the miracle and its a kind of magic

I recently recieved these two albums and i want to know what people think of them here. Personally i think the mircale is a great album, with the opening six tracks being great, maybe 'the invisable man' to a lesser extent. I dont think much of 'rain must fall' or 'my baby does me', 'scandal' is good and 'was it all worth it' is ok. I think they over did it with the synths a bit though, the mircale wouldve have worked great has a piano song with more guitar rather than ordinary sounding synths. But overall i'd give it 4/5

Its a Kind of magic on the other hand i dont like. The 5 singles including the fantastic princes of the universe are the best songs. One year of love is ok, but it sounds like something Rod stewart would've released. So 80's sounding and corney as do the rest of the non single songs sound. Maybe except for gimme the prize, which at least has some guitar. Even the singles off this album, apart from the fantastic who want to live for ever and princes of the universe, sound weakly recorded and very 80's. I'll probobly get slammed for this, and much of my disapointment comes from the fact that the only good songs are the ones i already have. 3/5

whats everyone else think of these two albums.

I happen to find these two particular albums to be two of Queen's finest. First you have to remember that at this time in Queen's career their popularity had risen to such an extent that it was unimaginable for the band. Why you ask? Well, once Hot Space was released their career went down hill rapidly. After that Queen called it quits in 1983, but came back with The Works (one of my favorites). The Works was a pretty good album for Queen, however, I Want to Break Free killed them in the states (seemed the Americans didn't like drag). So once you put that into consideration you might look at A Kind of Magic a little differently...let me explain...

A Kind of Magic (as we all know) contained songs from The Highlander movie and also included a few songs not from the movie (disregarding One Vision of course which was used for Iron Eagle). Now, my understanding is that this album came out at a time when Queen needed to be big and bold, after all, they wouldn't want to dissapoint their newly acquired fans who saw Live Aid. This album was rather diverse in the sense that it experimented with pop, rock, soul, and even metal. For that I commend the band's work on this album. The only complaint I have about the album is that it doesn't feel complete, even if all the songs (in my opinion) were outstandingly polished with that special Queen touch.

The Miracle, in my opinion, was a great album...maybe even better than A Kind of Magic. For one, the album felt complete...it didn't end having you feel like you were missing an introduction and conclusion. Another thing is that every song is just plain catchy, I can never decide which song I like the most. Another thing you should take into consideration is that at this time Freddie's health was coming to an all time low. It was amazing and is still amazing to this day that this man was able to over come so many obstacles and boundaries...in this case certain death was the obstactle for Freddie. With that being said, this album gives me that shock and awe feeling...he had so much power and so much energy and was able to put his problems aside in order to produce an outstanding piece of art. As for the instrumentation regarding the lack of piano, I don't mind. As long as the music is quality I don't mind.

In conclusion, both albums were great...I love both of them.

I find Magic to be quite crap, ok I like a few tracks but most of it is shit in my opinion.

I don't really know the miracle album but the songs I do know from it are pretty cool

I've always seen Was It All Worth It as easily being in their top ten, I rate it with Innuendo and their more outrageous songs in the 70's.

I love the guitar piece at the beginning of was it all worth it, good one in my opinion.

Miracle is not my favorite but it's still very good: lots of new songs and sounds (compare it to the previous AKOM), really nice. I find it to be the 'together' album, they do seem really close on this one (don't ask me why, it's just a feeling).
A kind of magic is for me the "funny rockin' album". I find Who wants to live forever and One year of love to be very moving songs, most of the other are simply great (One Vision, Gimme the Prize, A kind of magic),...the only one I still can't listen is Pain is so close to Pleasure...

I think Rain Must Fall and My Baby Does Me are way underrated. They're pretty good actually. Both have very strong basslines. Just as Cool Cat, these songs are quite complex. And they are produced brilliantly.

To be honest, I think Queen's output is far too patchy from the game up to the miracle. Too much synth and not enough of mr May's axe. It strated with aobtd as they tried to experiment with pop/dance/black sounds. All the 80's albums had a mix of tracks with a few anthems and rockers to keep the rockers and metal heads happy who were a large part of the queen fan base since the debut album. The 70's albums all seemed to experimental but without ever becoming saturated with synth/pop sounds. I remembered hearing One vison on akom and then found the rest of the album was really quite weak except for for wwtlf, potu, fwbf and gtp. The other stuff was poor. Likewise the miracle party, khashoggis ship, IWIA, The miracle, scanda and breakthru were fun as was wiawi but my baby does me and rain must fall, they are fucking terrible songs deleiberately aimed at the new pop fans the group now attracted since aobtd. The live versions of such things as akom, backchat, iwtbf all rocked where on record they sound tinny and poppy.You can't blame the band the game opened up a whole new fan base but it also alienated many of the hard rock and metal fams. I think some of this might have to do with John Deacon who came more to the fore as a songwriter after aobtd success. He and (to an extent FM) liked funk/soul/pop more than May and Taylor who were hard rockers and this came to the fore from the game onwards. Perhaps this is something the do with the fact that he never embraced the q+pr thing. I think RT was into synths heavily at times in the 80's from some of his solo stuff and akom and gaga but always remained concerned that Queen kept their metal roots. As for freddie he seemed to like to try anything at least once!

As a die hard Queen fan in the USA let start by saying that Queen is in my opinion one of the all time great bands. That being said, those two albums you speak of are just plain crappy offerings. “A kind of magic” is their second worst. “The miracle” although had a few moments, it was basically the same tripe they have been producing since “Hot space”. They over used synthesizers to death and ended up sounding like just your average Euro pop synth band of that time. Instead of incorporating new sounds into Queen and making it their own, they simply copied what others were doing at time.
Also just to clear things up about “I want to break free” in the USA, the reason most of us didn’t like that song is because it was a weak song with a crummy synthesizer solo that sounded like someone talking a shit. Not because of the video (contrary to popular belief in Europe.) It wasn’t until “Innuendo” that they finally made an album worthy of their greatness.

I have to say that The Miracle is my LEAST favorite Queen album. Just because of the amount of crap on there (sorry, but, in my opinion, it's true). Hang On In There - Crap. Khashoggi - Crap. Invisible Man - Double Crap. Party - Major Crap. Chinese Torture - Ew. This is of course my opinion. But as you people might know, in every Queen album, there is an essence of "good". So, just because these songs are awful (in my opinion) doesn't mean they are intolerable. I can bear them and listen to them without problems...but they lack "Queen" in them, if you know what I mean. But other than that, it's O.K. With masterpieces like Scandal, Breakthru, The Miracle, and I Want It All, it's rate is pulled up. There are also some mediocre songs on there, like Rain Must Fall and My Baby Does Me, which I think are underrated and deserve more credit than they are given. Favorite song? I would have to say Scandal. Bloody brilliant.



Now A Kind Of Magic has never really been a favorite album of mine, but it's quite good, actually. A Kind Of Magic, Who Wants To Live Forever and Pain Is So Close To Pleasure, and One Year Of Love are probably the highlights to the album (even though some people can't stand PISCTP and One Year Of Love). The other songs are O.K. The worst song would probably would be Don't Lose Your Head. I just can't stand it, it's so repetitive and annoying....just a complete disaster...UGH. My favorite song is Pain Is So Close To Pleasure. I would also like to say that Friends Will Be Friends, Gimme The Prize, Princes Of The Universe and One Vision are seriously OVERRATED.


My opinion of course. :D Sorry for my being redunant...lol.

I don't like the 'Magic' album. It's well-written but not equally recorded. I mean I love 'One Year Of Love' as a song, but not their version; same for the title track and 'One Vision'. The only song that I actually like the way it's recorded is 'Who Wants To Live Forever': the duet works there for me, and Brian's solo is extraordinary.

Miracle ... I admire the production, and I like the way acoustic, electric and electronic instruments interact (e.g. 'I Want It All'). But then there are some poor bits, and even though the singles are good, they're not even close to the quality of album tracks in the 70s.

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]Sebastian wrote: [/QUOTENAME]I don't like the 'Magic' album. It's well-written but not equally recorded. I mean I love 'One Year Of Love' as a song, but not their version; same for the title track and 'One Vision'. The only song that I actually like the way it's recorded is 'Who Wants To Live Forever': the duet works there for me, and Brian's solo is extraordinary.

Miracle ... I admire the production, and I like the way acoustic, electric and electronic instruments interact (e.g. 'I Want It All'). But then there are some poor bits, and even though the singles are good, they're not even close to the quality of album tracks in the 70s.[/QUOTE]


I'm gonna have to second this...lol. :P

i never really liked Magic...but it ain't a queen album is it? it's a film soundtrack botched together to make an album with some other leftovers. perhaps that's what i don't like about it...it sounds like ANY 80s rock band...after all they ALL went for the Europe/Asia/Toto synth sound back then...and no offence but a whole album of synths is crap...and they really do not stand THE TEST OF TIME

as for Miracle - i REALLY used to like this album. But. It started to dawn on me...the tunes sound like queen, and the vox/guitars sound like queen. but it just doesn't have the queen watermark running through it. the album is a triumph of quantity over quality, production over purpose and style over substance...and it ages extremely badly...

I think liam should become a weezer fan

to state the blindingly obvious the albums sound 80ish because they were released in the 80's.
however,for that period of time they were great pop albums released with the european market as their sole target,as the yanks didnt care about queen anymore.
on another note.the intro to was it all worth it is a blatant rip off of the original battlestar galactica theme.
i suppose you had to be in your teens in the 80s like myself to appreciate these albums more.

I like them both for different songs. I like the invisible man, I want it all, rain must fall, and the miricle off the miricle and a kind of magic's favorites are one vission, a kind of magic, who wants to live forever, pain is so close to pleasure and the instrumental of forever. Smile. Hope I didn't miss any. Lol.