Brian May
Back To The Light EMI
Queen guitarist steps out of the shadows.
The first thing that strikes the listener on returning to Brian May’s first fully fledged solo album (following his three-track Star Fleet Project of ’83) is that you don’t strut the boards stageright of Freddie Mercury for 20 years without learning how to make a home-made guitar sound like the Big Bang on steroids. The second is a feeling of amazement that people were still making records that sounded so quintessentially 80s as late as ‘92. The awe-inspiring enormity May’s co-production accords Cosy Powell’s drums would be considered over-thetop in any other context but, well, Queen fans have certain expectations. They want an audible excess of bang for their buck, and with Back To The Light, May certainly delivers.