrick, the supervet. He also has a short acting career few knew about.
2/ I was a very early Queen fan, as I've mentioned elsewhere. Queen 2 is, to me, their best work, followed by the debut album, which isn't quite as consistent, though it doesn't sag at the end like Q2, where "Funny How Love Is" and "7 Seas of Rhye" let it down. SHA does have some very good songs on it, but also more than 1 or 2 that fall flat. the decline continued with the next 2, ironically the big sellers, but it was after that when they really lost it, presumably knee-jerk reacting to punk. Not sure why they felt the need to follow a trend, but they weren't alone in that. Rock bottom moments were Hot Space as mentioned elsewhere, simply dire, and Freddie's solo stuff. Happily, they got back on track with "The Works" which is a reference to going back to what they do disregarding fashion, though for me they never hit the heights of Q2 again. As for Brian's guitar, don't see the issue, it's likely as much down to effects pedals etc. as to the tone of the guitar itself. Take a listen to "Some Day, One Day" off Q2, the closing section is a superb guitar fest. My personal favourite Queen track.
As I've also said before, Queen are one of those bands whose sum is greater than the parts. Freddie was awful solo, Brian's prone to heavy metal excess, which he's not good at, and which is reigned in by the others, although Roger's albums are pretty good, esp. "Happiness?" from 1994, which is better than most Queen albums.
At this point I may as well mention another grating musical thing: Singers who can only sing by virtue of being able to hit the notes correctly (and we have to assume auto-tune isn't the reason!) but who actually have unpleasant voices. 2 examples: Rhianna, that bloody awful "Shine bright like a diamond" for example, listen to the backing vox in the chorus singing the title, could she sound anymore annoying. I pacify myself by imagining she is singing "Shite Brine Like A Diamond" Another is that "Darling Hold My Hand" song, not sure of the actual title, but we in the UK had to endure it during several TV adverts, most notably for holidays, at least Coronavirus (or "Coronafeirus" as the Welsh say) put paid to that. I think it's Jess Glynne. I'm sure she's a lovely person, but please, stop "singing"!!!