HIGH Fidelity

FREDDIE MERCURY
"THE VERY BEST OF FREDDY MERCURY SOLO"

Limited Edition
Parlophone/EMI
3718242
Date of issue: 4 September 2006
Carrier: 2CD (?)

Track listing:

Disc 1

1. "In My Defence" [2000 Remix]
2. "The Great Pretender" [Original 1987 Single Version]
3. "Living On My Own" [1993 Radio Mix]
4. "Made In Heaven"
5. "Love Kills" [Original 1984 Single Version]
6. "There Must Be More To Life Than This"
7. "Guide Me Home"
8. "How Can I Go On"
9. "Foolin' Around" [Steve Brown Remix]
10. "Time"
11. "Barcelona"
12. "Love Me Like There's No Tomorrow"
13. "I Was Born to Love You"
14. "The Golden Boy"
15. "Mr Bad Guy"
16. "The Great Pretender" [Malouf Remix]
17. "Love Kills" [Star Rider Remix]
18. "I Can Hear Music" [Larry Lurex, 1973 Single]
19. "Goin' Back" [Larry Lurex, 1973 B-Side]
20. "Guide Me Home" [Piano Version by Thierry Lang]

Disc 2

1. "Love Kills" [Sunshine People Radio Mix]
2. "Made in Heaven" [Extended Version]
3. "Living on My Own" [The Egg Remix]
4. "Love Kills" [Rank 1 Remix]
5. "Mr Bad Guy" [Bad Circulation Version]
6. "I Was Born to Love You" [George Demure Almost Vocal Mix]
7. "My Love Is Dangerous" [Extended Version]
8. "Love Making Love" [Demo Version]
9. "Love Kills" [Pixel82 Remix]
10. "I Was Born to Love You" [Extended Version]
11. "Foolin' Around [Early Version]"
12. "Living on My Own" [No More Brothers Extended Mix]
13. "Love Kills" [More Order Rework]
14. "Your Kind of Lover" [Vocal & Piano Version]
15. "Let's Turn It On" [A Capella]

Frederick Bulsara, who later took the alias Freddie Mercury, was born on September 5th, 1946 an Zanzibar island near the east cost of Africa. Twenty five years later, in London, as Freddie Mercury, he was leading the group Queen. The solo career of Freddy began with the cooperation with Dave Clark and the recording "Time" - a musical of the London West End. Then came the time to fulfill Freddies dreams - recording with the world known diva Monserrat Caballé. The song "Barcelona" became the anthem of Seniora Caballé home city and the musical theme of the 1992 Olympic Games. On November 24th 1991 Freddies fight with the AIDS has ended. He passed away within 24 hours after publicly confirming the suspicions about his illness. Musicians and fans from all over the world paid him a homage - the passing away of the most ingenious and extravagant ambassadors of rock meant the end of an era.

The presented disc is a special version (Limited Edition) of the compilation of the solo hits of Queens vocalist. This is not the first "The Best" compilation in Mercury's discography, but was issued to celebrate the artists 60st birthday. On the double CD album we find all most interesting songs of Freddie recorded and composed without the participation of Queen. All songs from disc one were digitally remastered in the Abbey Road studio in London (Peter Mew) and in Future Disc Systems (Eddy Schreyer) in Hollywood. The first disc, with a few exceptions, is composed mainly of songs in their original version, among them titles like "Barcelona", "Mr Bad Guy", or "I Was Born To Love You". The second disc contains a set of rarities and new, not published before, remixes, half of which were made in 2006. Thinking about this edition, a few of the best recordings were given in the hands of world's most talented DJ's:Pixel 82, The Glimmers, George Demure, Sunshine People, Rank 1, Star Rider, No More Brothers and The Egg. They all received the allowance to rework Freddies recordings to create something personal, unique and unforeseeable in style and sound. Besides the CD a double DVD album was issued, which contain the artists video clips.

As with every compilation, also here, large role is played by the fact, from which albums the pieces were taken. The sound of all of them is very compressed, but due to the new remaster, it is not annoying. Mercury, listened to on the Jadis costing 110000zł sounded really well. The problem was the limited spacing in the recordings - like in "The Great Pretender", also in other pieces the action is located only in the middle, and the voice is bound to it as if it would come from one point. The most important thing is that brightening and sharpening was avoided. If those appear in the recording and will be painful, this will mean that we have a saboteur in the system, that sounds with a bright, sharp sound, and maybe there is time to exterminate it :) Mercury's voice, although quite "narrow", and in the straight plane, had many times a big, full volume and good articulation. Very interesting are the remixes on disc 2. Although their sound on the absolute scale is brighter and sharper, and not so well articulated as from the older recordings, but have a more stretched frequency response, lower bass and higher treble. The dynamics also seems better, but this are psychoacoustic tricks, because the dynamics is almost zero. Incredible is the remix "Let's Turn It On" - only Mercury's voice, with a almost inaudible background music, as if it would come from the headphones of this great vocalist.

Sound quality: 5-6/10

HOME PAGE