The Never Boring release brings together for the first time a specially-curated selection of Freddie Mercury's music and written and spoken words. Pressed on 180-gram heavyweight vinyl, the set reminds us that Freddie was an exceptional singer, songwriter, performer and human being whose special kind of magic is captured in this exceptional collection of his solo work.
The release is meticulously compiled and produced by Queen’s longtime sound team Justin Shirley-Smith, Kris Fredriksson and Joshua J Macrae who also co-produced the Bohemian Rhapsody film official soundtrack album.
The set includes the recently discovered track "Time Waits For No One" produced by Dave Clark and a haunting little known track "Love Me Like There's No Tomorrow". Like many acts who enjoyed parallel solo careers to that of their bands, Freddie Mercury generally tried out musical styles that didn’t quite suit that of his rock mothership; but by 1982 Queen’s rock stylings had mutated into radio-friendly pop and there wasn’t much difference between songs such as I Was Born To Love You and I Want To Break Free in terms of synthy dance pop, while Barcelona, his famed duet with Montserrat Caballé, could have easily sat on most Queen albums.
Sure, there were more synths and less Brian May, but the distance between Mercury’s operatic Moroder pop and Queen’s operatic pop rock was not a great one.
Sometimes things sound a bit more Eurodisco than usual, but by the time of Hot Space and A Kind Of Magic, Queen were not the glam Led Zeppelin they once had been (and at least one song here, 1985’s Made In Heaven, was reworked by Queen, squaring the circle somewhat).
| A1 | The Great Pretender (2019 Special Edition) | 3:24 |
| A2 | I Was Born To Love You (2019 Special Edition) | 3:36 |
| A3 | Barcelona (2012 Orchestrated Version) | 5:40 |
| A4 | In My Defence (2000 Remix) | 3:50 |
| A5 | Love Kills (2019 Special Edition) | 4:28 |
| A6 | How Can I Go On (2012 Orchestrated Singel Version) | 3:57 |
| B1 | Love Me Like There's No Tomorrow (2019 Special Edition) | 3:43 |
| B2 | Living On My Own (No More Brothers Radio Mix) | 3:36 |
| B3 | The Golden Boy (2012 Orchestrated Single Edit) | 5:10 |
| B4 | Time Waits For No One | 3:19 |
| B5 | She Blows Hot And Cold (2019 Special Edition) | 3:22 |
| B6 | Made In Heaven (2019 Special Edition) | 3:04 |
