Brian May has declared Queen's final album Made In Heaven his favourite album by the band. Released in November 1995, the group's 15th studio album remains the sole album released under the Queen name since the passing of iconic frontman Freddie Mercury in 1991.
May revealed his choice while answering questions posed by readers of The Guardian.
In response to a question from reader 'Gerimus', who asked 'Do you agree that Sheer Heart Attack is Queen’s greatest album? If not, which do you consider the best?' the guitarist replied, "It was a breakthrough in terms of getting out there, but I don’t know if it’s the greatest."
"My favourite, strangely enough, is probably the last one, Made in Heaven, which we completed after Freddie had gone. It’s got so much depth to it, so much spiritual content and emotion, because we were working with Freddie’s voice when Freddie was no longer here. It actually took us a couple of years to get to the point where we could do it because we were grieving. Roger [Taylor] and I went out and did our own tours and pretended Queen hadn’t existed. Then suddenly we looked at all of this embryonic material and thought, this album is crying out to be made. It was a labour of love, but I find that I can listen to it with a great feeling of peace now."
Elsewhere in the interview, May discusses bassist John Deacon's decision to walk away from the group.
"All I can say is that, historically, John was quite sensitive to stress," May states. "We all found it hard, losing Freddie, but I think John particularly struggled."
"I don’t think that I can go into much more detail – we have to respect the fact that John needs his privacy now – but he’s still part of the machinery of the band. If we have any major decision, business wise, it’s always run past John. It doesn’t mean he talks to us – generally he doesn’t – but he will communicate in some way. He’s still very much part of Queen."
Brian May talks about the creation of his Star Fleet Project collaboration with Eddie Van Halen in the new issue of Classic Rock magazine, which also features an in-depth look at the making of Queen's debut album, plus features on Tina Turner, Scorpions, Black Sabbath, Yes and more. Read more about the issue here.
