Brian May: Back To The Light - 1993

Brian May’s first solo album sounds extremely dated now - lots of big riffs, semi-programmed drums and, unfortunately, Brian’s weak vocals, which just can’t cope with the heavier material. 

It reeks of nineties “stadium” rock, but, of course, old Brian could play a mean guitar, so it is listenable in places due to his trademark input on songs such as Back To The Light, Love Token, Rollin’ Over, the synth-rock of Resurrection and the hit single, the gloriously riffy, singalong Driven By You - the album’s best track. 

The album’s other well-known cut was the moving Queen ballad Too Much Love Will Kill You, initially written by May about his marriage break-up, but re-recorded in a tender tribute to Mercury, having been played for that reason at the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert the year before. 

The ballad Just One Life is nice, but very mid-eighties in its sound and Let Your Heart Rule Your Head reminds me of Queen’s ‘39 in its folky vibrancy. These two aren’t bad, to be fair. 

A better representation of May’s work, however, would probably be a compilation of his songs from Queen’s albums, most of which are far stronger than the material on here. He is a great musician and a fine songwriter too, but as a singer he can’t quite cut it, despite sterling efforts on Driven By You, and, let’s be honest, Queen was his alma mater. There is a bit of a Ringo album feel about this, though, as indeed there is about the Queen drummer’s solo efforts too....