A new Queen album has been in the works for the better part of 2014.
In May, guitarist Brian May told the BBC that new material would be forthcoming, and that it would feature legendary singer Freddie Mercury, who passed away in 1991 after contracting AIDS.
Last July, producer William Orbit (Madonna, Britney Spears) announced that he was working on a Mercury/Michael Jackson single that could now be part of the new album, which is tentatively titled Queen Forever.
Then last week, Orbit took to Twitter to put classic rock fans on the edges of their seats.
Am definitely working with QUEEN. Amazing songs. That's all I'm sayin 4 now. Watch this space.
— William Orbit (@WilliamOrbit) July 29, 2014
Radio.com reports that May told of the album's TBD title earlier this spring, and that the Hall of Fame guitarist expanded on the project during a BBC interview.
"We found a few more tracks with Freddie singing and all of us playing and they're quite beautiful," he said. "People will be hearing this work toward the end of the year."
May said that most of the material was pulled from 1980s recording sessions, and the BBC noted that May was able to update the old sound bites thanks to "modern sound editing software."
"It's a compilation but it will have this new material on which nobody in the world has ever heard and I think people will really enjoy it," May said. "It's the big, big epic sound. It wouldn't have been if we hadn't have done this restoration job. We only had scraps, but knowing how it would've happened had we finished it, I can sit there and make it happen with modern technology."
Queen is scheduled for a four-stop Australian tour with singer Adam Lambert later this month. Here are the dates:
08/22: Perth @ Perth Arena
08/26: Sydney @ Allphones Arena
08/29: Melbourne @ Rod Laver Arena
09/01: Brisbane @ Brisbane Entertainment Centre
