Classic Rock band Queen released their 14th album, (when you count the Flash Gordon Soundtrack, and you should) called The Miracle on May 24th, 1989 here in the USA. Queen decided to close out the decade with an album that was a heavier variety of rock than recent releases from the band. Queen have basically switched gears from the 1970's style of Hard Rock/Heavy Metal British Gods to a Pop variety still floating somewhere outside the mainstream.
Since 1977 when Queen struck gold with the biggest rock anthems, We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions the band tried throwing their hat into the ring again to see if they could create another huge anthem. The outcome was I Want It All, the first single released in the USA. It is a blatant and calculated move, with the obvious ties to sports competitions it seems only natural that the world would easily embrace it.
♫I want it all, I want it all, I want it all
And I want it now♫
The lyrics are almost universally adaptable to many situations, but to have another sports anthem would be ideal. The song rocks harder than Queen has rocked in recent years. The song seems more genuine than the more recent faux rockers like Princes of the Universe or Gimmie the Prize from their 1986 release A Kind of Magic. But I think people smell the effort to put a song like this across, and when you have an unenthused lead singer sounding like he's just going through the motions, the listener is more likely not going to believe the message. Queen seemed to have fared better when they didn't try and write this type of song, Another One Bites the Dust or I Want to Break Free for example are anthems around the world. That being said though, the song has its plus side. I like that Brian May can be heard singing a small section in the bridge. Freddie delivers an impressive vocal as usual and the band are all participating in the recording. There are no bass or drum programming, it's just the four of them playing their respective instruments as a unit; it's the way that the band usually thrives on their records. It's because of this and the hard rock genre; it reminds you of the Queen in the glory days.
The album doesn't start off that well though. The band starts off with two short heavy songs that segue into another. Party starts it off with a synthesized drumbeat and thin background vocals making it sound more like an unfinished Freddie Mercury demo than anything else. Khashoggi's Ship is slightly more entertaining. The band is performing all together, but with the thin sounding backing vocals again make it sound like another demo tape. The brief scatting in the middle break is the best part of the song for me. These two songs make for the weakest album opener ever on a Queen record.
The album picks up some more with the title track The Miracle. The lyrics are uplifting and hopeful...
♫If every leaf on every tree
Could tell a story that would be a miracle
If every child on every street
Had clothes to wear and food to eat
That's a miracle
If all God's people could be free
To live in perfect harmony, it's a miracle♫
It begins where their song from 1985 One Vision left off lyrically, it's another Imagine type of song from John Lennon, but in my opinion it's less pretentious or naive than Lennon's lyrics. The Miracle is still lacking those lush Queen backing vocals within the Adult Contemporary feel, but the underlying song that is trying to eke it's way out from under finally makes it through at the end as the song fades out. The Miracle was the fifth and final single released in the UK climbing to #21 in the charts.
Their third single from The Miracle was The Invisible Man. For the first time on a Queen album, every song has a writing credit as Queen. Despite this new development in Queen History, as a Queen fan you can tell the different styles of songwriting from each of the members. The Invisible Man is obviously written by drummer Roger Taylor. The song has a Pop feel, but with a tinge of funk. Again the synthesized bass and drumbeat are present and it does take a little away from the song's potential. The song climbed as high as #12 in the UK charts.
Breakthru was the second single from The Miracle. This song is really two songs glued together. The first thirty or so seconds is from an idea Freddie Mercury was working on called A New Life Is Born, now it serves as a wonderful intro to Roger Taylor's Breakthru. We have more synthesized bass, but I like the inclusion of what sounds like a Hammond organ against the locomotive like beat. John Deacon gives some real live bass in there as well, and performs a groovy bass solo before Brian's usual guitar solo. The song was a top ten hit in the UK; again the song was not issued as a single in the US, except as a promotional single for radio, which was ignored.
Rain Must Fall is a total product of synthesized instruments with the exception of Brian May's guitar solo and Freddie's lead vocal. John Deacon lays down a bass line on top of the synthesized bass line as well, but it acts more like a sample groove pasted in different moments of the song. Despite the song's lack in authenticity, Freddie gives a great and playful vocal for this Caribbean/Latin flavored song. A video was made for Scandal, as it was the fourth single released from The Miracle. One of the harder songs from the album, it's a not-so-friendly ode to those nasty tabloids in the UK. Was it All Worth it was written mainly by Freddie Mercury with the others helping with the lyrics. One of the very few songs where the members are all playing their respective instruments. Was it All Worth it is certainly the grandest song, another hard rocker with crunching guitar and an Asian-like orchestral synthesized backdrop. The band all noted this as their favorite song on the album.
The four bonus tracks include 12" versions of Scandal and The Invisible Man. Both are somewhat interesting, and they definitely pale compared to the original versions. Chinese Torture is an instrumental featuring Brian May on his Red Special (his homemade guitar) with a harmonizer effect against some military-like synthesizers. I never really thought too much of the song until the book by Georg Purvis Queen: The Complete Works, where the author commented that the song would have made a great introduction before Queen hit the stage had they kept on touring. Of course, due to Freddie's failing health this was impossibility.
Hang On In There is a great rock track, better than most of the songs on The Miracle; it's a beautiful thing that the song was included as a bonus track.
Having the dark cloud loom overhead of Freddie’s impending death sentence shows up more often than not on this album. With the band relying more and more on synthesized instruments rather than the band playing together as a unit has been in play for a couple of albums now, but the facade seems extra thin on The Miracle. With just about half of the tracks being throw-away efforts, it is very unlikely for a Queen album. The Miracle comes in second for me as my least favorite Queen album, the award for worst goes to the 1986 release of A Kind of Magic. Was It All Worth It only shows up on The Miracle as it wasn’t released as a single, and therefore it’s really the only reason to pick up The Miracle. The other songs like The Miracle, I Want It All and Breakthru show up on a greatest hits release Classic Queen. Pass this release by, or if you are building a Queen collection (because you should), pick this one up last.
the songs
1. Party
2. Khashoggi's Ship
3. The Miracle
4. I Want It All
5. The Invisible Man
6. Breakthru
7. Rain Must Fall
8. Scandal
9. My Baby Does Me
10. Was It All Worth It
☻☻☻☻☻:Bonus Tracks:☻☻☻☻☻
11. Hang On In There
12. Chinese Torture
13. The Invisible Man (12" Version)
14. Scandal (12" Mix)
~~~~~~~~~~~~For more Queen CD Epinions from Scapp70~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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