Brian May
Back To The Light

THE REVIEW

Brian May, for everyone the guitarist of Queen, the man of the Red Special, the creator of songs like "We Will Rock You" and "Who Wants To Live Forever", occasionally able to propose himself as a singer with good results, as in "'39" or "All Dead, All Dead": great honors but also great burdens, which perhaps never allowed the curly-haired London guitar hero to strongly and convincingly propose himself as a solo artist: "Back To The Light" his first, true attempt to break free from the Queen parent company had a long and troubled gestation, lasting from 1988 to 1992, thus being overwhelmed by the long wave caused by the premature death of Freddie Mercury; an undeserved fate for a great album by a well-rounded musician who proves, always with his unmistakable sound, to be able to hold the scene even on his own.

Enlisting collaborators of the caliber of Cozy Powell, Neil Murray, John Deacon, and Don Airey, our man manages to bring to life a great rock album: AOR of the highest quality that definitively puts aside the pop-electronic contaminations that had characterized the Queen's sound for better and (especially) for worse during the '80s and gives back the Red Special the absolute dominance of the scene, originating a batch of almost perfect songs: Brian May certainly does not have the charisma and the unparalleled vocal skills of Freddie, but he is a complete performer, who pours his heart into every riff, every small solo of the RS, and even in every vocal interpretation: it is understood in songs like the epic arena-rock of the title track, clearly indebted to the Queen's sound, and especially the overwhelming "Love Token", small fragments of pop-rock amalgamated in a tough glaze halfway between heavy, with a hint of blues à la Rolling Stones, which finds its natural confluence at the highest point of the album, the immense "Resurrection", a bold ride that highlights the majestic work of Cozy Powell behind the drums and a May who manages to give his best both as a guitarist and as a singer.

To these examples of epic guitar-sound with heavy-oriented tones, there are lighter and more radio-friendly episodes, such as the launch single "Driven By You", a fresh and enjoyable pop-rock comparable in atmosphere to Queen's "A Kind Of Magic" or "The Miracle", the light "Let Your Heart Rule Your Head", a great pop with gospel shades and ballads like the melancholic and elegant "Nothin' But Blue", with the blues phrasing of the Red Special holding the scene and "Too Much Love Will Kill You", the most famous song from "Back To The Light", an epic and poignant power ballad built on orchestrations, piano, and acoustic guitar, which thanks to May's interpretation assumes a less melodramatic pathos compared to its more famous rendition contained in "Made In Heaven" of 1995, thus enriching an album that finds its definitive crowning, the peak of realization of its author in the slow, enveloping and sweet solo of "Last Horizon", just accompanied by the drums and the gentle keyboards of Mike Moran, in which reflects all the style, talent, and melodic taste of this artist, who entered the world of music almost by chance and became one of the great names in rock history.

Even if it didn't receive even a tiny part of the attention it would have deserved, "Back To The Light", just weighed down by some fillers ("Just One Life", "I'm Scared") remains a terrific and almost perfect solo debut for Mr. May, who unfortunately lacked the courage to persist with conviction on this new career, which would be abandoned after the second album, the fluctuating "Another World" of 1998 in favor of a decidedly more lucrative Queen revival, which would certainly produce money galore for the surviving members but also chilling falls of style.