Queen – 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.

July 2026 Favourites

Hello again, hope you’re doing well. I know it’s lovely to have sunshine in the summer, but this exceptional period of hot and dry weather is getting a bit much now isn’t it? If you or someone you know is affected by wildfires, droughts or the heat in general at the moment, I hope you’re staying safe and comfortable as best you can.

Naturally it’s been having an impact on my mother, so even though after my foot injury I’m feeling well enough to go out a bit more again, I’ve still had to stick around at home a lot of the time to make sure she’s ok. I’ll be giving a little update about my caring situation in this post.

So again there’s nothing for me to write about in London just yet, but I’m hopeful that will finally change during August, particularly with a booking I have for my birthday that I’m very much looking forward to.

However, there is plenty of entertainment for me to review from July, including a couple of crime dramas I discussed on Radio 4’s In Touch, along with some audio and TV comedies, and I’ve even tried getting back into playing video games. And, as ever, none of it’s sponsored or gifted. So I hope you enjoy!

Queen Album Review – The Works

Following the poor reception to Hot Space in 1982, which had focused too heavily on funk and disco sounds, Queen took the hint and brought more rock elements back into the mix for their 1984 album The Works. It also helped that they had taken a break in between those releases, focusing on solo work instead, so they came back refreshed as a group.

The result is a combination of 70s and 80s styles that is much more interesting, and it gave us huge hits like Radio Ga Ga, I Want To Break Free and Hammer To Fall, although the video for one of those songs didn’t go down well in America.

In the UK, the album jumped straight into the charts at number 2 for a week, and while it never managed to reach the top spot, it did return to the second place position 3 months later for a fortnight. It spent 57 consecutive weeks in the top 100 initially (25 of which were top 10), but then kept returning for a little while every so often. So in total it was in the chart for 94 weeks, which is the longest for any Queen album. It’s also their only album from which all of the songs were released as either A or B-side tracks on singles.

So for the latest in my series of Queen album reviews, here’s a look at each of the tracks, along with alternate versions, live performances, covers and more. I hope you enjoy!

June 2026 Favourites

Hello again, I hope you’re doing well. This has been another quiet month for me, which is a good thing, and there has been some positive progress too.

In terms of my home situation, there isn’t much to update you on. I’m still feeling good about the fact that I left my job to become a full-time carer for my mum 3 months ago, with a little bit of accessibility testing work on the side, because my days are now much less intensive. My time is still productive, as I have plenty of tasks I can do and lots of things I enjoy to keep me occupied, but I can also spread things out and relax much more easily. We’ve also survived another uncomfortable heatwave, so we’re quite relieved that’s over, although we know there are more on the way this summer, and there could be worse to come in the decades ahead.

It also feels like my injury has almost fully healed now, touch wood, as I’m not getting pain in the ball of my foot any more. But I know I need to be careful, given how long it took to go away, as it’s probably still repairing and strengthening itself, and I’m anxious not to trigger the issue again if I can help it. So I’m currently taking some short local strolls to ease myself back into things, and I’m seeing if I can get better trainers and socks as well. It’s all a bit trial and error really, and my foot is still giving me occasional gentle warnings not to push things too far too quickly, as if the issue is still a bit borderline. The hot weather probably hasn’t helped either. But I’m glad I’m a lot better now.

All of which means there are no major outings to mention again this month, which is a shame as I had a theatre show booked that I really wanted to see, but never mind. I still have other things arranged in the months ahead, one of which is a birthday surprise from a close friend, so that’ll be fun.

I can, however, talk about things that I’ve been watching and listening to as usual. In particular, there are 3 new Blu-rays that I’ve bought, so I’ve devoted most of my viewing time to those. But there are other things that I’ve been watching and listening to as well, in terms of comedy and music. So there’s a nice variety for you to look through here, none of which is sponsored or gifted, and I hope you enjoy!

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.

April 2026 Favourites

Hello again, I hope you’re doing well. As I explained in my carer update post yesterday, this has been a good month overall, apart from Mum and I picking up little injuries, but we are both slowly getting better.

Because of that, I still haven’t been out anywhere exciting just yet. But there’s still some entertainment for me to mention as usual, for which the main themes this month happen to be the cosmos and comedy. So let’s crack on with it, and I hope you enjoy!

Queen Album Review – Flash Gordon

Following on from my recent review of Queen’s first album of the 1980s, The Game, their next release was something very different, providing their first ever soundtrack for the sci-fi movie Flash Gordon.

It only has a couple of songs and a bunch of instrumentals, and therefore wasn’t as successful as their normal studio albums. But it did peak at number 10 in the UK albums chart, for 1 week out of its total 9 in the top 40, which is respectable.

A photo of Freddie Mercury singing into a microphone, while wearing a white t-shirt with the word Flash in large red letters on it. The photo is from the booklet with the Flash Gordon album, with a yellow streak of lightning above him.

A photo of Brian May playing guitar from the booklet with the Flash Gordon album, with a yellow streak of lightning above him.

I do have the album in my collection for completeness, but I rarely listen to it, partly because it isn’t anywhere near as good as their other stuff, but also because I’ve never actually watched the film before – until now. Given my love of Queen I always knew I ought to see it one day, but I didn’t think I’d be very interested in it from the clips I’d seen.

And to be honest, having now viewed it properly for the purposes of this review, my assumption was correct. I appreciate it’s a cult classic that is basically the comic strip brought to life, and Queen’s music does give it a boost. And chances are it’s a case of “you had to be there”, as I wasn’t born when it was released, whereas a lot of fans grew up with it. But unlike other surreal, low-budget masterpieces like The Rocky Horror Picture Show that I love, this movie simply doesn’t grab me. It just feels very dated with a nonsensical plot, poor performances (except perhaps for Brian Blessed and Max von Sydow), cringeworthy dialogue and substandard special effects even for its time. For some people its flaws are a big part of its charm, meaning it’s so bad it’s good, but I just can’t get on board with it. It just feels like some strange fever dream! Still, I’m glad I gave it a go, so I have a better frame of reference at least.

So this post is just going to be a quick run-through of Queen’s music on the album, along with some live versions, remixes and covers, as I have nothing else to say about the film itself. And that means it’s going to be short compared to my other Queen reviews, but I hope you find it interesting nonetheless.

February & March 2026 Favourites

Hello again, I hope your year’s been going well so far, and you’re enjoying the Easter weekend. For me, the first few months of 2026 have been a transition period, as I’ve been making the switch from my support worker role to a new zero-hours contract as an accessibility tester, so I can focus more on caring for my mother and looking after my own wellbeing. You can find out more about all of that in my latest Carer & Career Update post.

Because of that, along with the often cold and wet weather, I haven’t done many interesting things in London since my January Favourites. I’ve been out for a few walks, got a haircut and done some shopping when the weather allows, but that’s it – until very recently, when I saw my first theatre show of the year with a friend of mine, which was a much-needed bit of light relief.

So in this post I’ll be talking about my theatre visit, which involved a touch tour and audio description, as well as the variety of entertainment I’ve been enjoying at home. None of it’s sponsored or gifted as usual, and I hope you find it interesting!

Queen Album Review – Queen II – Collector’s Edition

Back in 2024, Queen released a collector’s edition of their debut album with new mixes, session outtakes, backing tracks and live performances, which I reviewed at the time.

And now, as has been long anticipated since then, they’ve brought out a collector’s edition of Queen II, their fantastic and highly complex second album, in much the same vein. So naturally I’ve been looking forward to checking that out as well.

Once again, there are multiple formats available from various retailers, including a big box set with 5 CDs and 2 LPs, a much simpler 2-disc CD edition with the new mixes and the sessions material, and others.

And just like last time, I’ve plumped for the digital download instead. It’s just £17.99 for the contents of all 5 CDs compared to the frankly ludicrous £194.99 for the physical equivalent, which has 2 vinyl records I’d have no use for and 2 of the CDs contain live tracks I already have from older releases. Sure, the book and photo prints look really nice, but I can live without them in the circumstances.

Considering the 6-CD box set for their previous album was an already steep £149.99, I’m baffled as to how this new 5-CD set is £45 dearer! Maybe it’s because it has 2 LPs rather than 1 like the previous set, one of which is white vinyl rather than black (as the album has ‘Side White’ and ‘Side Black’ instead of Sides 1 & 2). But it’s a lot extra just for that. If there had been a similar set without the vinyl LPs for a much cheaper price, I’d have been tempted to get it, but it’s quite common for box sets these days to have vinyls I don’t want. It always bugs me when artists do that.

Anyway, back in lockdown I wrote an extensive post reviewing the tracks on Queen II, along with related live performances and covers, so I’m not going to repeat that kind of thing here. Instead, I just want to compare the new mixes to the originals and look through the bonus material, and I’ve added the new tracks to my Queen II playlist as well. Nothing here is sponsored or gifted, because I bought the new download myself, and I hope you enjoy!

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