Innuendo (2011 Remaster: Deluxe Edition) [Original recording remastered]

Right upfront I have to say this is not just my favourite Queen album. but my favourite album of all-time. Saying that means you know that this review is going to be (almost) completely favourable and if you do not like reviewers to have that bias then you had better stop reading NOW!

There are many reasons why I love this album. Firstly, its original release date of 4 February 1991 was the best birthday present I could have asked for. Secondly, it was only the second time I had ever bought a Queen album on its release date (as a new fan in 1986 I had to wait three years for The Miracle album to experience the joy of a totally new Queen album for the first time) and thirdly the music on it was so unbelievably good - one notable exception, but more on that later.

On my first listen to the album two things stood out - firstly, Freddie's vocals were so full of power and passion that it is hard to believe in hindsight that he was so ill when making this album and secondly, Brian May's guitar work was featured more prominently and at a higher quality of playing than it had been for many years. The album opens with what was only Queen's third UK number one - Innuendo- a track that Roger Taylor described as 'Oscar Wilde meets Led Zeppelin' and that would be a totally apt description. Reminiscent of Bohemian Rhapsody in that it completely alters pace and tone throughout its duration the track is often overlooked as a Queen classic - indeed the band left it off 2009's Absoluite Greatest collection - but a Queen classic it is - and the promo video is one of the best in music history.

From such an epic start the albums wanders into Queen at their funniest thanks to the lyrics of I'm Going Slightly Mad. Headlong has Queen in their heavy rock guise before I Can't Live With You has you scurrying between speakers are the band make full use of stereo sound! Don't Try So Hard could have been an average rock ballad but is elevated above that somewhat by Freddie's use of falsetto and provides a gentle break in what has been a fairly heavy album until that point. The next three tracks Ride The Wild Wind, All God's People and the poignant (in retrospect) These Are The Days Of Our Lives keep the quality high and then we reach not only the low point of Inneundo but also the lowest point of Queen's career - Delilah.

At the time I had no idea why a song about Freddie's cat peeing all over his Chippendale suite would be considered worthy of being on an album but obviously in hindsight it was the band's concession to his illness. Nothing about the track is redeemable and it should never have been on there. Luckily things pick up again with The Hitman (though it is an average rocker really) before the concluding two songs bring things to a climax. Bijou is an 'inside out' song with the main part of the song featuring Brian May's guitar doodlings with the solo spot taken up by Freddie's vocal. Album closer The Show Must Go On immediately went onto my list of my favourite Queen songs when I first heard it and the past 20 years have done nothing to dull its appeal. The song is quite simply one of Queen's best compositions lyrically and musically and deserved to chart higher than it did on its release as a single.

Overall then a top quality album that I still play more than any other and the 2011 re-master has given me the chance to appreciate it in a new way thanks to the new clarity of the mix. Instrumentation that was orginally buried on the mix is now able to heard meaning in many ways it sounds like a completely new piece of work. On its own the album would be an essential purchase but as this is the delux version mention must be made of the bonus EP disc. The two main highlights of the bonus disc are the early demo/guide versions of Ride The Wild Wind and Headlong featuring Taylor and May on vocals. Wonderful to hear how much changed between these early efforts and the final version with Freddie's vocals. Lost Opportunity also features May on vocals on a track that was a b-side on the 12" version of I'm Going Slightly Mad in 1991 and has a blues feel to it - an area Queen rarely visited. In its re-mastered form it is a little gem. Mad gets it's own Mad Mix on the CD, whilst I Can't Live With You gets a hard rock update for its inclusion on 1997's Queen Rock's album. It may feature guitars more prominently in this mix but it's not as good as the original album version for my money.

Overall all then the re-mastering of Innuendo is a triumph and given it was the last complete album recorded by Freddie with the band has to be given classic status. Majestic and imperious it has no equal in the Queen catalogue.

Is this the best album ever? I certainly think so. Innuendo starts off with an Innuendo a classic with deep meaning behind it. it then goes on to I'm going slightly mad a personal favourite of mine along with the fifth track on this album: Don't try so hard.

It comes with a bonus disc with b-sides and the made mix of I'm Going Slightly Mad, with Freddie Mercury saying, "What a silly goose", a true classic.

If you are debating which album to buy next there is no question, it's innuendo for you.

I am pinning the following comments to all of the Queen back catalogue (excepting "Flash" which I wont get on cd) as they apply right across the board. I wont comment on the music - others have done so very well. I want to praise the sound.

Modern mastering technology will in most cases demonstrate more noticeable improvements in older recordings. I have now bought and listened to all of the recent Queen reissues and chronologically the benefits of the 2011 remastering lessen as recording technology and technique improved album by album.

The biggest improvement is to the earlier analogue work, which to my ear sound more "Queen" than the digitally recorded stuff - more bite and attack - irrespective of musical direction. My view is that digital recording "rounded" the Queen sound, particularly Brian May's guitar.

However, notwithstanding this there are clear improvements throughout the catalogue, even the later ones which were recorded using digital technology to whatever degree. Music is more open, brighter and fuller in a very revealing, listenable and non-tiring way. Bass and drum parts are now very clear as are the vocals which are expressive warm and very detailed - many more sibilants can now be heard which really brightens up "Queen 2" and "A Night At The Opera" for example where there were a tremendous number of overdubs which saturated the sound in places.

As I said in a previous review of "Greatest Hits", those who have a fair or passing interest in Queen will be happy with earlier issues, but for the enthusiast these remasters really are rewarding listens and well worth investing in. They really are very good indeed.