Kerry Ellis – Well Eye Never

Queen Album Review – Innuendo

By the time the 1990s began, Freddie Mercury’s health was in steep decline due to AIDS, which he was diagnosed with in 1987. The band denied it whenever they were asked about it, and the press couldn’t get definitive proof to back up the suspicions they’d had for at least a couple of years. But Freddie’s increasingly gaunt appearance fuelled the rumours, especially when the band accepted the award for Outstanding Contribution To British Music at the Brit Awards in 1990, to celebrate their 20th anniversary in the music business. A clearly emotional Brian May delivered their acceptance speech, with Freddie only having the energy for a quick “Thank you, goodnight” at the end. It would turn out to be Freddie’s last ever appearance in public, giving the footage particular poignancy in hindsight.

Behind the scenes however, tucked away at Mountain Studios in Montreux to avoid the intrusions of the media, Queen were busy in 1989 and 1990. Freddie was determined to keep recording until it was no longer possible, and the band agreed to credit all the songs they produced to the group as a whole to avoid any arguments, which made things a lot easier.

The Innuendo album that came out of those sessions in February 1991 was an immediate hit, going straight into the charts at number 1 in the UK for 2 weeks, and remaining in the top 10 for a further fortnight. It stayed in the top 100 for 19 weeks altogether until 22 June 1991, dropping out 5 months before Freddie passed away on 24 November. It then returned to the charts for a further 16 consecutive weeks from early December.

Colourful drawings of the 4 members of Queen, from the booklet with their Innuendo album. John is wearing a colourful jester's hat with bells on, and has a pointy white beard and curly moustache. Brian's hair is made of blue and green striped snakes, and his face is partially obscured by a white theatrical mask with colourful feathers sticking out of the top of it, as if he's just pulled it off to reveal himself. Freddie is wearing a black and white chequered top and has cats crawling over his shoulders plus a black cat on his head. Roger's outfit has red and white stripes along with blue stars, while a blue bandana around the top of his head has yellow stars and suns on it, and he has long blonde hair billowing out to the sides.

As an album in itself, it’s a beautiful mix of genres and themes in the way that Queen were renowned for, harking back to their 70s sound at times. But given what we now know about what the band were going through, it’s quite moving too, as there are clear references to the fact that things were drawing to an end. And while Freddie’s condition meant he was too unwell to go on tour, he still found it in himself to deliver some absolutely incredible vocals. So the difficult circumstances certainly didn’t diminish the quality of their work, and it’s widely regarded as one of their best albums.

A blue-tinted photo of the 4 members of Queen posing together, from the booklet with their Innuendo album.

One big frustration, however, is that the music videos have never had a proper release on DVD or Blu-ray, including the last one that Freddie ever recorded. They had been featured on the Greatest Flix II & Greatest Flix III VHS tapes, and some of them appeared on the Japanese-only Greatest Karaoke Hits VHS & DVD releases with on-screen lyrics. But they were omitted from the Greatest Video Hits 2 DVD, and while fans clamoured for a third DVD of videos to tie up all the loose ends, it never materialised. Thankfully they are on Youtube, but I like to have my own personal DVDs and Blu-rays of their work where possible.

So with all that said, here’s the latest in my series of in-depth Queen album reviews, looking at each of the tracks on Innuendo, including alternate versions, music videos, live performances, covers and more where appropriate. I hope you enjoy!

P.S. If you’re wondering why I seem to have skipped an album after my recent post about A Kind Of Magic, it’s because I already reviewed the Collector’s Edition of The Miracle 4 years ago. I have added a few little extras to it, but I didn’t need to write a whole new post.

Queen Album Review – A Kind Of Magic

By the mid-1980s, it seemed as if Queen weren’t on top of their game any more. Their 1984 album The Works had sold well and they were still attracting big crowds to their shows, yet something was missing. The band were tired of the endless cycle of recording and touring – particularly Freddie, who went off to make his own solo album, Mr. Bad Guy – and they weren’t dominating the music scene in the way they used to.

It felt like the band had passed their peak, and they were just sailing along without making much of a splash. But then fate smiled upon them and presented them with the crest of a huge wave in the form of Live Aid in 1985. Their barnstorming 20-minute set of classic hits, regarded by many as the best rock set of all time, delighted existing fans and drew in many new followers who had little to no awareness of them. And most importantly, it re-lit the fire within the group, reminding them what they were capable of and why they were loved.

They capitalised on that success by releasing the song One Vision in November 1985, and then a couple more songs the following March, before blessing the world with their latest album, A Kind Of Magic, in June 1986, which also served as the soundtrack to Highlander. It deservedly shot straight into the UK charts at number 1, and stayed in the top 10 for 16 weeks, out of a total 30 weeks in the top 40.

It was their first chart-topping album since The Game in 1980 and Greatest Hits in 1981, and their final 3 studio albums with Freddie that followed all reached number 1 as well. This was therefore the start of their revival – although, as the Magic tour would be their last set of concerts together, it was also the beginning of the end in a sad way, which Freddie was privately aware of.

So to celebrate the 40th anniversary of this classic album and Freddie’s final ever concert, I’m going to dig through each of the tracks here, looking at music videos, alternate versions, live performances, covers and so on. And don’t forget you can find lots of videos in the playlists that I’ve linked to beneath the table of contents as well. I hope you enjoy!

Double page spread from the booklet with Queen's album A Kind Of Magic. It shows a dazzling, colourful array of cartoon imagery against a black background littered with tiny colourful stars and other objects. The large cartoon imagery across both pages includes representations of all 4 band members, some dancers, a microphone, two bowls of water that each contain a fish, another fish flying around with a wide open mouth that gives it a shocked expression, a rabbit jumping out of a top hat while a frog appears to be diving towards it, a cauldron, a lamp with a large genie that has emerged from it, and a blue book with the word Magic on the cover.

Queen Album Review – Hot Space

We’re really Under Pressure from this latest heatwave, so it would help if someone could take Action This Day to Put Out The Fire in order for me to be a Cool Cat again. Then I can start Calling All Girls to pass on The Words Of Love and emphasise my Body Language as a Dancer. I’ll prove that I’m a Soul Brother who knows that Life Is Real, I have the Staying Power and I won’t take any Back Chat.

Yes, that’s right. For this next post in my series of Queen reviews, we come to an album that proved to be quite controversial – Hot Space. It was hardly unusual for Queen to be experimental, but this foray into funk, disco and R&B, with a heavy focus on synth sounds (although there were still rock elements as well), was too much of a change from their traditional style. Even within the band there were arguments as they put it together.

The reaction from their fanbase wasn’t lost on them either, as Freddie remarked during a show in Milton Keynes: “Now, most of you know that we’ve got some new sounds out in the last week. And for what it’s worth, we’re gonna do a few songs in the funk/black category – whatever you call it. That doesn’t mean we’ve lost our rock ‘n’ roll feel, ok? I mean, it’s only a bloody record, people get so excited about these things. We just want to try out a few sounds.”

It is fair to say that Hot Space is their weakest studio album as a result (if we don’t count the soundtrack score for Flash Gordon that preceded it). However, it’s not awful either, and there is some good stuff on it, especially Life Is Real, Las Palabras De Amor and Under Pressure, as they’re closer to Queen’s usual style. It also peaked at number 4 in the UK chart, altogether spending 3 weeks in the top 10 and 13 weeks in the top 40, which is fairly good. And when they performed some of the tracks live, they were interpreted in a more heavy rock style that made them sound better, because of the instruments the band used on stage.

So here’s my personal review of each of the tracks, along with alternate versions, live performances, covers and more. I hope you enjoy!

An artistic image showing images of the 4 members of Queen against a black background. Each is facing forward with light hitting their face from the left side of the image, leaving the other side of each face in shadow, blending into the black behind them. Each face is shown in a different colour, with John in red, Brian in blue, Freddie in yellow and Roger in green.

Queen Album Review – The Game

Way back in lockdown, to fill some of the time, I wrote in-depth reviews of the 1970s studio albums by Queen, my favourite band, which took me from their self-titled debut up to the Jazz album. And they’re about to release a new deluxe edition of Queen II, which I’m looking forward to downloading and reviewing, just like I did for their Queen I box set.

However, it’s long been my intention to review the rest of their albums as well, and now I’ve got more time on my hands, I’m going to delve back into them at long last.

So we’ll kick off the 80s with The Game, the album that produced Queen’s best-selling single of all time, and the only two number 1 hits they ever had in America (where it was also their only number 1 album, selling over 4 million copies). The Game also reached number 1 in the UK for 2 weeks, and stayed in the top 40 for 15 weeks altogether. Overall it sold over 12 million copies worldwide.

Freddie Mercury, sporting a moustache and wearing a black leather jacket over a red top, leaning back against a railing overlooking a snowy landscape with trees and a couple of buildings.

Brian May, with his hands in his light brown jacket pockets, leaning back against a railing overlooking a snowy landscape with trees and a couple of buildings.

It’s also the first Queen album to feature a synthesizer (an Oberheim OBX), with their previous releases proudly stating that they never used them. Plus they had a new producer (Reinhold Mack, known simply as Mack), and they recorded the songs in a new location, at Musicland Studios in Munich. It therefore marked a new period of experimentation for the band, as they were persuaded to shift towards a more pop-friendly sound, although still infused with rock of course and it still sounds unmistakably like Queen.

It wasn’t always easy, with arguments in the studio as the band members were keen to be represented fairly on the record. But ultimately they were able to reach suitable compromises and produce another decent album with several great tracks. And as shown by the chart positions above, it enabled them to maintain their popularity in an era where other rock veterans were struggling, and even have their peak of success in the USA. The music scene was changing significantly in the 80s, but Queen were still very much in the game and still winning, at least for now.

So here are my reviews of all the songs, along with alternate versions, music videos, live performances, and a small selection of the many covers and remixes out there. I hope you enjoy!

May 2023 Favourites

Hello again. As you May have noticed, so to speak, from a few of my recent posts, this has been another very eventful and enjoyable month. Which means there’s plenty to mention in this latest roundup post and video, including a big royal event, a musical, explorations of nature and animals, and a few things I’ve been watching and listening to. None of it’s sponsored or gifted as usual. So I hope you enjoy!

September 2022 Favourites

Well, what a month this has been! When I published my August Favourites at the start of September, I had just left my first job due to my redundancy, and Liz Truss had just become Prime Minister. But then 2 days after I’d made that post, the ultimate career change took place at the top of our Royal Family, and normal life in the UK was disrupted for the best part of a fortnight as a result. I’ve written a separate post saying farewell to Her Majesty The Queen and reviewing the coverage, as it’s not really suitable for a Favourites post and there was quite a lot to talk about.

Apart from that though, and despite my redundancy, I’ve still been pretty busy this month. I’ve attended a Derren Brown show and a couple of tribute concerts, listened to an audiobook I got for my birthday, and enjoyed new episodes of my favourite comedies on TV once the schedules had returned to normal. So there are still plenty of nicer things to mention in this post and the short video I’ve made to go with it, none of which is sponsored or gifted, and I hope you enjoy my latest roundup!

Christmas 2021 Favourites

Well, we made it through another odd year. We finished 2021 in a stronger position than 2020 in some important ways, and step by step we are getting back towards a sense of normality. But we still to be careful and patient, as opposed to carefree and complacent, and hopefully the situation will continue to improve during 2022.

In any case, despite the various restrictions we endured throughout the year, along with my own battle with sciatica and back trouble over the summer, I still got out and about quite a bit and found plenty to enjoy, as you’ll have seen from all of my Favourites posts. The latter half of 2021 was particularly busy, as I was interviewed on RNIB Radio’s Happy Hour by fellow blogger Holly Tuke from Life Of A Blind Girl, had the opportunity to interview visually impaired actor Gillian Dean about the premiere of a new play, finally got to attend a live performance of the Rocky Horror Show, and had an audio described tour of London Zoo, among other things. And being able to meet some of my friends after so long apart has naturally been the biggest delight of the year.

This Christmas has also marked my 5th anniversary of living in London! Granted, much of the past couple of years has been a bit of a write-off, but that just makes it all the more amazing how much I’ve achieved and crammed in so far, with public speaking, TV and radio interviews, podcast appearances, student documentaries, theatre visits, museum tours, the charity abseil, so many new friendships and connections, the attention my blog’s had in general, and many other things that I would never have imagined happening or being successful at before moving here. So in that sense, the lockdowns have been strangely beneficial for giving me a chance to relax and reflect on all of that, as well as giving me all the more impetus and confidence to expand my horizons even further going forward. So if you’ve played any part in my London journey so far, whether it’s just reading these blog posts, or chatting with me, or getting together with me in person, thank you so much! It always means a great deal that people take such an interest in my adventures and my ramblings.

So before I find out what 2022 has to offer, it’s time to wrap up 2021 with a traditional bumper post and video looking back at what I’ve been doing and enjoying during December and the Christmas period. As usual, nothing here is sponsored and all opinions are my own. I hope you enjoy!

November 2021 Favourites

Hello again, hope you’re all keeping safe and well despite everything going on at the moment. I’m happy to say that I’ve had my Covid booster jab, which really helps to further educate and strengthen the immune system, and thus greatly reduces the chances of severe problems if you do get ill with the new variant. Plus Mum had both her flu jab and Covid booster last month, and I’m hoping to get my flu jab at some point. So we’re as well protected as we can be for the winter now.

The latest developments haven’t stopped me going out and about and being generally busy either, as I’ve been making the most of my time. So during November I was interviewed on another national radio show, had lovely days exploring London Zoo and the Illuminated River project, enjoyed stage and film versions of a Dickens classic, watched the latest series of Doctor Who, saw various comedies, got absorbed in the new Beatles documentary, heard ABBA’s new album, and celebrated Freddie Mercury’s life on the 30th anniversary of his untimely passing. And none of it is sponsored or gifted as usual. So I hope you enjoy my latest post and video roundup!

Queen Album Review – News Of The World

1977 could have been the year that Queen’s reign came to an end. With punk rock very much in the ascendancy, having gained traction over the previous few years, there was a greater appetite for raw power and simplicity in rock music, rather than elaborate and fancy progressive rock. And Queen’s last album, A Day At The Races, despite being an excellent collection of songs, hadn’t sold quite as well as its behemoth predecessor A Night At The Opera, with some critics and fans feeling that it wastwo versions more of the same without any notable improvement. So it was going to seem too repetitive if they did the same kind of thing yet again.

The band were perfectly happy to adapt and take on the challenge though, and indeed were already keen to try something different from the multi-layered, complex productions they felt they’d done enough of by this point anyway. So even without the emerging competition from the punk scene, it was already the evolutionary path they were heading down.

As a result, News Of The World marked a shift towards a purer hard rock sound, and took just 2 months to record (compared to 5 for A Day At The Races). The tracks still had some beautifully arranged harmonies and instrumentation thrown in, but not as lavishly and prominently as before. There was also a change in how evenly the writing credits were distributed, with 4 tracks now written by Brian, just 3 by Freddie, and an increase to 2 each for Roger and John. And the band produced the album themselves, with assistance from engineer Mike Stone, now they had the experience and confidence to do so themselves.

It all worked out very well, resulting in another great selection of songs. And so, as you’ll be accustomed to by now if you’ve followed my Queen reviews to date, this is my personal review of each of the tracks, including a look at alternate versions, music videos, live performances, covers, etc, along with other bits and pieces that I’m aware of. I hope you enjoy!

May 2021 Favourites

Hello again, hope you’re all doing well. May has been a mixed month for me health-wise, though the good outweighs the bad, especially now I’ve had both my Covid vaccinations and restrictions have been eased further. And in terms of entertainment I’m focusing more on paid streaming services again, having found my way out of the Youtube wormholes I happily got sucked into during the depths of lockdown, though there are still occasional things grabbing my attention there too of course.

So there are various things to mention as usual, none of which is sponsored or gifted, and I hope you enjoy this latest post and video roundup!

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: