Back To The Light

Brian May

Hollywood

 

This is the kind of album that always gives me lots of trouble. I slap it in, wind up the ol' volume knob and get so absorbed in the music that attempting to commit words to paper becomes a futile struggle. The only solution to this quandary is to lower the volume to near background levels and carefully proceed with the task at hand. Of course all this can only mean one thing. The music on this disc, and others like it, is meant to last for a lifetime of repeated listenings. It always sounds fresh and exciting. No matter how much time goes by or how often you play it.

 

"Little baby sweetly sleep/Do not stir/We will bring a coat of fur/We will rock you,rock you,rock you \We will rock you,rock you,rock you... " The lullabye that opens Brain's first full length solo album is a gentle hint of what to expect from him for the next fifty-five minutes. He lives up to his promise in the blink of an eye with the brief instrumental fury of "The Dark," which segues into the affirming rocker "Back To The Light." And he doesn't stop there. "Love Token," an all out rave-up, crashes from the speakers with clever wordplay and Cozy Powell's powerful drumming. "Mama's in love, Papa's in love/It's such a shame they don't love each other." It's real nice to hear Cozy pounding the skins again. (He plays on six of the twelve cuts and will be touring with the Brian May Band the rest of the year.) The thundering frenzy of "Resurrection" cranks things up another notch or two. They really pull out all the stops for this one. Things quiet down with the ballad "Too Much Love Will Kill You." A well versed warning if I ever heard one. "Too much love will kill you just as sure as none at all,/It'll drain the power that's in you/Make you plead and scream and crawl/And the pain will make you crazy/You're the victim of your crime/too much love will kill you every time." When listening to this (as well as the rest of the songs on the album), it becomes obvious as to who was the strongest musical force in Queen. (Not that all the other members weren't graced with equal talents, but most of their better tunes carry his mark.)

 

May recorded these tunes over the last five years and they range from the anthemic Queen-

like rockers and ballads to the less familiar rockabilly detours they were sometimes fond of. You may have noticed that I haven't said much about Brian's guitar playing. It's not really necessary. I'd rather talk about the rest of the album. "Driven By You" kicks in the jams again, only to be reined in by the melancholy "Nothing But Blue" with its teasingly bluesy guitar lines. Next is the crazed "I'm Scared" which again finds Brian's tongue planted firmly in cheek. "Last Horizon" is a lazily comfortable and rare instrumental piece. (He hasn't recorded much of anything like this since Star Fleet Project, a stellar mini album committed to tape during an informal jam session in 1983 with Eddie Van Halen and other big gun guitarists. ) "Let Your Heart Rule Your Head" is another country influenced number while "Just One Life" quiets things down one last time before "Rollin' Over" revs things up and closes the album in fine shape. (The CD also has a bonus cut, the radio mix of the rocker, "Driven By You.")

 

Every song on Back To The Light is proof of his impeccable talents, instrumental virtuosities and sophisticated recording techniques. There's not a clunker in the lot. And as he wrote in the liner notes,"Music is joy to me, and living in it is sometimes the only safe place to be. Much of what is recorded here is for fun, escapism, music for its own sake, and though I meant what I say, take it with a small pinch of salt." Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna shut this thing off, get me a pinch of salt (not that I'll need it), and wind up the ol' volume knob. (SC)

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