The 1995 record Brian May called Queen’s greatest work: “One of our best albums”
Nothing that Queen ever made was going to be haphazardly thrown together when Brian May got into the studio.
Every one of them were technicians in their own way whenever they made one of their tunes, and even if they had all of the musical knowledge at their disposal, they were willing to go the extra mile to make the kind of tunes that carried on what their heroes like The Beatles and Led Zeppelin had done before. So when the band finally came to a stop, it felt like a little bit of light had gone out of the music world.
Because even during his worst periods, Freddie Mercury seemed virtually indestructible in a lot of ways. Some of the biggest shows that they ever played seemed effortless to him, and even when they had those few moments where things started to go a bit haywire in terms of his health issues, the fact that he could still summon the strength to make a song like ‘The Show Must Go On’ is still one of the greatest accomplishments any singer has ever done.
So when Mercury did eventually succumb to AIDS, the rock world were going to give him the kind of sendoff that a true rock and roll monarch deserved. Every member of the band was ready to do right by their frontman during his memorial concert at Wembley Stadium, and when you look at the way that every single audience member is reacting, they were all willing to remember the singer who started it all for the next generation of singers.
You can feel the love on that stage in any of the live footage from around that time, but the band wasn’t looking to give up on making music just yet. They wanted the chance to give everyone the final album that Mercury deserved, and since he was no longer there to see it come to fruition, Made in Heaven is the best kind of postscript that anyone could have hoped for following his passing.
Mercury had wanted the rest of the band to finish the tracks he was working on, and with a few songs on hand from every member’s solo careers, the album feels like a perfect farewell to their frontman. It can get downright gutwrenching hearing May finish the final verse of ‘Mother Love’ because Mercury wasn’t well enough to deliver the rest of the song, and that was more than enough for May to place it among the finest pieces that the band had ever performed together.
It’s not the most cohesive album in the world, but May felt that what mattered most was the emotion on display by every band member, saying, “I think it’s one of our best albums, strangely, so good experiences all connected with that album, and I love the album, I can put it on any time.”
Adding, “And, obviously, there were moments working on it when you’re just listening to Freddie’s voice 24 hours a day, and that can be hard, you know, you suddenly think, ‘Oh God, he’s not here, you know, ‘Why am I doing this?’ But now, having been through that, I can listen to the album, and it’s just joy.”
But whereas some posthumous albums can feel like a cash grab on the part of the artist’s estate, you can tell that the band members never thought of it that way. Mercury lived for his art in many ways, and even though it took a while for him to get used to what would become his final days, the fact that he was still thinking about his audience right up until the time of his death is the mark of what a true artist was.
And for that reason alone, Made in Heaven stands as one of the most important steps that Queen ever took throughout their career. This was the end of the road in many ways for them, and while they would go out and pay tribute to their frontman on the road every now and again, their final album deserved to be respected as one of the best final acts that any band ever got to make.
