Made in Heaven is Queen’s final studio album. It was produced and released three years after Freddie Mercury’s death, but contains songs recorded either in full or in part by him before his death, as well as a few song from his solo career that were re-worked as Queen songs. The album is a masterpiece, for how it brings together bits and pieces to make a seamless final product.
For me the highlight of the album is Mother Love. As I said in another review, it’s one of a few songs that can make me cry. It’s the last song Mercury ever recorded, and the third first is sung by Brian May because Mercury never finished recording the vocals. The song is haunting. I’m not really interested in the actual lyrics of the song, it’s the story behind its production that makes it important.
Two of the songs on the album, Heaven for Everyone and I Was Born to Love You are lifted from Mercury’s solo album Mr Bad Guy and rerecorded as Queen songs, using Mercury’s original vocal performance. I think they’re improvements on the originals.
Other songs are ones which were recorded for previous Queen albums and not released, and several are put together from material recorded shortly before Mercury’s death. One of the amazing things about this album is how well this collection of songs fits together. It doesn’t feel like a ragtag collection of bits and pieces they had lying around, which, frankly, is what it was when they started. Instead, their extensive work in the studio made it a coherent whole.
One of my favourite songs is Too Much Love Will Kill You, which was originally recorded for The Miracle but could not be released1. There are a few different versions of the song, including one released on Brian May’s 1993 solo album Back to the Light, and the live version May typically performed on the subsequent tour, which combines elements of the Queen version and the Back to the Light version. The song was originally written in the midst of the breakup of May’s first marriage and his new romance with his eventual second wife. Sung by May, whose voice is lower than Mercury’s, the song has a vibe of desperation, as May’s voices strains to reach the high notes. In Mercury’s hands, the song has a different character. The song’s range causes him no trouble and instead it feels like a lament. May’s version is the in the thick of it, while Mercury’s looks back on it.
Made in Heaven is about as perfect as you could ask for. It’s many things, a celebration, a tribute, a goodbye. More than other Queen albums it feels centred on Freddie Mercury, which I appreciate is a strange thing to say about the frontman of the band. For me, Queen’s albums are about the collaboration and competition between the band members, who brought their ideas and fought for them in the studio. Made in Heaven is about Mercury, which is of course completely right.
Queen’s story would go on, but for me, Made in Heaven is the perfect end for Freddie Mercury’s story. 5 stars.
There are a few different versions of the story but I believe it all comes back to the fact that it was co-written by May with two others, Frank Musker and Elizabeth Lamers, which caused problems with the publishing rights.