Not all 'new' but fantastic anyway! (Made In Heaven - Queen)

Member Name: Cuke

Product:	Made In Heaven - Queen
Date:	16/02/02 (138 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: beautiful, powerful, and surprisingly uplifting

Disadvantages: none

This album appeared late in 1995 almost 4 years to the day after the death of Freddie Mercury. At first glance it soon becomes apparent that this album can be split quite neatly into two sections, new Queen tracks and re-workings of old material.

The reasons for this are clear, having released both 'The Miracle' and 'Innuendo' albums while on what was later described as borrowed time Mercury just didn't have enough time left to finish a last album. The new songs on 'Made in Heaven' all come out of Freddie's insistence that he wanted to work right up until it was physically impossible to sing, this in mind he had gone back into the studio to put down as much stuff as possible after the completion of 'Innuendo' knowing that he was never going to get to finish the majority of it. These facts alone lend the whole album a sombre air which is rarely in fact the mood of the actual music. The fact that somehow out of all this Queen have managed to produce one of their best works is a tribute to both Mercury's spirit and the remaining members commitment to quality over any cynical tear seeking.

The album opens up with 'Its A Beautiful Day' which to be honest appears more of an unfinished idea, but musically its nice and seems purposefully light and happy, chirping birds and all, almost as if to say 'cheer up, its all ok' to the listener.

The second track is 'Made In Heaven' this started out as a Freddie Mercury solo single from his album 'Mr Bad Guy'. Reworked here by Roger, Brian and John with a new Queen instrumental backing to Freddie's Original vocal what was an average song comes alive.

Next up is one of my favourite songs from the album 'Let Me Live'. This is a new track, however, despite its sombre sounding title it is actually a finished version of a demo recorded in the late 1970's. Freddie's vocals from that demo are used and Roger a
nd Brian sing a verse each, apparently because in the original demo it had been a duet between Freddie and none other than Rod Stewart!! The track itself is a wonderful gospel tinged power ballad, think a 90's 'Somebody To Love' backed with a full choir. Beautiful!

Now we come to the emotional core of the album and the track that is worth the price of the album alone! 'Mother Love' a completely new song written and recorded in the months leading up to his death, this is the one time that you hear Freddie really open up and show us the pain he is going through. The lyrics are heart breaking and show a man who is desperate for a way to return to his prime. To add to the songs already massive sense of poignancy Mercury was never able to actualy finish the full vocal as he became to weak too sing. Brian May does Freddie proud though singing the final verse fantasticly. This is all about the words and Freddies final vocal performance and as such is kept quite sparse musically but a bluesy tinge just adds to the mood and lovely guitar break just finishes off what is already a devastating package. Honestly brings tears to my eyes each and every time.
The song is finished of with a number of very short samples rewinding the Queen back catalogue the last of these is a track Freddie recorded under the name Larry Lurex before the release of Queens first album. Then we hear the sound of a crying baby as the track fades out, a touch to dramatic perhaps and comes close to taking the edge of the track, but then Queen were never renowned for their subtlty.

Now comes a strange choice of track, 'My Life Has Been Saved' was in fact a Queen b-side from the 'Scandal' single. Again it has been reworked a bit, but essentially a weak track to start with isn't much improved here, I would hazard a guess it was included because of the uplifting spirit of the lyrics, which are steeped in religious meaning, more than because of its q
uality.

However, any momentary feeling that this is beginning to descend into a slushy mess is brought right back into check with an absolute stormer of a track! 'I Was Born To Love You' is another Freddie solo single, this time however the remaining members of Queen have taken it apart, upped the tempo, given it a life and pace that was missing in the original and produced an absolute belter of a song! Its so positive and strong and sung with the vigour of someone so alive and in love its truly breath taking. This would in my eyes have made a great first single, its power and energy would have dispelled any public and press thoughts that this whole venture was a bit morbid.

This is followed by what was actually the first single 'Heaven For Everyone'. This Roger Taylor song was originally released in 1988 on 'Shove It' an album by Taylor's ill fated solo band 'The Cross'. Mercury recorded the vocals for this track as show of support for Taylor's solo efforts (Brian May did some guitar work on another track on the same album for the same reason). Its a nice pop song both lyrically and musically, Mercury's vocals are excellent and the remaining members of Queen have re-recorded the re-mixed the track to much improve on the original. My only problem with it is that its was an odd choice for first single, not being written by Freddie, and with the word 'Heaven' in the title was only going to add to the morbid feeling some people were feeling about this album before it was released.

Next we come to another great song 'Too Much Love Will Kill You'. This started life as a Queen song back in the late 80's, recorded during the sessions for 'The Miracle' it was discarded at the last minute because it was co-written by people outside the group (however, very rare promo copies of 'The Miracle' exist that contain it). It was rescued by Brian May and premiered at the Freddie
Mercury tribute concert where it had a massive impact leaving barely a dry eye in the house. Brian released it on his debut solo album 'Back To The Light' and had a top 5 hit with it as well. However here on 'Made In Heaven' we get Queens original version and it still retains its spender. One thing worth pointing out is that it was not as people have assumed written about AIDS but was in fact penned by Brian during the break up of his first marriage and refers to how too much love (from two different people) can cause so much pain.

Onto another completely new song 'You Don't Fool Me' this little pop number is more disco than anything else on the album and I'll be honest and say it took a while for me to get into it, everything else on the album seems to have a history or a deeper meaning and this just seems a bit shallow in comparison. However its bright fun and had the distinction of being the Queen song with the most remixes (12+) as numerous club versions appeared on single releases across Europe.

This is followed by what was the Christmas single from the album 'A Winters Tale' it was accompined with 'Thank God Its Christmas' Queens only true Christmas single from 1984. A lovely ballad it sees Mercury describing the view from his Montreux room. He paints a beautiful image of a winters view across the lake on the cover of the album. Its a quiet and reflectful song, you can just imagine Mercury sat in a chair enjoying the view with all the passion of a man who knows he will never see the like of it again.

The album is officially finished off with a reprise of the opening track 'Its a Beautiful Day' this version counters the cheery carefree nature of the opening version with a harder heavier edge but still has the air of being an excuse to use unfinished vocals. However, in a way that I cant explain it works, its raw its energetic and it has passion, just like the man, just like the
band. As he joyfully shouts 'No Ones Going To Stop Me Now' you come to realise, as he must have done, that no one ever will.

There are two hidden tracks at the end, this first being simply Mercury singing the word 'Yeah'. I'm left to assume this may have been the last word he committed to tape or has some such meaning to the remaining members which we never, quite correctly, will find out. The last track commonly know simply as 'Track 13' is a long (20+ minute) ambient soundscape, often fading away into nothing, barely more than one small note at a time. No one really knows its meaning, its almost certainly something done after Mercury's death. But of the few theories put forward I like to believe a couple of them are true, firstly that its a musically representation of Freddie's journey to heaven and secondly it lasts so long because no-one could bring themselves to play the final Queen note.

To look back at the album as a whole it certainly stands up as a Queen album on its own, ok so its not all new and fans will have heard over half of it before in various forms, but you only have to listen to the emotion running through songs like 'Mother Love' or hear the sheer joy that leaps from 'I Was Born To Love You' to realise why you have paid out for this album.

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