Customer Reviews

Made in Heaven

5 star:		(67)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"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...

"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.

Queen's recording history reads like a good book, and if Innuendo was the last Chapter (Indeed, it's last song 'The Show Must Go On' was as fitting a tribute to Mercury as anything they've tried since), Made in Heaven is the epilogue, taking the material Freddie Mercury recorded after Innuendo, and peicing it together into a comprehensive, final Queen album.

The history is a little convoluted, not every track is brand new, a couple were from Mercury's original Mr. Bad Guy solo album (Made in Heaven, I was born to Love You), others were outtakes from The Miracle (Life has been Saved, Too Much Love will Kill You), Made in Heaven was original a Roger Taylor solo song that Mercury re-recorded in '88-89, but the rest of the material here is Mercury's dying days basically set to tape. Even the older material is given the full Queen treatment by Brian May and company, so it all sounds fresh and new.

The sound of the album is very uplifting as opposed to the overall wistful, dark overtone of Innuendo. It's a Beautiful Day, Made in Heaven, and Let Me Live make one heck of an opening trio, the latter also sung by Roger and Brian, backed with a gospel choir. I Was Born to Love You is given full Queen rock treatment with one of Brian May's better guitar solos, and the lead-off single Made in Heaven flows as only Queen's best songs do. You Don't Fool Me is a great dancey tune, harkening back to Hot Space. Too Much Love will Kill You and A Winter's Tale are two beautiful ballads, the latter a hit in the U.K., and the album 'closes' with a stunning reprise of It's a Beautiful Day, followed by an unmercifully long instrumental (over 22 minutes) that is really pretty unneccesary. It never really gets going until the final minutes, and it's reminiscent of a new-age moods instrumental. It tries to set a mood of peacefulness but doesn't quite work.

The most telling work on this album, however, is the final song Mercury recorded, Mother Love. From the second he opens his mouth until he closes it for the final time, you can hear the utter pain and longing in his voice. He's through with this life, he has no more hope, he just wants to die in peace. Brian May keeps a lonely guitar circling overhead. And as Mercury sings the second chorus, and whispers 'Mother Love', it's almost as if he died immediatley after uttering those words, and ingeniously, Brian May finishes off the song himself. After that is a quick snippet of numerous Queen concerts, followed by a baby's cry, symbolizing Mercury's rebirth into his new life. It's enough to make any Queen fan break down and cry; why the album didn't end with THIS song I have no idea, instead it's thrown smack into the middle.

Made in Heaven is among Queen's best works, even if most people dont' count it as a 'real' album because half of it has been done before, it's simply beautiful in context and Mercury proved that he had the greatest voice in rock right up until his all-too-soon death.

This album is truly amazing! I don't know why all the so called "experts" gave this such a low rating because there are some amazing tracks on the album. Unlike alternative rock albums, it is certainly not a depressing album. It's more uplifting than a jumbo jet! OK, so they covered two of Freddie Mercury's old songs but they have made them sound ten times better with Queen and David Richard's immaculate production. It's A Beautiful Day is split into two parts at the beginning and end of the album, changing it's course from a great piano ballad into full-blown rock 'n' roll blasted with samples from Queen's past hits. Let Me Live is a joyous, gospel-choir-fired pop song; brilliant. There is also the amazing ballads of Mother Love, Too Much Love Will Kill You and the single Heaven For Everyone. You Don't Fool Me is a great funked-up rock song which shows Queen in a different light. All the tracks on this album are at minumum great but the best has been saved to last - A Winter's Tale is beautiful ballad written about Freddie's favourite place - Montreux in Switzerland (I know it's amazing, I've been there!) It's a Christmas song which could be heard at ANY time of the year.

Made in heaven is an album that hits you in the heart!...I'm not sure how an average rock fan would like this album, but if your a true queen fan you'll probably love it. A very melodic rock album has freddies last vocal take on "mother love" and last song freddie ever wrote "a winter's tale" mixed in with some older completed songs like heaven for everyone and too much love will kill you. My favorite is probably "a winter's tale" a nice little reflective peom written by freddie. "Meanwhile let me live" is a great song with a gospel chorus. MIH has aged well!

It's amazing that 3 guys could go into the studio without freddie, with a few songs not considered good enough to be included on their two previous albums and with several bits and pieces of songs recorded just before freddies death and come out with something so beautiful and solid. Most amazing is how freddie mercury continued to record practically untill his death and sing so well.

Almost all these songs seem to fit a theme. While the tone is melancholy each song always leaves room for hope. Very powerful for a rock band that usually was intent on writing songs that were more humorous and fun. "It's a beautiful day" sets things off and it doesn't take much imagination to understand what "let me live" is about. "Mother love" is particularly moving. A song apparently referring to freddie's life long friendship with mary austin. This was the last song freddie recorded a song that denotes true friendship because he didn't live to finish it but his friends do finish it. Brian adds the finishing vocals to one of queens best songs ever. "Heaven for everyone" denotes queens catholic mentality and "a winters tale" is very very beautiful. "Too much love will kill you" is a good song that brian wrote some time before and sang solo at the tribute concert.

No this isn't the best queen album for those who want to rock and hear fantastic guitar flourishes or complex cord changes. It's peaceful, melodic and quite an exellent eulogy to a fine friend and great artist. I'm glad queen made this album and i do consider it essential for true fans. The message is to live each day to the fullest and never give up regardless of how difficult the circumstances.

........................socks

Queen's final studio album with Freddie and what an emotional send off it was.From the thunderous percussion and melancholy guitar of the title track "Made In Heaven" to the wonderfully gospel-like vocals on "Let Me Live" (which featured for the first time, Freddie, Brian & Roger sharing lead vocals) this is a roller coaster of emotions.Having to record this album after Freddie has passed away proved extremely difficult for the surviving members.While half of this album contains wholly original material, the other half is comprised of previously released tracks released on solo albums (though in most cases, completely redone/reworked by the band.) Freddie's original "I Was Born To Love You" was dated six months later by it's over use of synthesizers while Queen's new version keeps it ageless.Freddies last vocal recording came with "Mother Love" though you'd never be able to tell. He sang with such vigor and energy that'd put most of today's "singers" in their place, which is to say, well behind Freddie.This is, by no means, all Freddie. Brian plays one of his all time best solos in the somewhat out of place dance number "You Don't Fool Me" (which would go onto be remixed SIXTEEN times throughout the world.)In the U.K, the album provided Queen with 4 top ten hits (and another in the top 15) and has also become one of their biggest selling albums ever. Naturally, it barely made the top 60 in America due to poor promotion from Hollywood Records. You'd have thought with this being the last of "new" material from the band, they would've promoted it to high heaven (pardon the pun) but alas, no.One track that should not have been included was the former non-album B-side "My Life Has Been Saved", an extremely poor track that could have been replaced by any number of Freddie solo tunes."A Winter's Tale" - the last song Freddie ever wrote, provides the most touching of all of "MIH". He describes his second home in Switzerland and how peaceful it was, how happy it made him. The chorus is dream-like...pushing you to close your eyes and imagine how wonderful a place it is.A wonderful and moving end to the rich and never ending legacy of Freddie and Queen.

This is a great album. I would recommend it to both Queen fans and non-Queen fans. The latter will find in it beautiful ballads and great pop. I think this to be a great introduction to Queen for those who don't have a taste for hard rock. To Queen fans: of course this is all about tastes. Those who only like 70's Queen and think the band went into decline in the 80's will very probably feel disappointed, for it doesn't contain any rock. But for the TRUE Queen fans-those who understand that 'Sheer Heart Attack'and 'Innuendo' are from the same band, only that they evolved-this is a must. Despite the absence of rock songs this is a true Queen album. The quality of the music, the melodies, Freddie's voice, the guitars...the unmistakable "Queen sound" is there. Finally, I'd like to clear things up about the origin of the songs: actually, only two of the sogs had been previously released. --"My life has been saved" was the B-side of the single "Scandal". And "Heaven for everyone" is atrack from The Cross'first album. I think there's a noticeable difference in Freddie's voice in these two songs. But as they weren't widely available before this album's release they're warmly wellcomed. No fan would regret their inclusion. --"Made in heaven" and "I was born to love you" are in their origin older songs from Freddie's "Mr. Bad Guy" solo album(that's 1985). But these songs were retaken and Freddie sang them in hist last days and were transformed into Queen songs. So these songs were recorded in 1991 and are great songs, so what's the problem? Freddie wanted to sing all he could before he died. --"Too much love will kill you" was recorded by Queen during the Innuendo sessions but it didn't appear on the album. It's abeautiful ballad and it's sung by Freddie, so it should be here. --The remaining songs were recorded after Innuendo. Their lyrics are full of life and drama. All of them are songs of the higher quality and very Queen.

Definetely this album is a pleasure for your ears.