Queen have released the previously unheard track Face It Alone, featuring vocals from the late Freddie Mercury.
The song was recorded in 1988 during sessions for their 13th studio album ‘The Miracle’, which was released the following year.
“We did find a little gem from Freddie, that we’d kind of forgotten about,” drummer Roger Taylor said about the track in June.
“It’s wonderful, a real discovery. It’s a very passionate piece.”
The sombre tune boasts powerful vocals from Freddie, who had been diagnosed with HIV but hadn’t spoken openly about his illness at the time of recording.
It’s one of six unreleased tracks to feature in a forthcoming box set of ‘The Miracle’ – four of which feature Mercury’s vocals.
Although guitarist Brian May originally thought the recording was unsalvageable, engineers managed to restore the song.
“It was kind of hiding in plain sight,” he told BBC Radio 2’s Zoe Ball. “We looked at it many times and thought, ‘Oh no, we can’t really rescue that.’ But in fact, we went in there again and our wonderful engineering team went, ‘OK, we can do this and this.’
“It’s like kind of stitching bits together… but it’s beautiful, it’s touching.”
The 8CD collection features the original album along with alternative takes and demos, plus radio interviews and other recordings from the album sessions.
Other unreleased tracks include When Love Breaks Up, You Know You Belong To Me, Dog With a Bone, Water and I Guess We’re Falling Out. Several of the songs have circulated on bootlegs but this marks their first official release.
The group’s frontman passed away in November 1991, nine months after the release of Queen’s follow-up album ‘Innuendo’.
‘The Miracle’ is out November 18 and available to pre-order now.
