Vinyl Frontier: Retro Reviews Queen - Innuendo
Queen - Innuendo
Most ‘70’s rock bands had been too anachronistic or two dimensional to continue during the next decade with any real impact yet Queen were able to succeed. Perhaps not seamlessly if you listen to the awkward ‘Hot Space’ but by ‘The Works’ in 1984 they were just as much at the party as Duran Duran or Boy George.
Yet after the career affirming 1984-1986 period where Queen had become everyone’s favourite band, they took a break. A short one but the big tours were over. History tells us why this was. At the time they were apparently just growing old gracefully. Sadly one of them wouldn’t be. ‘The Miracle’ was their 1989 release showing they could still cut it but the next album was a different kettle of fish. What do you do when you know your lead singer is dying? The four of them knew the score. Mercury had kept his failing health a secret from the press but had shared it with Messrs Deacon, May and Taylor. So followed the funeral march that would be their ‘Innuendo’.
The opening self-titled track has the band doing their tourist bit reminiscent of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ harking back to their progressive rock roots. Ironically it gave them their first UK No. 1 since that very song.
There’s something in the water here; a wilful acceptance of one’s fate almost as Freddie declares to us what we all suspected on ‘I’m Going Slightly Mad’. It’s pitch perfect with a sombre synth, twitching in the bushes and knowing delivery from Mercury. The only razor blade in the porridge is the guitar solo from May which seems to have a pacing problem halfway through, an oversight from behind the mixing desk.
‘Headlong’ is typical May. The curly haired one’s stock rock guitar playing still packs a punch although it’s not quite up there with former glories ‘Hammer to Fall’ or ‘Tie Your Mother Down’. ‘I Can’t Live With You’ pushes the Dad rock card too much but the poignant ‘Don’t Try So Hard’ is new territory for the band and Mercury’s vocals are sublime.
‘Ride the Wild Wind’ has Roger Taylor’s drumsticks all over it although his own vocal contribution is dated. An anthem nonetheless, it’s like the missing song from the soundtrack of ‘Top Gun’ or ‘Days of Thunder’. ‘All God’s People’ is gospel rock with some nice intentions but it’s ‘These are the Days of Our Lives’ that hits a raw note given the context of the album. A reflective Mercury on a bittersweet pop song, its emotional intensity heightened by a haunting solo from May.
‘Delilah’ has a curious Muzak feel to it and might easily have come from Mercury’s solo album in the mid- eighties with the chorus seemingly coming straight off his hit ‘Living on My Own’. ‘Hitman’ is a May infused number with plenty of high energy rock but some atrocious lyrics. That leads us onto the chilling ‘Bijou’ which is a foray into Pink Floyd territory courtesy of Brian May and his wandering guitar.
‘The Show Must Go On’ is the perfect power ballad to go out on with the quintessential showman Mercury in blistering form. Author May, like Taylor on ‘These are the Days…”, writes the fitting song for the moment.
Within 10 months of the album being released Freddie Mercury had died. The band did get in the studio again during this period which gave them enough material for his posthumous album ‘Made In Heaven’ but it is here where he really gets to say goodbye properly. The show went on but perhaps it wasn’t quite the same.
Andrew David James
