I prefer the long meaty ones (of the tracks, that is!)

Innuendo, by Queen

1) Innuendo
2) I'm Going Slightly Mad
3) Headlong
4) I Can't Live With You
5) Don't Try So Hard
6) Ride The Wild Wind
7) All God's People
8) These Are The Days Of Our Lives
9) Delilah
10) The Hitman
11) Bijou
12) The Show Must Go On

1991 was a strange year for Queen. Twenty years after they'd first started out as a group, they released this offering - Innuendo. A twelve-track album, showing a mixture of new heights for the band and also some really below-par album fillers. The year started with the release of the title track as a single, giving the group their first Number One on their own since Bohemian Rhapsody in the 1970's, as well as a joint effort with David Bowie in the early 1980s with Under Pressure.

For as much as the year started in celebration for the band, it ended in mourning with the loss of Freddie Mercury to AIDS-related illness, and the posthumously released Bohemian Rhapsody shooting back up to Number One, as part of a double A-Side single with These Are The Days Of Our Lives.

Hindsight allows us a unique view of the band and their decisions taken with this album, such as the need to film two of the videos (I'm Going Slightly Mad and These Are The Days Of Our Lives) in black and white in an attempt to hide the obviously ill and gaunt features of Freddie, as well as the poorer tracks on the album which were someway explained a few years later by the revelation that the band just wanted to get Freddie recording anything that he could, such was his sheer lack of energy.

Innuendo starts with the title track from the album, a song reminiscent of Bohemian Rhapsody in it's tendancy to jump from style to style weaving between upbeat and slow, all the while managing to lose the listener in a myriad of beautiful and unusual lyrics.

The song has a haunted feel to it, one that the band were no doubt keen to install in the listener, and it is all the better for it, allowing to lose yourself for the six minutes or so that takes us from Roger Taylor's dramatic drumming, through Brian May's skilful guitar work. Despite this, it's still not the best track on the album, though is surely a close second.

I'm Going Slightly Mad was released as a single, and despite their rock-based routes, this track proves that the band were capable writers of pop-based songs. An unusual step is taken with this being the second song on the album, as we go from an epic in Innuendo to just silly in two songs.

Headlong is a throwback to the bands routes, and wouldn't be out of place on one of their 1970's album. A hard track, with a thunderous rhythm, heavy on guitar with Mercury's voice fitting in well with the bizarre lyrics which seem to be telling us: It doesn't matter WHAT you sing, as long as you sing it well!:

"Hey, he used to be a man with a stick in his hand
Hoop diddy diddy - hoop diddy doo
She used to be a woman with a hot dog stand
Hoop diddy diddy - hoop diddy doo
Now you've got soup in the laundry bag
Now you've got strings, you're gonna lose your rag"

The next four tracks are all album-fillers. Despite not being too bad, in contrast to the best songs on the album, these four songs are made to look much poorer than they actually are. "I Can't Live With You" is another pop contribution, with lyrics pertaining to the end of a relationship, and the inability to let go. It's rumoured that this is primarily penned by Bryan May, at a time when he was leaving his wife and starting a new life with someone else.

Don't Try So Hard has always seemed to me to be one of the latter tracks on the album. Freddies vocals, particularly at the start of the song, are below par. However, not only is this fully understandable, it also adds a quality to the track which, similar to an earlier track, adds another haunting quality.

Ride The Wild Wind, led by somewhat breathless vocals from Freddie, and backup vocals from Roger Taylor, is another guitar driven track. Seemingly a tale about wanting to get away from it all and doing what you feel, Freddies death again shed a different light on this track.

All God's People was originally written for the Barcelona album, which was Mercury's last crack at going solo. Never completed, it found it's way onto this album though is more reminiscent of a poor solo track that we unfortunately got used to when the band went their own direction every few years. A fairly powerful song, even if it's only because of the shouting of the lyrics.

These Are The Days Of Our Lives is one of the stand out tracks of the band's twenty year career. Easy to listen to, and a very simple track at heart, with few instruments used, it has a dreamy feel that will have you reminiscing of your own "Days Of Your Lives" The vocals are not the strongest ever performed, but again this seems to add to the track. Moving and sublime, this comes across as a sad track, but the words speak of memories and good times.

After such an amazing track that provoked memories, tears and God knows what else, it's almost in typically Queen style that the next track we move onto is Delilah - a strange track pop-based song which Mercury wrote as a tribute to one of his favourite cats. A cute little song which you really wouldn't expect from Queen, and memorable for the guitar-based Meows that come courtesy of the skills of Brian May!

The Hitman sees Queen shift tracks again as they go for a heavy guitar-based rock song again. Sung with a confidence, you can almost feel Mercury swaggering in the studio as he belted this song out. Based on Mercury being a hitman, you can't help but wonder if the lyrics from this song live up to the title of the album as he sings:

"You're gonna make my day.
Gonna blow you away"

The penultimate track is one that has had me divided over the years. I'm still not too sure if it's no good, or if that it's so good that it's sublime. A 3½ minute song, heavily based around a haunting May guitar solo. The few words that there are in this song are beautiful, and they fit in well with the mood created in the 1½ minutes leading up to the lyrics being sung:

"You and me
We are destined you'll agree
To spend the rest of our lives with each other
The rest of our days like two lovers
Forever
Yeah, forever
My bijou"

The last track on an album is very rarely a powerful one. In fact, the only truly memorable final track that I can remember is from Abbey Road, with "The End", and even that was upstaged by a quick 15 second track after it! Innuendo finishes with The Show Must Go On, a tune that sees Mercury in fine form, defiance in his voice. Despite the fact that this track was penned primarily by May, Mercury adds a new dimension to it as he pours his heart into the song which is another almost ironic song bearing in mind that Mercury's health was only deteriorating as he went on.

Cover & Inlay

The front and back cover of the album are both animated, the front showing a fool juggling with small and large balls as he stands in the middle of several globes, and the back shows several rows of ears listening to what looks like a mix between a dog and a gramophone! The inner sleeve gives us the lyrics for each song, with just one picture of the band which looks slightly distorted, as well as album and contact information in the band. Definitely not over the top on goodies in the sleeve by any means.

Cost

Just £9.99 from Play.com, and worth every penny.

Overall

Despite the adrenaline running through the last track, the show could sadly not go on, as when the album was released in January 1991 the band knew that Mercury's last few months were close. Proving his doctors wrong, Mercury made it not only through the recording of the album, but also far enough to see the album and title track go to Number One in both the album and single charts.

Mercury passed away at his London home on Sunday 24th November 1991, just a day after revealing to the world that he was HIV positive and suffering from AIDS.

Bohemian Rhapsody was rush-re-released for that Christmas and went straight to Number One as a double A-Side with These Are The Days Of Our Lives. Although many see this as the bands finest hour, there is no doubt that with Innuendo they left a stunning epitaph.

Quite simply an album that you must have in your collection.