''Golden Days'' is the second album released by the duo

Brian May Sir Brian Harold May (born 19 July 1947) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, animal welfare activist and astrophysics, astrophysicist. He achieved global fame as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist of the rock band Queen ...

and

Kerry Ellis Kerry Jane Ellis (born 6 May 1979) is an English actress and singer who is best known for her work in musical theatre and subsequent crossover into music. Born and raised in Suffolk, Ellis began performing at an early age before training at La ...

. Their first album together as a duo was ''

Acoustic by Candlelight ''Acoustic by Candlelight: Live on the Born Free tour'' is the first live album by actress and singer Kerry Ellis and rock musician Brian May, released on 17 June 2013. The 15-track album consists of material from live shows of the first leg of ...

'', which is a live album, although they first worked together on Ellis' second studio album ''

Anthems An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to short s ...

'', which May produced. The album was first released on 7 April 2017 and reached number 27 in the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

Release and critical reception

The album was originally to be called ''Anthems II'', named after Ellis' album ''Anthems'', which May produced and wrote or co-wrote five of the songs. It was scheduled to be released in March 2017. The release date changed to 7 April 2017 as did the album title to ''Golden Days'' In a press release, May said of the album: The album entered the

on 20 April 2017 and climbed to number 27 and spent just one week on the charts. Upon its release, ''Golden Days'' received mixed reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...

. Nicky Sweetland of the

South London Press The ''South London Press, London Weekly News and Mercury (formerly South London Press)'' was a weekly newspaper published in South East London. The newspaper covered news, sports and features within the south, central and west London area from 1 ...

wrote "This album is another triumph for the team of May and Ellis and is almost guaranteed to be a hit" and gave it five stars. While Helen Jones of The Reviews Hub wrote, "Overall this is a pleasant and easy to listen to album that has a couple of outstanding cover tracks, nice album but not the most memorable".

Track listing

Credits and personnel

*Kerry Ellis – lead and backing vocals *Brian May – Guitar, vocals, keyboards,

sitar The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form in 19th-century India. Khusrau K ...

gayageum The ''gayageum'' or ''kayagum'' () is a traditional Korean musical instrument. It is a plucked zither with 12 strings, though some more recent variants have 18, 21 or 25 strings. It is probably the best known traditional Korean musical instr ...

, bass guitar, arrangements *Neil Fairclough – Bass guitar *Justin Shirley-Smith – Engineer *Kris Fredriksson – Engineer *John Miceli – Drums, Engineer (additional) * Rufus Taylor – Drums *

Josh Macrae Josh MacRae (17 July 1933 – 1977) was a Scottish folk singer. His actual name was Iain Macrae, but he called himself Josh after the blues musician Josh White. He completed his National Service in the British Army, Army and during that time ...

– Engineer (additional) *Stanislav Barochy – Engineer (additional) *Jeff Leach – Keyboards (additional)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Golden Days Brian May Kerry Ellis 2017 albums Brian May albums Kerry Ellis albums Sony Music albums Albums produced by Brian May