Queen
Made In Heaven

THE REVIEW

When in 1995 I saw the video for "Heaven For Everyone" by Queen on TV, I said to myself: "where did this come from?" Like others my age, I had gotten into Queen too late, due to the uproar generated by Freddie Mercury's passing. I had become a fervent fan, a kind of obsessive maniac, even dressing up for carnival. From an emotional point of view, I took the release of Made In Heaven as an immense and unexpected gift, and listening to it gave me magnificent emotions. It didn't seem real to me.
Nine years later it remains one of my favorites, but naturally, maturity has also allowed me to see the less happy sides of this CD.

First of all, it is clearly a cunning commercial operation: taking advantage of the still strong emotional wave of Freddie's death, the remaining Queen members use the very latest recordings of the late artist to assemble an album full of pathos. A success, a frenzy for Freddie's orphaned fans, excellent money in already swollen pockets.

Having analyzed the most base characteristic of the work, let’s analyze the artistic and musical side, perhaps the most interesting.
A fan like me or any attentive listener cannot help but notice that Freddie's voice is enormously different from track to track. Once again denying the myth of a computer-recreated voice, let's unveil the mystery.
"Made In Heaven" and "I Was Born To Love You" can be found on Freddie's 1985 solo album, Mr. Bad Guy.
"It's a Beautiful Day" and "Let Me Live" are probably vocal fragments from unfinished or half-done songs by Freddie, dating between 1985 and 1989.
"Heaven For Everyone" is a song by Roger Taylor sung and released by him on his parallel band THE CROSS's album. In 1986 Freddie had recorded it and it was supposed to be on A Kind Of Magic, but then it was discarded.
The same goes for "Too Much Love Will Kill You", which was supposed to be on The Miracle with Freddie's vocal, but it was excluded and sung by Brian May in his album Back To The Light.
"My Life Has Been Saved" also belongs to the period of The Miracle (1989), a b-side of one of the album's singles.
The only songs actually recorded by Freddie specifically for this album are "A Winter's Tale", "Mother Love", and "You Don't Fool Me".
Recorded in Montreux studios in 1991, a few months before his death, these are the true last efforts of a dying Freddie. The singer would detach himself from IV drips to record these tracks because he wanted to leave as much as possible on tape, he wanted to say goodbye to life and his fans in this way.

For this reason, one can say that it is an album strongly desired by Freddie and perhaps justifies the actions of the remaining Queen members, bound to the singer by a firm pact. The singing in these three songs can be immediately traced back to 1991; the voice, sharp and cutting, is the same shown in the last album Innuendo.
The vocal performance wouldn't seem like that of a man on his deathbed, because it is full of personality and charm. In "Mother Love" the highest point is reached, and I don't deny getting a chill down my spine every time I listen to it (if you don’t want to listen to the whole album, at least hear this track).
It must be admitted that the continuous reference to heaven, to the fact that Freddie is dead, starting from the title of the work (it's like a stamp on the cover) and other songs ("Heaven For Everyone", "My Life Has Been Saved") is at times embarrassing and a bit morbid. However, it is in line with the pompous and exaggerated style of Queen, and their embodying a spirit of pure entertainment.

That said, this album cannot be denied its charm; excellent from a musical point of view and with a well-conceived track list and selection. The voice and memory of Freddie do the rest; his immortal spirit powerfully lives again through his last and old works, unexpectedly delivering to history one of the greatest singers and showmen in the history of music.

Thank you Freddie... IT'S BLISS