Roger Tayler and Brian May have uncovered an unreleased ballad. Recorded near the end of the original line-ups career. ‘Face It Alone’ reflects a dark, yet resilient time in Queen’s long storied journey through music.
As we all know, by the late 80’s Freddie Mercury’s health began to quickly dwindle. But not before Queen put out two more records. Despite no touring behind them, they charted well and produced several hits. During that time, Queen wrote a plethora of material. Much of which didn’t make their final two records ‘The Miracle’ and ‘Innuendo.’ And a prime example of balladry that didn’t make it, is the new unreleased single ‘Face It Alone.’
Obviously at the time Mercury was writing more introspective lyrics. Facing the consequences of his actions and resulting fate. And it ended up creating a foundation for what are what I consider the two best and most consistent Queen albums. However, ‘Face It Alone’ is not one of the stronger Queen tracks. And proof that the band aren’t perfect. And can in fact be quite inconsistent at times.
There’s a lot of people that are afraid of admitting it. But Queen is not a consistently excellent band. Yes, their hits are worthy. More than so. Their live albums are superb all the way through. As well as being massively legendary. And there are a few deep cuts that are really killer. But overall, their albums fail to fulfill an entire 40 minutes of quality song writing. And unfortunately, ‘Face It Alone’ is a prime example. Hopefully there will be stronger tracks from the vaults that are released.
