Is this the real life? Fans are rejoicing after former Queen guitarist Brian May announced the iconic rock band is putting out a new album.
According to Rolling Stone, May plans to release an album called Queen Forever by the end of the year, featuring unreleased Freddie Mercury vocals from the '80s. (via Rolling Stone)
Mercury, the band's legendary frontman, died in 1991, after a long battle with HIV/AIDS. The band has only released one studio album since Mercury's death: 1995's Made in Heaven, which used previously recorded Mercury vocals.
Queen have been active in the last decade: re-uniting in 2004 and touring globally with Bad Company singer Paul Rodgers, and more recently with Adam Lambert.
As for the sound of the new album? May says it'll be familiar to fans of the band's '80s albums such as "Flash Gordon" and "The Works."
"It's quite emotional. It's the big big ballads and the big big epic kind of sound. Knowing how it would've happened if we'd finished it, then I can sit there and make it happen." (via BBC)
But posthumous albums can be tricky. Michael Jackson's newest compilation album Xscape has drawn criticism from those who see it as a cash-in, including Jackson's long-time producer Quincy Jones.
"They're trying to make money, and I understand it. Everybody's after money: the estate, the lawyers, you know it's about money." (via CBC)
And the King of Pop might have a part to play on Queen Forever too. The Independent reports the new album could contain a never-before-heard duet which Mercury and Jackson recorded in 1983. (Via The Independent)
However the album turns out, Queen fans in the U.S. will have plenty of opportunities to see the band as they take on a 19-date cross country tour with Adam Lambert starting in June.
