the miracle and its a kind of magic

I really like The Miracle, and it is certainly (in my opinion) a stronger album on the whole than both A Kind Of Magic and The Works. The Miracle covers varied musical grounds, but still seems to hold together as an album with a continuous feel and thread. AKOM seems to simply be a collection of songs written at various times with specific pre determined themes (ie The Highlander film) and the songs then don't hold together as an album. Both The Works and AKOM are far inferior soundwise, with drum machines, and poor drum sounds throughout (they are both very short too!!)

Although a song such as Party may not sit well with people hankering for the harder side of Queen, there is actually a lot of very good guitar in it, and a lot of other things going on that actually make it one of my favourite Queen album tracks - it doesn't seem to fit into any category, and is equally dance, pop and rock in various parts. It is as unusual really as Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon or such earlier tracks. They also returned some of their finer harder moments, whilst still retaining a good melody, in songs such as Khashoggi's Ship, I Want It All and Was It All Worth It. Even the lesser tracks such as Rain Must Fall and My Baby Does Me (only in to ensure John had a fair share of songs??) have a bouyancy missing from the very staid, elerctronic feel of Pain Is So Close To Pleasure and One Year Of Love.

Overall I definitely prefer The Miracle, but obviously this is objective, and really shows the beauty of Queen's catalogue in that you could play various songs to people who are into different styles of music, and they would all like at least one Queen song, and would pick a different song as their favourite.

The Miracle is so much better than Magic. It is filled with hits and sounds very fresh to me. Magic was just an uninspired crap with only three or four decent songs on it (One Vision, A Kind Of Magic, Who Wants To Live Forever, Princes Of The Universe). Perhaps, I wouldn't even like these songs if not for the Wembley versions. I read an interview with Mack who mentioned AKOM sessions and he said the band had a few songs recorded for Highlander and they didn't have any other ideas and decided to release the songs as a new Queen album. Sad, isn't it? IMO it was Freddie's illness that pushed Queen to make two good albums - The Miracle and Innuendo. Miracle wasn't as brilliant as Innuendo, but it was well produced and the tunes were good, too. It showed a band which still can release five decent singles from an album and sound fresh after so many years on stage. A good step before everything that was to come.

The Miracle is a fantastic album. The only songs that aren't that great are My Baby Does Me and Hang On In There, but they are still ok songs. Was It All Worth It, Scandal, Breakthru, I Want It All and of course The Miracle are outstanding. The Invisible Man is alright but I would've chosen Was It All Worth It as the fifth single from the album instead of that one.

A Kind Of Magic is one of my least favorite albums. Apart from the hits, the album is quite weak for Queen standards. Though it does have some high points like Who Wants To Live Forever, One Vision and Princes Of The Universe. I personally like Friends Will Be Friends and Pain Is So Close To Pleasure but I know some don't. I'm not a fan of the title track that much either.

Are you guys CRAZY? Hang On In There is a great rocker! The freakin' guitar at the end of the song is great. The Miracle, although a pop album, is great except for RMF and MBDM, in my opinion.

AKOM album isn't all that great. 9 songs? What kind of crap is that? Pain, Don't Lose Your Head are very weak. One Year of Love is ok but not a good Queen song. I hate to say it, but Hot Space is better than this album.

I agree that Hot Space is much better than A Kind Of Magic, but I disagree about Pain Is So Close To Pleasure. It's actually one of the best on the album if you ask me. One Year Of Love I can hardly stand and Don't Lose Your Head I refuse to consider real music.

As for The Miracle, Rain Must Fall is pretty good and tracks 3-6 all deserved to be as popular as they were. MBDM is one of Queen's worst, however, and Party/Khashoggi's Ship were never really my favorites either.

Overall I think The Miracle was on of the best Queen albums, but A Kind Of Magic is without a doubt the worst (not considering Flash Gordon, of course).

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]Zebonka12 wrote: [/QUOTENAME]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.[/QUOTE]

Ditto. :)

And sweden_man, Don't Loose Your Head is a great, fantastic "technopop" number, like Radio Ga Ga and Love Kills. Not to forget the incredible 12" instrumental for DLYH, A Dozen Red Roses for My Darling.

As a fan of that particular style of music from the '80s, I can tell you Queen ruled in that field as well. It may not make that much sense for someone that wasn't a teenager back then, I reckon.

Cheers,

Ogre-

I see magic and the miracle as two good but not great queen albums. Each album has it's gems, and some poor tunes. I personally can't stand don't lose your head and party. the song The miracle is brilliant, the guitars and vocal arrangments don't get the credit it deserves. also, "rain must fall" is underated, I think the lyrics and vocals are good and i love the guitars, drums and bass in this song.

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]<font color=blue>Rick wrote: [/QUOTENAME]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.[/QUOTE]

I totally agree! At least "My baby does me" and "Cool Cat" are great! "Rain must fall" is okay.. But I'm one of the few who actually like "Pain is so close to pleasure".. Although I like the first 5 albums best, I think alot of the heavy "bass-stuff" from the 80's are great.

I think "Delilah" also are fantastic.. I didn't listen to it the first 12 years I had Innuendo, but now I think it's one of the best from that album.. (The same for "Cool Cat" on Hot Space).

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[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]ITSM wrote: [/QUOTENAME][QUOTE][QUOTENAME]<font color=blue>Rick wrote: [/QUOTENAME]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.[/QUOTE]

I totally agree! At least "My baby does me" and "Cool Cat" are great! "Rain must fall" is okay.. But I'm one of the few who actually like "Pain is so close to pleasure".. Although I like the first 5 albums best, I think alot of the heavy "bass-stuff" from the 80's are great.

I think "Delilah" also are fantastic.. I didn't listen to it the first 12 years I had Innuendo, but now I think it's one of the best from that album.. (The same for "Cool Cat" on Hot Space).

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[/QUOTE] I agree, most of these songs just plain grow on you after a while if you give them a chance. pain and pleasure and especially cool cat have become a favorite of mine. I also think Delilah is a nice ballad.

Personally, I think The Miracle is kind of nasty... except :I Want It All, The Miracle & The Invisible MAn... (I don't even like Breakthrough - DON'T JUDGE ME!!!). as for AKOM, well... again, the singels make the difference... Actually the 80's Queen albums are quite annoying if you try to listen to them from the beginning to the end!