"Innuendo" was the last album released by Queen before Freddie Mercury died, and it was a fitting final album for him. "Made In Heaven" was released in 1995, 4 years after Freddie's death. Of the 11 songs on the album, 5 were previously released in other forms: "Made In Heaven" and "I Was Born To Love You" were originally on Freddie's "Mr. Bad Guy" album, and are included here with those same vocal tracks, but with Queen's instrumentation; "My Life Has Been Saved" was a B-side to "Scandal" from "The Miracle", but is slightly different here; "Heaven For Everyone" was originally recorded by Roger Taylor's band "The Cross"; and "Too Much Love Can Kill You" was previously released on Brian May's "Back To The Light" album (with Brian on vocals). But even though not all of the material here is new, all of the material is very good, and it's a great album. Not quite as good of an ending as "Innuendo", but a very fine piece of work nonetheless.

In 1995, Queen fans got one last album from the Freddie Mercury led Queen. Although this album ranks with their best, it is not entirely new. My Life Has Been Saved was the b-side of Scandal. Too Much Love Will Kill You was recorded for The Miracle album. Brian May re-recorded it in 1993 for his Back To The Light record. Made In Heaven and I Was Born To Love you were tracks from Freddie Mercury's out of print 1985 album, Mr. Bad Guy. Basically only Freddie's vocals were kept. The instrumentation was given the full Queen treatment. Heaven For Everyone was recorded for one of Roger Taylor's side projects.

Ok, now on to how the record sounds. The album starts out with one of the few 'newly' recorded tracks, It's A Beautiful Day. This ballad features an amazing vocal from Freddie, considering his illness. He is in fine form. Let Me Live is a great track featuring a gospel choir in the background. Brian May and Roger Taylor share lead vocals on this track with Freddie. Mother Love is a sad, contemplative ballad about facing the end of one's life. Freddie couldn't finish this track so Brian May picks up the last verse. It works quite well. A Winter's Tale sounds like a holiday classic. Freddie seemed to be taking in all of his surroundings. He wasn't taking anything for granted. The album ends like it started, with a reprise of It's A Beautiful Day. Added at the end of the track is a piano sample from Seven Seas Of Rhye, a baby's cry, and a sample from an old Carole King song that Freddie covered in his pre-Queen days.

After all is said and done, this is a fitting farewell to rock's royal band. It does what all great artist's last albums should do, wondering what could have been.

"Made in Heaven" is Queen's final studio album, released in November 1995. After Freddie Mercury's death in 1991, the remaining band members John Deacon, Roger Taylor and Brian May worked with Mercury's pre-recorded vocals to create the last Queen album with all four members having contributed.

The album feels and sounds like a late 80's Queen album with Freddie singing every song and sounding much healthier than he does on "Innuendo" as alot of this album has been taken from prior recordings. Only three songs were recorded by Freddie prior to his death: "A Winter's Tale", "Mother Love" and what would become "You Don't Fool Me". The song list includes:

* "It's a Beautiful Day" - a previously unreleased song written and recorded by Freddie Mercury at Musicland Studios in Munich, 1980.

* "Made in Heaven" - a track from Mercury's solo career, appearing on his album 'Mr. Bad Guy' in 1985. Taylor, May and Deacon reworked it (over Mercury's piano and vocals) to make it a Queen track.

* "Let Me Live" - the first single features a gospel-style choir for the opening. Freddie, Brian and Roger each then sing a verse.

* "Mother Love" - the last song Freddie Mercury recorded and co-wrote with Brian May, who on his website discussed the writing process he and Mercury had (writing both separately and together, and conscious of the nature of the song and the lyrics). May sang the last verse since Mercury wasn't able to do it.

* "My Life Has Been Saved" - composed by John Deacon in 1987-1988.

* "I Was Born to Love You" - originally recorded (piano, vocals, synths) by Mercury on 25th May 1984, for his 'Mr. Bad Guy' album.

* "Heaven for Everyone" - a track Roger Taylor wrote and tried out with Queen in 1986, but then dropped and recorded it for The Cross (his other band, where he was lead singer and rhythm guitarist instead of drummer).

* "Too Much Love Will Kill You" - a typical power ballad composed by Brian May (with Frank Musker and Elizabeth Lamers) sometime between the Magic and Miracle sessions. They wrote it in the US and Freddie Mercury sang on it.

* "You Don't Fool Me" - one of the last tracks recorded for Made In Heaven. It reminds me of a more mellow 'Scandal'.

* "A Winter's Tale" - the last song Mercury composed entirely ("Mother Love"'s music is by Brian May). He did the vocals and keyboards for it and completed the last verse around two weeks before he died.

The overall feel of the album is one of reverence, reflection and references to our existence. Only the song "I Was Born to Love You" has an up-beat tempo. The production is of a superb quality considering the difficulties the band faced.

Unfortunately, I dismissed this album at the time as I was into other mid-90's music and Queen felt long dead. The title, "Made in Heaven", was just too corny and I still felt (up until recently) that it was just an attempt to hold onto something that wasn't there anymore. It was only when I went back into a Queen phase (12 years later) that I even considered buying it. But it was very popular in the UK at the time with the first single "Heaven for Everyone" reaching No. 3 and the album going four times platinum selling 1.5 million copies.

Overall, this is a worthwhile coda to Queen's career. I find it very easy to listen to and reflect in turn on their impact on my life.

...quite frankly, so depressing at times that you'll be wondering why you love it so much. Because this is one of Queen's best albums, probably my favourite one. Every single song is stunning - the vocals (mostly Freddie, singing with such incredible power and emotion that it's hard to believe the majority of these songs were recorded just months before his death) are amazing, the music is fabulous. Two songs Freddie recorded on his solo album, Mr Bad Guy, appear on this CD (Made In Heaven, I Was Born To Love You), and with added background material from Roger, Brian and John, they really do improve. Heaven For Everyone, which was originally a song by The Cross with Freddie on vocals, is reworked into a Queen song, and is one of their best. Too Much Love Will Kill You was released as a solo single for Brian in the early '90s, but the Queen version is pretty damn good too.

The rest of the album consists of rock ballads at their best. The emotional Mother Love, the gospel-esque Let Me Live, the upbeat My Life Has Been Saved, the achingly beautiful A Winter's Tale, the powerful It's A Beautiful Day... all are exceptional tracks. You Don't Fool Me is a much-looked-down-upon dance track, but one I happen to enjoy.

And really, it gets less melancholy the fiftieth time you hear it...

Rock has gone through big changes since Nirvana released "Nevermind" in 1991 and Freddie Mercury died in November of that same year. Even Kurt Cobain lamented in his suicide note (penned just two years after the legendary 1992 Freddie tribute AIDS benefit concert) that he wished he could have had that union with his audience that Freddie had. In 1995, even though some of the material were brand new versions of songs that were only 4 years old (recorded shortly before Freddie's death), the rock trends had changed so much by that time that this release seemed like a retro flower in a rubble-ridden "alternative" environment. Even Prince (considered "the last hope" in pop music by some), during a feud and protest with his record company, practically disappeared, changed his name and released only old music while his new music remained unreleased during this time. When he resurfaced in 1996, too much time had gone by for people to notice. In short, "Heaven" seemed like the last spasms of what used to be a rock scene brimming with possitive, promethean, inventive and yes, sometimes cheesy, schmalzy Spinal Tap, but gifted music. Once one of the many Godzilla bands in the '70s and early '80s that most critics couldn't wait for to go out of style, in '95 this release was so out of place, it was almost like seeing a ring-tailed wolf-boy at your local mall. Now that the market is saturated with screaching white male hip hop and head banger metal that is more intense than whatever was going on in '95, this is basically a re-polished artifact from an era as old to today's generation as The Beatles seemed to us in the '70s, '80s or early '90s, even though it's only 5 years old.

This has to be the worst time EVER for rock music. And for all the attacks, hatred and backlash disco suffered, rock music may be getting some it's own backlash coming up because of the rut it is in. (I think Elvis Costello said it best "Anyone can do punk, but that doesn't mean anyone can do it and be good") It's all my fault of course, but in the meantime, hear the beautiful, unrestrained muse in the title track and the remaining Queen members amazing reworking of this 1985 Freddie solo song. It sounds better and more original than ever. And the '95 version of the Roger Taylor's "Heaven For Everyone" would've easily been a Top 40 hit in another era and brightened up the radio with it's irresistable melodies and calls for world peace. A rare 1988 Queen B-side is also rerecorded here, as is some Freddie solo material, a Brian May solo track sung by Freddie from the late '80s is here, the ironically titled "Too Much Love Will Kill You", but the most chilling music, the NEW music recorded when Freddie was sick with the disease, is unbelieveable. You can hear the strain in Freddie's voice in songs like "Mother Love", "You Don't Fool Me" and "A Winter's Tale". It would almost be unlistenable if Queen weren't such a great band to listen to. (Brian May once said that the Freddie's vocals were recorded at a snail's pace. Because of his illness, a half hour per week was all that Freddie was able to do) There's alot missing, creative wise, from them of course. It's been that way since their late '80s albums progressively got more and more light, harmless and adult oriented. There's none of the hyper-literate, impossibly complicated and diverse sounds of "Queen II" and "Sheer Heart Attack" or the modern (in the '70s at least), encyclopedic epics like "A Night at the Opera" or "A Day at the Races" and they seem completley out of touch with the current sounds, but fans have been used to that for some time but have gotten cozy with their more low-key, "mainstream" sounds. With this release, as with anything connected with them, there only comes a sigh of ecstatic relief at glimpsing at the heavenly possibilities that still are a potential in rock but stay confined to those outsiders who still wish to try. Oh hell, Queen is not the last word. Great music will always be made. You just have to look for it or create it. But "Made In Heaven", at times, takes you places you forgot it was possible for rock to go. And it's the much needed missing link that completes one of the most unbeatable album catalogues in rock and has their hero go out in style. Don't miss it.