INNUENDO

It is a shame that for Queen to return to making any progressive rock at all, Freddie Mercury had to be on his deathbed. Tales of Mercury's heroic efforts to overcome his terminal illness and record one last album are inspiring. And surprisingly, his voice sounds quite good throughout the album.

The album opens and closes with the most progessive songs, as well as the most progressive music Queen had recorded in over a decade. Innuendo opens the album with a hint of the darkness that once made the early Queen albums so enjoyable. Brian May plays spectacularly on this track (as he does on most of the album - check out his guitar- based cat noises on Delilah), and Yes' Steve Howe even makes a cameo.

I'M Going Slightly Mad is more basic, but the synthesizer (*gasp*) backing gives it an eerie feel.

The middle of the album is standard 80's Queen fare, a mixture of romantic pop and harder rock pieces. The impending doom of the singer, however, gives the songs a little more poignancy.

Bijou is primarily a guitar piece, and a very nice one at that, which leads into The Show Must Go On, which again, because of Mercury's condition, had added meaning.

Not a masterpiece, but this was a good farewell album from a once great band.

(Let's hope they don't regroup with a singer with very little range...)