A KIND OF MAGIC

I have to say: I love Queen too much to give low ratings for their albums. When I did, meant that they had reached rock bottom (to read Flash and Hot Space). But after a great shift in The Works they continue to enchant me with A Kind of Magic.

This album is a sort of unofficial soundtrack to the movie action / fantasy Highlander - six of the nine songs here are played in the film - and is probably the biggest selling album of the band (except for the compilation Greatest Hits). You probably know a song here.

Beginning with hauntingly powerful One Vision, one of three songs that are played on Highlander (although present in the film Iron Eagle). His remarkably clip begins with a reference to the classic Bohemiam Rhapsody, besides being the only time you can see the members in the studio - in my opinion is heard either version of the clip, with 4 minutes, or studio, with only 1 minute more. The next song is the title track (this is the first Queen album to have a title track), and here the brand of '80s pop band comes up. But God, I love it! Mainly because it was this song that made me raise interest in the Queen, about two years ago. Then comes the slow ballad One Year of Love, a song that is weak start, but then gains strength with a beautiful saxophone solo and some string orchestrations. Unfortunately the next song Pain Is So Close to Pleasure is a waste of time - it was not good or if it was a band consisting of any of that decade, let alone the majestic Queen. But things are recovered in time with the excellent Friends Will Be Friends (a song I already knew, but only now I recognize).

But if there were errors in the A-side, they are easily forgotten with what I see as one of the most beautiful and powerful songs of all time. Who Wants to Live Forever. The apex of the album, this song is in my heart in a way that I am not able to describe - I can only say that I am completely in love with her from beginning to end. Gimme the Prize is a strong rocker, with some lines from the movie (which work better here than the awful dialogues in the songs from Flash). The title of Don´t Lose Your Head is an obvious reference to the theme of the movie, but I must point out that keyboards here remind me somehow of that period Genesis - Tony Banks, are you? Finally we have the heaviest song ever the Queen: Princes of the Universe! man, this is not of this world, and believe me that his three and a half minutes in length are highly complex and progressive!

Although this album and others that the band released can then be viewed as a synthesis of the garbage that reigned in the 80's I totally disagree: I think there is much good stuff to be found here, and surely the Queen had already sacred like a giant rock, though they were on a quest for redemption, looking for original and unique sound that had early in his career. The end of this path is probably in his last two albums, The Miracle and Innuendo.

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