Probably the most shocking thing Queen fans are going to discover on Brian May's first solo album is just how good a singer he is. He may have made his name as the acknowledged owner of the Multitracks R Us guitar-solo franchise (and have no fear, ye of glitter faith; there are more than enough of those on hand to satisfy), but the more than competent fashion in which he handles all the lead and background vocals on Back to the Light leads one to conclude that a goodly number of those 1001 "Mama mias" on "Bohemian Rhapsody" were probably his. In case you doubt it, just listen to the highly Queenish "Resurrection," wherein an armada of overdubbed Mays pulls off a key-climbing choral maneuver that would make his old pal Freddie Mercury proud.

One thing that always separated Queen from the rest of the prog-rock brigade was the band's sense of humor – that is, it had one – and on songs like the power-poppish, Tommy James-meets-ELO "Driven by You" and the countrified "Let Your Heart Rule Your Head," May displays a lighthearted touch that helps offset such earnest but overwrought ballads as "Too Much Love Will Kill You" and "Just One Life." Not surprisingly, the album's best moments – the friskily hard-rocking "Love Token" and the nicely restrained instrumental "Last Horizon" – come when May balances wit and weight. Now if he could just teach that to his new pal Axl. (RS 657)

BILLY ALTMAN