• AllMyVinyl #23
• Band: Brian May
• Album Title: Back to the Light
• Release Date: 28 Sep 1992
• Date purchased: 22 Jun 2021
• Location purchased: Amazon
• Color of vinyl: black
• Number of discs: 1
• Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube ]

The first of the two Brian May 90’s solo albums. I’ve been praising these albums since they were new – they were BLOODY AMAZING! I simply cannot state strongly enough how good this album and the other May 90’s album (Another World) are. If you’ve never heard them I urge you to stop reading this and go get them now. They’re some of the best albums I’ve ever heard. That more people don’t know them is a crime.  I realize this is mostly the same paragraph as the other album, but it applies to both so I copied my own text. ;)

At the time this came out, Freddie Mercury was gone, Cozy Powell was still with us, and I honestly don’t remember right now how I found out about this album.  I bought it new on CD then, of which I still have my copy all these years later.  I’ve been singing the praises of the two 90’s May studio albums for ages.  They’re bloody awesome, so when it was announced in mid 2021 that they were both being released on vinyl in a new remastered package, I was all over that shit.  This first one was first, and I was seriously looking forward to it.  I pre-ordered this on vinyl, and that copy is what I’m listening to today.  If I remember right, they were never issued on vinyl back in the 90’s, as vinyl was pretty much out of fashion then.  But I was super glad to get it on vinyl, as it’s one of my favorite albums overall.  Awesome stuff.   Here’s some thoughts on the tracks..

The Dark / Back to the Light – Something I didn’t know until researching the album is the keyboard intro for this (The Dark) was originally recorded back in the sessions for the Flash Gordon soundtrack by Queen in 1980.  Back to the Light the song I thought was a good intro to the album.  I liked the naming for the solo album, it’s kind of Brian coming back out after the death of Freddie a few years prior.   Love the background vocals on this.  It’s not quite Queen level of vocals but it’s quite pleasing to me.   Nice guitar solo in the middle.  Not blistering, not in your face, just some nice guitar work by May here.  The song was performed live back in 1993 by Brian on the “Tonight Show Featuring Jay Leno”.  I’ve included a clip of that below.  One amusing note – when the clip starts Jay is shown holding a copy of the CD release, but he’s holding one of those long box cases which were popular at the time.

Love Token – First time you really feel the power of Cozy Powell on this album.  A good hard rock track that I wish happened more in Queen.  The lyrics speak of family troubles.  Given Brian got divorced from his first wife in 1988, I have to imagine this is the source of the lyrical content.  Our old buddy Neil Murray makes an appearance on bass on this track.

Resurrection – Now I could probably write an entire article about this track, but I’ll try and keep it under control.  The main reason is a couple of years ago I went thorough everything in my music collection and have concluded the Resurrection is my single favorite song by any band of any time.  I mean it was a pain in the ass to figure out – but I concluded that I’ve never jammed harder and enjoyed a track more than this – and that includes EVERY other piece of music I’ve heard in my life.  This is for me the peak of every song I’ve ever listened to.  It’s so thunderous – it’s amazing as fuck.  A song that makes me want to air drum every time I hear it (of which I might have done right now during Cozy’s drum bridge).  This song is so driven by Cozy Powell, despite the operatic vocals by Brian and the killer guitar riff here.  This is Cozy’s biggest moment on the album.  Course part of that is down to the fact that track already existed on Cozy’s 1992 solo album “The Drums are Back”.  On that album this song was recorded and released as “Ride to Win” – but that version was an instrumental.  Marrying this with Brian’s vocals, and it’s fucking masterpiece that nothing else I’ve ever heard has been able to match.  There’s a music video for it which is just Brian & Cozy and a lot of early 90’s CGI.  Don Airey also does some keyboard work on this track, too.  It’s rare when I listen to it that I listen just once and move on.  Happened again here right now – had to move the needle back and listen to it twice.  The video is embedded in the page below, go listen to it now if you’ve never heard it before.  “Flee the prison… Break the system…  Sins forgiven – RISE!”

Too Much Love Will Kill You – After two hard rockers in a row, it was time to bring it back down a bit.  We get this song which is at its base Brian and a piano.  It’s more than JUST that, however (there’s some orchestration here too).  The song was originally recorded by Queen for their 1989 album “The Miracle”, but was ultimately not used.  That version eventually turned up on the posthumous Queen album with Freddie from 1995 (Made in Heaven).  Because I adore this album, I prefer this Brian version to the one with Freddie, which is a choice not many Queen fans make, but ah well.  Here we are.  :)

Driven By You – … and we’re back to hard rock again.  This song gets some grief from some as it was used as the song in a Ford avert around this time.   Once again, since I knew the song from the album first, it never altered my enjoyment as a piece of music – I don’t see it as “commercial music”.  I also like the lyric “But we’re working night and day to make a dream come true” – not so much because of the words, but the music that is around those words and the way they’re delivered.  Great sound.  My original CD version had this song on there twice – a slightly remixed song closed out the CD.  That version is not on the vinyl, though.

Nothin’ But Blue – The band that plays here is stellar.  Of course Brian, but it also has Cozy Powell on drums, Don Airey on keyboards, but most awesomely John Deacon on bass.  It’s also the second song that was lifted from a Cozy Powell solo album.  That version was called “Somewhere in Time” from Cozy’s 1992 album “The Drums Are Back”.  Lyrics and vocals are all new here.  It’s a slower, ballad kind of song.  Odd choice to lead off side 2 of the vinyl.  Not that it’s a bad song but I would have put it third on the side or something.

I’m Scared – In reading abut this album it’s apparently a list of things bothered Brian in life at this time.  According to what I read, it’s a reaction to the breakup of his first marriage and the death of his father.  It’s a good hard rocker (again with the rhythm section of Cozy & Neil), but if you pay attention to the lyrics and not the music, it’s a “list” of things – the kind of thing that Roger Waters does a lot.  Waters has a lot of songs with lists of things, and that’s what Brian did here.

Last Horizon – an instrumental credited only to Brian May.  The only other musician listed in the credits is Mike Moran on keyboards, but there’s definitely bass an drums here (although restrained).  I wonder if those are Brian too.  Entirely possible, as I know he’s capable of doing that.

Let Your Heart Rule Your Head – In reading about the album I saw where Brian said he wanted this song on here as something more upbeat vs the ‘bleak and melancholy songs’ that were on here.  I never saw this album as bleak and melancholy, but then I wasn’t in Brian’s head when he wrote them.  He is right though – the song has a lighter vibe than some of the stuff on the album.  The backup vocals make a return here.

Just One Life – A song that Brian wrote for the actor Philip Sayer, someone who Brian attended a memorial concert for.  As such it’s more of a sad song.  Definitely a slower track.

Rollin’ Over – A great way for the album to go out – it’s a cover of the Small Faces song of the same name.  I didn’t know that at the time, and thought it was just another great Brian track.  There’s a lot to like here.  Brian’s guitar works well, but then when doesn’t it?  Bit of that operatic Queen sound here as well.   Great closer to a great album.

If you’ve read this far, then you pretty much know I love this album.  Can’t think of what else to add as I’ll just be repeating myself, but it’s a smoking hot album that flew under the radar – it’s criminal.  Rest in peace Cozy Powell.