INNUENDO

Definitely not a full prog album as you can see on tracks like "Headlong" and "I Can't Live With You", Innuendo still manages to be a good one even for Queen's standards (i'm not bashing Queen, i actually was a fan of them some time ago but got easily bored of their music). One has to recognize that this album has its ground-shaking moments. The opening track is without a question prog, and features a spanish guitar section at the middle that is very cool. I can't stand Freddie's "ooh ooh oohs" during the song though. I am also not a fan of his vocals in this particular record, if you listened to Queen's later works, you probably realised that their more recent to the 90's recordings show Freddie's vocals going a bit harsher and less melodic than his early ones. Anyway, this opening track despite the "ooh oohs" is still amazing and has to rank among my favorites of the Queen catalogue. The second song, "I'm Going Slightly Mad", is a very fun moment and has a neat video-clip (if you have watched it you probably had laughed a lot at the band's visual jokes during the film). I prefer this track on the video, where Freddie looks a lot like Willy Wonka from "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". Much of the songs from now on are very radio friendly and probably make this album pratically not prog and neither very interesting at all, but we then have this awesome closing track called "The Show Must Go On", carried with drama and emotion, showing that Freddie's last day was coming and we do feel that in his performance. This song is so beautiful and touches me a lot emotionally, and it is another gem from this...almost nice Queen's album.

This may not appeal to the prog-fan and it is definitely not essential on a prog collection, but it is still good for music listeners in general and has its few great moments despite the huge number of tracks where the "skip" button can be used. Three stars would be enough, but i still think that two and a half would be the best ranking, since the album doesn't survive well with the time and is less prog than pop. If you want some more well crafted and complex music go for "Queen II" before trying this one.