Album Review: Brian May - Back to the Light (Deluxe)

Content Warning: Discussion of depression, suicide and grief

Whenever a member of a famous band makes a solo album, it is about that artist making his own musical statement. It is about them making their own music without the confines of a band and often allows them to express themselves more clearly and gives them a chance to put more of their music out. Face Value by Phil Collins was a chance for him to write about the pressures of his divorce in music, while Bella Donna by Stevie Nicks was a chance for her to make a name for herself outside of Fleetwood Mac. Back to the Light, Brian May’s first solo album is a combination of both. It allowed May to express himself clearly as a solo artist and not just simply as the guitarist in Queen. However, it also served as a cathartic experience for him and a way to work through the depression and misery he was facing in the early 1990’s. The late 1980’s and early 1990’s had been very hard for Brian May: he had recently split up from his wife and had started a relationship with Anita Dobson, the deaths of his father and Freddie Mercury weighed heavily on him and he perceived himself as both a failure of husband and father. Indeed, he has said on many occasions that he felt like suicide during this time in his life.

Brian May described the making of Back to the Light as ‘therapy’ and thus many of the songs are very autobiographical

Brian May described the making of Back to the Light as ‘therapy’ and thus many of the songs are very autobiographical, from ‘Too Much Love Will Kill You’ (about the pains of being in love with two people) to ‘Back to the Light’ (a song about being triumphant over your own demons). This album features several significant guest artists as well – Queen’s John Deacon makes an appearance on bass guitar, as well as Don Airey (Deep Purple) on keyboards, Cozy Powell (Black Sabbath / Rainbow / Whitesnake), plays the drums on several songs on this record, and Neil Murray (Black Sabbath / Whitesnake) plays bass as well on a few songs, both of which would form the backbone of May’s touring band.

The album starts off with ‘The Dark.’ ‘The Dark’ is a dark and moody introduction to the record, with some sparse percussion followed by some electric guitar work that breathes life into the record and gets you excited for the songs to come. This is followed by the title track, which features some heavy guitar work and some great vocal harmonies. This elevates the track significantly giving it a very triumphant feel. May’s vocals are emotive and powerful, and you can clearly feel the anguish he is going through in every syllable, plus the electric guitar work is brilliant, as you would expect for someone of his calibre. Lyrically this song is inspiring, with lines such as ‘Back to the light / Back to the land where the / sunshine heals my soul’ or ‘Though the road seems never ending / hold on to the hope I’m sending through’ which adds depth to the song. The next two songs, ‘Love Token’ and ‘Resurrection’ are straightforward rock songs, both of which are very good. Resurrection in particular shows off Cozy Powell’s drumming abilities, with the drummer getting some prominent moments in the song.

May’s vocals are emotive and powerful, and you can clearly feel the anguish he is going through in every syllable

The next song on the record ‘Too Much Love Will Kill You’ is one of my favourites off the album. It is a moving piano ballad about the dangers of love and the problems it can cause – ‘Too much love will kill you / If you can’t make up your mind / Torn between the lover and love you leave behind.’ This is one of May’s best vocal performances on the album and he gives it his all, in order to warn the listener about being in love with two people. This song also deals with May’s depression, opening with ‘I’m just the pieces of the man I used to be / too many bitter tears are raining down on me.’ The guitar and piano work on this track particularly emphasise the sombre mood of the record.

The next track ‘Driven by You’ was the biggest hit single from the album, reaching No. 6 in the UK charts. A straightforward rock song, it was used by Ford in some of their adverts. It is an incredibly upbeat rocker and juxtaposes against ‘Too Much Love Will Kill You’ very well. Next, we come to ‘Nothin’ but Blue,’ a track with a very different feel. This is a slow-moving ballad which lyrically is about sadness and moving on from things that have happened – ‘My life has no rhythm / Somehow it’s out of tune.’ This song makes great use of synthesisers and May’s vocal harmonies give the chorus and the refrain extra weight, along with a moody guitar solo. ‘I’m Scared’ is next, another uptempo song that is a bit more tongue-in-cheek than most of the album. Lyrically this is about what people are afraid of, but musically it is upbeat which means that the song is quite positive in spite of its negative message, using lyrics like ‘What you starin’ at / You’re such a scaredy cat.’

There is a nice coda at the end of the song where May repeats the opening lines to ‘The Dark’ giving the listener a sense of closure as they have gone full circle with the record

‘Last Horizon’ is another stand out track, it is a four-minute guitar solo that frequently gets played at modern-day Queen concerts. ‘Let Your Heart Rule Your Head’ is the closest thing Brian May has written to a country-pop song, and it is one of the lightest songs on the album, providing a welcome break. Next, we come to ‘Just One Life,’ a slow-moving mournful ballad about how we only get one shot at living – ‘Just One Life / That is born and is, and is gone.’ Finally, the album ends with a cover of the Small Faces song ‘Rollin Over’ which allows the album to end on an upbeat note. There is a nice coda at the end of the song where May repeats the opening lines to ‘The Dark’ giving the listener a sense of closure as they have gone full circle with the record.

Disc 2 is an interesting mix of live tracks, guitar versions of songs and music clips for adverts. The first three tracks on Disc 2 are guitar versions of ‘Nothin But Blue,’ ‘Too Much Love Will Kill You’ and ‘Just One Life.’ All of these are interesting to listen to, but the one that sticks in my mind especially is ‘Too Much Love Will Kill You’ as it sounds noticeably different to the original song and works very well as just an instrumental. Next, we have ‘Driven By You Two’ which is an original demo of ‘Driven By You’ with fewer lyrics and the ‘Driven By You – Ford Ad Version’ which has altered lyrics for the Ford advert. Both are interesting to hear, but only for the first listen and more as a historical curiosity.

Next, we hit the live recordings. The first is a copy of ‘Tie Your Mother Down’ from the Tonight Show featuring Slash. This is interesting to listen to, especially as it is the Brian May Band performing the song rather than Queen. ‘Too Much Love Will Kill You’ is a performance from San Francisco and the live recording adds a new range of emotion to it. It is a great performance and one I would listen to again. The next three recordings are from the Brixton Academy concert which was released as a live album in 1993, all of which are superb and worth the price tag for Disc 2 alone. Having watched footage from the Brixton Academy concert (which is excellent) I am glad that Brian May has included some songs from that event. The live version of ‘Last Horizon’ is a highlight, along with May’s version of ‘We Will Rock You.’ Finally, the album ends with another version of ‘Driven by You’, featuring Cozy Powell and Neil Murray on drum and bass respectively rather than May using a drum machine, which makes the track a bit livelier.

While Disc 2 is good, there are many other tracks that Brian May could have chosen from which would have made the disc better. Firstly, more tracks from the Brixton Academy concert. I would have picked May’s cover of ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’ for inclusion, or the live recordings for ‘Back to the Light’ or ‘Headlong.’ These recordings document how good the Brian May Band were at the time. The other track I would have included was May’s performance of ‘Too Much Love Will Kill You’ from the Freddie Mercury tribute concert in 1992, due to the emotive nature of the performance. However, it might be that there are licensing issues with the performance and/or that the Brixton Academy concert will be re-released soon, and that is why these recordings are not present.

Back to the Light is a fantastic album that chronicles one of the worlds greatest guitarists overcoming his demons

To conclude, Back to the Light is a fantastic album that chronicles one of the world’s greatest guitarists overcoming his demons. It contains some excellent guitar work and the songwriting is very strong throughout, making it one of my favourite records. It is certainly a record that I would like to buy and I will be getting the deluxe version so I can enjoy both the studio album, but also the sublime guitar versions of these songs and the live recordings from the Brian May Band.

Album Review: Brian May – Back to the Light (Deluxe)

Rating: 8/10

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