Review Summary: While not a highlight of the band's career per se, Made in Heaven serves as a fitting epilogue for Queen and, in particular, the life of Freddie Mercury.
Within weeks following the release of 1991's
Innuendo, the members of Queen were back in the studio forging ahead at creating another album. While lead singer Freddie Mercury still had energy left in him to go back into the studio, the energy that was there came in bursts and often lasted for short periods of time, and the band knew that they were not likely to get another full-length record's worth of material out of him before his passing. Nevertheless, stride forward they did, and from roughly February until mid-May of 1991, the band worked periodically at Mountain Studios in Montreux to record whatever material Mercury could muster the energy to provide for them. One song ("A Winter's Tale") was completed, while another ("Mother Love") was left mostly finished save for the vocal of the last verse, which Freddie was unable to complete in time, and other assorted bits and pieces were kept around for potential usage in later material. This was all that could be done before Mercury finally had to leave the recording studio and retire to his home, where he would pass away approximately six months later. And from the public's perception, with his death marked the end of Queen's career.
In truth, 1995's
Made in Heaven does little to alter that perception. When the surviving three band members finally reconvened to finish this record, nothing new was recorded; while they would end up recording a single just as a trio for a 1997 compilation album, for this album they brought nothing to the table. From the very beginning this record was meant to be a personal epitaph to the late lead singer, as sort of a post-mortem coda to
Innuendo's grand finale. The only problem was the lack of material Mercury had been able to give them before his death: while "Mother Love" was finished up quickly and some of the assorted pieces he had recorded would be assembled into what would end up becoming "You Don't Fool Me", nothing else usable remained. So to the vaults went the band members, pulling out a literal menagerie of unreleased tracks, B-sides, and even tracks from both Mercury and Roger Taylor solo albums in order to make the album a serviceable product.
The thing that has always impressed me the most about this record is the production. There's a very ethereal, "heavenly" (if you will) tone to this entire album, largely thanks to the synths that seem draped in the background of more or less every track. Additionally, the record seems to have a lot of sonic space to it, making use of the entire stereo width to deliver a really warm yet melancholic sound. Indeed, this entire record can definitely be described as having a melancholia to it; never to the point where it's outright depressing, but like with its predecessor, there's a definite sense of finality to it, even considering the different origins of the various songs.
Unfortunately, the song quality is what keeps
Made in Heaven from living to the lofty heights of much of its predecessors. To put it bluntly, these songs are by and large second-rate as Queen tracks go. Two unreleased numbers were included (the 1980 piano/vocal improv "It's a Beautiful Day" and the 1983
The Works outtake "Let Me Live"), and while "It's a Beautiful Day" works well as a brief album opener (though come on, did we really need a reprise of it at the very end of the album?), "Let Me Live" is only really notable for being the first instance since the band's first track, "Keep Yourself Alive", where Mercury, Roger Taylor and Brian May share lead vocal duties. The former B-side "My Life Has Been Saved" is even more forgettable, not even going so far as to exceed the original, which benefited from featuring May's guitar relatively prominently (comparably, the '95 version is absolutely drowning in synths). The remakes from Mercury's 1985 solo album
Mr. Bad Guy are not exactly highlights either, though "Made in Heaven" does feature some great vocals and the completely revamped "I Was Born to Love You" rocks harder than anything else on the record. (Both feature far better production than the original record gave them as well.) Roger Taylor also contributes a solo song on here (albeit with Freddie still on lead vocals), the track "Heaven for Everyone" from his band The Cross's 1987 debut record
Shove It. In this case, however, the synth-laden production adds a ton to the track, giving it this otherworldly vibe that I feel its lyrics really deserve. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention "Too Much Love Will Kill You", the track originally recorded for
The Miracle that Brian May ended up using for his debut solo album
Back to the Light. The
Miracle version is used here, and while it doesn't reach the same level of emotional impact that May's version does, it's still a phenomenal vocal showcase and the guitarist's solo in the middle is wonderful.
But indeed, the highlights of this record end up being the tracks recorded in the Montreux sessions. "Mother Love" is famous for being the last track that Mercury put his vocals to, and while he was unable to record the take consistently (each line had to be recorded three separate times, then they would move on to the next line), it still sounds consistent to the ear, and there's no doubt that all of his heart and soul is going into that vocal during the bridge. Brian May takes over the vocal on the last verse, which in itself is a decision that leads to an eerie feeling, the sense that Mercury really is gone and the band are doing what they can to fill in the hole his departure has left. "You Don't Fool Me", by contrast, has absolutely no melancholy stigma to it at all; it's an unabashed dance rocker assembled from several random vocal lines of Mercury's (one of which is the opening harmony section, which is easily one of the best and most creative harmonies in their catalog), with a spectacular May guitar solo in the middle to tie everything together. I disagree with the sentiment that it would fit well on
Hot Space or
The Miracle, however; to me it's far better crafted than almost anything on those two records, and to throw it in with dance number du jour on those two albums seems too easy of a comparison. But the highlight of the record to me is "A Winter's Tale". Mercury's lyrics truly do evoke a picture of a fresh snowfall, visible from the singer's bedroom window presumably during the winter of 1990-'91. The synths and guitars paint a similarly evocative sonic portrait, with Mercury, Taylor and May contributing multitracked backing vocals during the bridge sections. As Freddie recites his final line, "Ooh, it's bliss", it seems that the record could not end on a more pleasant or appropriate note.
Alas, the record still has over 25 minutes to go. But don't let that description fool you into thinking that it's 25 minutes more of music, oh no. Instead we get the track "It's a Beautiful Day (Reprise)", which is basically the opening track, but instead it breaks into a full-on dance rocker after about a minute. There really is no reason for it, it offers no sense of closure whatsoever. Following this is a four second excerpt of Mercury simply saying the word "Yeah" (yes, it's counted as a track on the track listing), and then a 22 minute-long ambient piece known only as "Track 13", which consists of nothing but the synths from "It's a Beautiful Day" extended and looped to no conceivable end. Maybe this would be an intriguing idea if they did more interesting things with the repetition, but they really don't, and apart from being used as a white noise machine I can't see any reason for one to listen to this track more than once, if even that much.
Overall I consider myself a huge fan of
Made in Heaven's atmosphere and its production, and for that reason it's an album that I can put on basically any time and enjoy, whether it be intently focusing on it or just using it as background music. But I can't deny that the song quality is not up to par with Queen's better records, and that unfortunately does hinder the effectiveness of the album's overall sentiment. Even still, there's enough good songs here that I'd recommend giving this thing a listen (in particular the 1991 recordings are must-listen material for any Queen fan). Maybe
Innuendo should still be seen as the final chapter in the band's illustrious career, but
Made in Heaven makes for a perfectly suitable epilogue.
