It's a bit ironic that the last album to be released by Queen while lead singer Freddie Mercury was alive is also the beginnings of a few things for Queen.
First off, this would be the first album released by Queen of the decade. Released in February 5, 1991 here in the States, and reached a high of #30 in the pop album charts. For the US, this was not too bad for Queen. The band went overlooked and unnoticed for years in this country. In spite of that fact, the album did receive a gold certification, and it was mainly the die-hard Queen fans that brought the album that pushed the album as high as it climbed. MTV, played the Innuendo video about three times at four in the morning, and radio was still ignoring Queen at this point.
Another first is the change of record companies for Queen. This marks the third for Queen here in the US. Queen was with Elektra Records for ten years, from 1973 - 1983. Queen then signed with Capitol Records for a very short five years, from 1984-1989. Queen unhappy and unwilling to sign again with Capitol, Queen were wooed by a very lucrative deal with a brand new company called Hollywood Records. I personally love the fact that Queen will now be forever associated with Disney. If you look in the hardcover book that came out in 1996 entitled, Disney Encyclopedia A - Z, you will find Queen among the listings under Q.
Another first for Queen, is that with the title track, Innuendo, Queen went to number one in the UK. Well, Queen hit the top spot before obviously, but Innuendo being over six minutes in length, is the first single to go number one that was so long in the UK, since 1975's Bohemian Rhapsody. Innuendo is the best track on the CD. It truly brings Queen's epic signature into a more modern production era, and it works beautifully. Queen has not produced this sort of music since their News Of The World album from 1977. The track is such a heavy rock song, with lyrics that may be the best written by Queen in their whole career. I compare this song to Brian's Prophet Song from A Night At The Opera. The lengths of the two songs are lengthy, they are the same style of epic heavy rock, and they both have incredible middle parts that blow your mind. My favorite lyric from this song is
♫"If there's a God or any kind of justice under the sky
If there's a point, if there's a reason to live or die
If there's an answer to the questions we feel bound to ask
Show yourself - destroy our fears - release your mask"♫
Brian May asked Yes guitarist, Steve Howe, to come in for this session and play the Spanish ‘flamenco’ guitar that is heard in the middle part of this amazing epic.
I’m Going Slightly Mad is such a departure from any genre that Queen had tried to their hand at. I’m not even sure what classification I would label this song as. It’s heavily electronic as far as drums, voices and keyboards are used here. Freddie sings way down in his lower registers for the most part of the song, which is usually not present on Queen tracks, this makes the song sound more unlike Queen. Nevertheless, it is one of the best songs on the CD. To keep with the lyrical theme of the song, Brian May's guitar solo sounds schizophrenic with three different sounding effects dueling with one another.
Another first for me is the song, Headlong. This was the first song I heard off of the new album in the form of a cassette single that I purchased late 1990. It was the single edit, and I think I prefer the single edit to the version on the album. This was the first single chosen for Queen’s release off of the album here in the States, and this was a poor choice, and probably would have been different if foresight were possible. The horrible MTV, here in the US, refused to play the promotional video for Headlong, because they thought that Freddie looked too ill to air. I find this fact suspicious, because to me this would mean that people in the industry knew of Freddie’s failing health for a year before he died. This also goes for the These Are The Days of Our Lives video too, and that is the reason why America had a different video made up with the help of Disney animators (which is far superior anyway). It’s a great song though, a straight ahead hard rocking song. My wife thought the lyrics in the chorus were:
♫”Get your Russian hands off, you got a new goal…”♫
Instead of ♫…and you’re rushing headlong, you got a new goal…”♫
One of the songs I couldn’t get into at first was I Can’t Live With You. It wasn’t until the version included on the Queen Rocks CD that I realized the quality of the song. It’s another heavy song in the same vein as Headlong, obviously a Brian May composition although the album’s songs are credited to the four. This song is not as good as the Rocks version, but it’s still good.
I took a liking to Don’t Try So Hard right away. This song is also so different than all previous Queen songs. I like the imagery in the lyrics a great deal:
♫”Just savour every mouthful
And treasure every moment
When the storms are raging round you
Stay right where you are
Don't try so hard”♫
It’s a slow power ballad, Freddie sings it with a beautiful falsetto through most of the song, and also reaching impossible high notes when he is using his diaphragm. Queen utilize the electronic voice for a backing choir effect again as they did in I’m Going Slightly Mad, and it really pulls it off. My theory is Freddie’s health prevented him from working too long, and this accounts for the electronic choir effect, and the major use of Brian May’s backing vocals. Brian’s singing is very good, but when compared to Freddie it does bring down the quality of a Queen song.
All God’s People is a bit gospel-like, but much more sterile. The song is great, another one of the best here. Mike Moran was asked, probably by Freddie, to come and play keyboards on this track. Mike Moran has toured with Queen in the past as an extra keyboardist, so Freddie had more room to stretch his legs, and he was also present on Freddie’s solo venture, Barcelona. Unlike what I said in the paragraph above that Freddie did not sing too many backing vocals, he did them here. Freddie usually does a lot more vocals that this, it sounds like he did only maybe two or three scratch tracks sometimes that were used on the final edit. Sometimes, the backing vocals sound a bit thin, one or two Brian May vocals would be very welcome here to compliment and fill them up nicely. For me, the lyrics read like the deathbed conversion to welcome God into your life and the asking of forgiveness of sins, and most of all the repentance and making life count in a way that would please God now. Maybe I’m way off and my imagination just conjures this up because Freddie would soon leave us in the coming months ahead, but I could be a little bit right.
The second best song here is Those Were The Days Of Our Lives. It irks me like nothing else when a perfect song like this isn’t #1 on the pop charts. The melody, the vocals, the music and the lyrics are perfect for radio and so pleasing to the ear. Not only was this song not #1 in the States, it was completely ignored by radio stations. In the UK this song went #1 with the aid of the double a-side CD single release when coupled with Bohemian Rhapsody. The video made for this song was the last made by Freddie. He did indeed look horribly ill. Disney did a great job adding beautiful animation sequences for this video. It is such a waste of a great video, since it never got played on VH1 or MTV at all. The only light it saw was on the release of Hollywood Records Greatest Hits, the VHS. Now, most of the world has moved into the digital age, and forgot they even have this VHS tape, if they had it in the first place. This would make a nice addition on the Greatest Hits III DVD coming out this November (2004).
Freddie’s Delilah is one of the only two horrors on this album. I believe that Queen have to view this song as sort of a joke. If it’s supposed to be just silly, then it’s not that bad I guess. The lyrics are about Freddie’s cat Delilah that she is just such a rascal and even urinates all over Freddie’s expensive couch. I guess we have an idea of what Freddie’s house smelled like in those final days. Anyway, I utilize my Skip button whenever I hear the beginnings of the cheesy synthesizer keyboards that are very reminiscent of his awful Mr. Bad guy album if you ask me.
A song not as bad as Delilah but equally as dumb is the next song called The Hitman. The guitars sound great, the drums and bass are loud and Freddie sings great, but I put it in the same category as Tear It Up, Gimmie The Prize or Princes of the Universe. The song does not have an authentic heavy rock feel, and the groove that should be there seems forced and sterile. Even the words try to be heavy metal but done so badly that it’s embarrassing.
♫” I'm the hitman
I'm your prize
But this hitman can cut you down to size
Love me (baby)
Don't be so cool
Love me love me baby
I've been to the hitman school”♫
You see.
Bijou, on the other hand is Brian May's masturbatory guitar solo song, and why not he hasn't had one since Brighton Rock from almost twenty years before on 1974's Sheer Heart Attack. The guitar soloing is at best OK, but the small verse that lasts about 35 seconds saves this song from horrible to pretty nice.
The Show Must Go On is a lot like Queen's last album closer Was It All Worth It from The Miracle album. It's very autobiographical, yet Show Must Go On is more about the closing in and impending death of Freddie which happened almost a year after this was recorded. It's powerful lyrically, but especially Freddie's amazing vocal performance delivered by a deteriorating shell of a man. This voice was obviously God-given, and Freddie used it to all his might right up to the very end.
The Songs
· Innuendo
· I'm Going Slightly Mad
· Headlong
· I Can't Live With You
· Don't Try So Hard
· Ride The Wild Wind
· All God's People
· These Are The Days Of Our Lives
· Delilah
· The Hitman
· Bijou
· The Show Must Go On
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