Made in Heaven which was released in November 1995 was Queen's last proper album. After Freddie Mercury's death in 1991, the remaining members Brian May, John Deacon, and Roger Taylor worked with Mercury's pre-recorded vocals to create the final Queen album. The title of the album "Made In Heaven" is linked to Mercury's voice being made in heaven metaphorically when he just recorded his voice just after he died.
It's a Beautiful Day is a great opening with lush synthesizers and great guitars to set the mood. The title track was actually a solo song by Freddie Mercury from the mid 80's. "Let Me Live", a gospel-influenced track, started life as a jam with Rod Stewart in the 80's. This one has the least Freddie input as Brian and Roger sing all of it, saved the first verse and choruses for Mercury to do, with the help of backing singers. The next, the bluesy "Mother Love", was the last song Mercury recorded before his death; its coda featured snatches of Mercury live. "My Life Has Been Saved" started life in 1989 as a b-side, and the remaining members reworked it into a pop song. Another Freddie solo track gets the Queen treatment in "I Was Born To Love You".
Roger Taylor's "Heaven For Everyone", written with his band "The Cross" with Freddie's vocals. A song calling for peace and understanding and the complete opposite of the next song: Brian's "Too Much Love Will Kill You." "You Don't Fool Me" features a classic guitar solo by Brian May while "A Winter's Tale" is a poignant look at winter in Switzerland where Queen recorded.
The Band:
Freddie Mercury: Vocals, Piano, Keyboards
John Deacon: Bass Guitar, Keyboards
Roger Taylor: Drums, Percussion, Keyboards, Vocals
Brian May: Guitars, Keyboards, Vocals
--- The Review of Made In Heaven by Queen ---
"It's A Beautiful Day" starts off the album on a very lush sound. The keyboard gives that organic natural feeling like your outside in the beautiful scenery. The piano and bass is excellent but the vocals by Mercury is just fantastic. The power of the voice is very emotional and operatic on this song. The vocals are very brief for at least 1 minutes worth but the actual song is brief as well but it sets the scene of the album very nicely like your "in heaven".
"Made In Heaven" kicks us right into the dark side of the album with some sudden bangs of the drums and very scary strings and effects. The guitar riffs on this song is superb and the vocals are very powerful again. You see that Mercury is talking about his destiny of his time coming on this track with an example:
"I'm taking my ride with destiny,
Willing to take my part,
Living with painful memories,
Loving with all my heart.
The chorus is very picturesque with some great power on the drums and the screeching guitars at the background. Also the bridge is a breakdown of the dark side showing the good side of death and being in heaven. This song contains some very emotional vocals and some great riffs and fills in the music, especially the ending when it plays that dark opening again and Mercury repeating
"Written in the stars... a few times. Classic track with a perfect ending.
"Let Me Live" is a gospel-influenced track. The backing vocals really gives that influence out nicely with Mercury having that unique voice. The verse breaks down to a more uplifting sound and then the chorus brings that tension in. Mercury only sings the first verse and the choruses on this song whilst Brian May sings the second verse and his voice is also excellent as it fits this type of song. Roger Taylor also sings on the third verse, also has an outstanding voice. The solo is fantastic and the beat carried from this brings the song to the bridge where the song breaks down to the background vocals singing "Take Another Piece" gracefully. The ending is perfect with some guitaring being outstanding throughout. Another brilliant song.
"Mother Love" was the last song Mercury recorded before his death. His voice shows a lot of emotion on this track. The music is very dark on this song with some depressing guitar work and keyboards making that sad approach. Vocals are outstanding all the time especially the chorus when Mercury goes to an operatic voice. Also the music picks up to some massive distortion which shines the power of the song out. The solo is very lonely with it's delayed effect and some depressed bends on it which gives that blue feel. The last verse is sung by Brian May which gives a postive impact as it has a mellow voice and a very shaky sound which shows that the song is breaking down. The ending is just brilliant as it has snips of Mercury live and the background rewinding the song. Metaphorically, you can say that this ending is like rewindging Mercury's life to back when hewas born as it has a baby crying after all the rewinding. This song was epical and another excellent song.
"My Life Has Been Saved" puts us back to a more settling scene with some uplifting piano work and some nice sounds on the keyboards. The vocals are great as always and the lyrics are very good:
"I read it in the papers,
There's death on every page,
Oh Lord, I thank the Lord above,
My Life Has Been Saved.
The song itself is very picturesque as it has that truthful factor on it with it's innocence showing unlike "Mother Love". Overall, the song is very touching and features vocals that are perfect.
"I Was Born To Love You" was at first a Mercury solo song but it was remade with Queen. It has a very catchy beat to it and has that old Queen sound on it where it has that energetic sound with some operatic singing and some great guitaring and drumming on here. The problem of this song is that it is a tiny bit repetitive but the beat of the song keeps you occupied for a while, it is a great song but it's not a song that you would not really listen to a lot of the time.
"Heaven For Everyone" is the well known song on this album. Written by Roger Taylor, it has all the time Mercury's vocals on it. A song calling for peace and understanding and also in a way, linked to Mercury with him wanting everyone to make the world like it's heaven if we unite in peace, it links to himself saying that everyone is good inside no matter what and it is also like his will in a way. This song has beautiful guitaring and vocals. The lyrics are very meaningful as said above and it's emotional vocals really puts the message across very well. Outsatnding music and vocals make this the highlight of the album and it really sympathisises with Mercury expressing his last views of the world. A classic song.
"Too Much Love Will Kill You" is the opposite of the previous song in a way. Written by Brian May, this has a very heart-warming start with some lush keyboards. Mercury's vocals are very touching in this power ballad, with loads of powerful emphasises on the chorus. The chorus is beautiful with some magnificent lyrics:
"Too Much Love Will Kill You,
If you can't make up your mind,
Torn between the lover,
And the love you leave behind,
You're heading for disaster,
'cos you never read the signs,
Too Much Love Will Kill You,
Every time."
The solo on this song is great and the ending vocals are just amazing on the chorus which in my opinion is the best bit of the whole album. Great ending to a truly amazing song.
"You Don't Fool Me" sets us back to the same logic as "I Was Born To Love You" but it this song, the beat is better and the vocals are plainly better on here. The guitar on here is very classic rock with it's slick licks and bending. The vocals are very sly and very cheeky which really suits the tempo of the song. The whole song overall consists of very catchy vocals and some great moments on the music, especially the guitar solo that is just amazing.
"A Winter's Tale" is a poignant look at winter in Switzerland where Queen recorded. It has a very picturesque scene on it with some amazing vocals, the lyrics really picture the setting in Switzerland, if you turn the lights off and listen to the song, you really bliss out with this song as it's like being there in Switzerland. The chorus is very beautiful with the background that sounds angelic singing "dreaming". The guitar solo puts out the snowy sound on the song, it is really touching as the whole song is as well. This song is yet another beautiful song that has vocals to die for.
"It's A Beautiful Day(Reprise)" is just the same as the opening track but it turns to a rock song mid way with driving guitaring from Brian May and some powerful drumming by Roger Taylor. This is another great song but it loses the beautyness but replaces it to a psycadelic rock sound. Great stuff.
"It's A Beautiful Day(Instrumental)" is obviously the instumental version of the opening track but bloody hell, it's nearly 10 times longer than the original!!!! Why? Well, it has a hell of a long start to it before it gets to the main riff. It is mainly keyboard based of lush sounds for at least 10 minutes which is extremely boring but then it picks up to the distorting sounds of the song from the reprise but then it breaks down slowly to the end. I'm not going to rate this as it is just a touch to the end of the album with no meaning, just to break the emotions of the album into one beautiful piece of orchestra. I would actually call this
"The Journey To Heaven" to be frank as it has that heavenly feel to it.
(The reason it durates in 12/13 is that track 12 is 4 seconds long just saying "Yeah" in it so it was utterly pointless to say that it in the tracklist so I added the time to this track.)
--- The Overview Of Made In Heaven by Queen ---
Ratings:
1. It's A Beautiful Day - 4.75/5
2. Made In Heaven - 5/5
3. Let Me Live - 4.5/5
4. Mother Love - 5/5
5. My Life Has Been Saved - 4/5
6. I Was Born To Love You - 3.5/5
7. Heaven For Everyone - 5/5
8. Too Much Love Will Kill You - 5/5
9. You Don't Fool Me - 4.25/5
10. Winter's Tale - 5/5
11. It's A Beautiful Day - REPRISE - 4.5/5
12/13. It's A Beautiful Day - INSTRUMENTAL - n/a
Overall, this album is full of truth by Queen, especially Freddie Mercury. As Queen's last album, this is a perfect way to end the legendary career they had. This album is full of beautiful moments of vocals and lyrics, Mercury's legacy really shines on this album with some amazing vocal work that cease to amaze me how he managed it when he was very ill. The cover work is very truthful and also sympathising in a way where you see the remaining band (Brian May, John Deacon and Roger Taylor) is opposite the sculpture of Freddie Mercury in the beautiful setting in Switzerland, it shows that the band misses Mercury and that they are seperated from reality. It says that this album is:
"Dedicated to the immortal spirit of Freddie Mercury."
I would say that this is album is terribly underrated by everyone and should be bought by Queen listeners. People getting into the band may not want to start here but anyone who has checked this band out and liked their music, this album will amaze you in many ways.
Final Rating: 5/5
