810. Queen / Made in Heaven. 1995. 3.5/5

It's a difficult task to not only explain how I feel about this album, but also to give it a rating that is fair for all of the factors taken into consideration in regards to its writing and recording. Posthumously released albums are not unusual or new. Posthumously recorded ones, well that's a different story. Given all of what went into releasing this album, and the significance behind it, I still have mixed feelings over this final album release of Queen's stellar career.

I won't lie to you. When it was announced that this album was being released, containing material recorded before the final demise of lead singer Freddie Mercury, I was excited. What kind of stuff would it contain? What style of music would there be? How much did Freddie contribute to it? There is little doubt that I expected too much. Having loved almost everything of the previous four albums as I grew up in the 1980's, I guess I was expecting it to be a lot like them. That was never likely to be the case, but hopes ran high.
I bought this on the day it was released, and returned to the home I was sharing with two of my best mates at the time, and we all listened to it that night, the stereo booming out into the lounge room with the lights out, me lying on the floor in contemplation. Then we listened to it again. From the next day though... well... it probably didn't get quite the reception that I had envisaged. It wasn't until I actually had the album in my hands that I was aware of the way that it had been... constructed. Only three of the songs were close to fully realised in this time, those being Mercury's "A Winter's Tale", Mercury and May's "Mother Love" and what would become "You Don't Fool Me". All three are good songs in an atypical Queen way. Brian sings the final verse in "Mother Love" as Freddie was never able to return to the studio to finish recording the vocals, while "You Don't Fool Me" is actually snatches of vocals sung by Freddie in his final days in the studio, and then cut and pasted and arranged into a song. Amazing.
Other songs here are original versions of the vocals recorded of songs on other albums, with the music re-recorded and "Queenified" to make it feel authentic. Two of those songs, "Made in Heaven" and "I Was Born to Love You" came from Freddie's solo album, Mr. Bad Guy, "Let Me Live" was recorded during the sessions for The Works album, "Heaven For Everyone" came from Roger Taylor's band The Cross album Shove It, and "Too Much Love Will Kill You" had originally been planned as a Queen song that Freddie had sung on, but was eventually first released by Brian May on his solo album Back to the Light. "My Life Has Been Saved" was originally a B-side to the single for "Scandal" from The Miracle. In all of these songs, the band and producer David Richards have done a magnificent job. They sound terrific, and in throwing in bits and pieces from the past into the mix, it brings the album together as a fitting tribute to the spirit of Freddie Mercury.
Still, given that there were essentially very few songs that had been completed by the time of Freddie's death, was this a necessary release? What the band has done in re-invigorating some other tracks with Freddie's vocals by recording updated music to them, or pasting and cutting vocals and grafting them to music, was any of this a necessary device, if only to have these final recordings of Freddie released as a full album? Could it have been done in a different fashion? Whatever the case, Freddie went through a lot in order to do these final recordings, and he obviously wanted them to find their way into our hands, so we can't be too hard on the effort that was made to do so.
My opinion has changed over the years in regards to this. From my initial excitement, I began to feel that this would have been better left alone, and let the magnificent Innuendo be the final crowning moment of the band and its wonderful lead vocalist. In recent times though, I have come to appreciate this release much more, and enjoy it more and more as I listen to it. I love knowing the ins and outs of how this was recorded, and hearing the different versions of those songs that had been recorded before. More than anything else, I love hearing the band together, and Freddie's voice resonating from the speakers with the love and joy he had for his music.

This will never be considered a classic album. It can't, and the circumstances around its recording is the major reason behind that. But if you take everything in your stride, and concentrate on the brilliance of all four members of the band at work, then like me you will be able to draw enough out of this album to still raise a smile.

Rating:  You'd give your life, you'd sell your soul, but here it comes again.  3.5/5