THE MIRACLE

I know, this is NOT a great album or masterpiece by the band but .. I love this album. It's probably due to the dynamics and the multi styles offered here with this album. Of course that not all of the songs are good ones as I saw "Invisible Man" and "Breakthru" are quite boring in styles. But the opening part which is energetic and dynamics under "Party" (2:24) has made this album quite attractive for me. It continues beautifully with "Khashoggi's Ship" (2:47). The album title track "Miracle" (5:02) is also a nice one especially on the unique sound of Brian's guitar. My all time favorite track from tis album is "I Want It All" (4:40) because it has strong melody, tight composition and great guitar riffs and solo then remind me to the early years of the band. Another favorite of mine is "Was It All Worth It" which, again, has stunning guitar solo.

It's a good album and I like it very much, especially some excellent tracks.

Here's the most stable band's album from the 80's. It doesn't contain a (prog) masterpiece as Innuendo does but it's a great album,with great songwriting, maturity and...beauty. Yes, that's what QUEEN was all about.

"A natural pair"; "Party" and "Khashoggi's Ship" are two killing rock tunes. Great opening, threat jump from one song to another, great musical performance and vocals. And clever, complex details that could be discovered later, because they're full of clever little details. "Party" is actually utilising programmed drum machine rather than drum kit but it still sounds great, it's hard to believe.

After that, we have "The Miracle", self-titled song which is pure pop...pop that is full of tempo changes, reaching the highest level of complexity: complexity that would not be noticed as one by a listener...only after repeated (and repeated) listening. Well, it is a bubblegum pop alright. But that bubblegum is very...cubistic. Or whatever.

Next track, again back to the rock roots in a sweetest possible way: a brilliant rocker "I Want It All" that will hook you instantly. With all the mood changes and solos and stuff.

After the rocker, QUEEN decided to present to the audience more trendy material, so we have "The Invisible Man" - a synth bass driven (so typical for the era) pop tune with great guitar licks, and that's about it.

The side B opens with...what?...gospel?...well, "Breakthru", a great pop-rock tune opens with gospel-like multi vocal harmony and piano and very soon enters into another synth-bas driven pop tune (where a melody, drums, some noises, even the chorus resembles a train). Originally, the band intended two separate tracks: a pure pop track ("Breakthru") and a entire gospel track, but for some reason, those tracks were never finished nor published on disk. Pity.

"Rain Must Fall" and "My Baby Does Me" are two below-par tracks, well, basically fillers, but not the worst possible ones in band's career.

"Scandal" is another good tune with great, moaning Brian's guitar, a few synth blips just to let us not forget the era when the album was recorded, and great vocals.

"Was It All Worth It" is a great finale for a great album: doubtedly the only prog rock song on the album, and a great one at that: the only thing that could overshadow it as a finale for a career of a great band, it could be only "Innuendo". This is a gorgeous track, very metal at the moments, with nice keyboard parts and a great pseudo-classical section. Yes it was worth it.

The bonus tracks are not outstanding in any sense: they're not better than rest of the album, they're not worse neither. They will just verify overall rating.

"Hang On In There" is a typical (high quality) pop tune form the era, "Chinese Torture" is a guitar-layered instrumental (prog,eh) and "Scandal" and "The Invisible Man" two 12" version, the last one being very psychedelic with that spooky noodling intro.

In conclusion, this is one of the greatest pop-rock albums of the 80's. Progressive elements are few, and they're scattered over the record. A listener will need quite a few listening to get into all the tricky arrangements and melodies.

It was really painful to review the latest works of one of my beloved band from the mid seventies. So many poor releases were quite a shame. But "Queen" were not the first to fall pretty low in terms of quality music during these days.

This album is slightly better than their previous ones, but expecting some grandeur like featured in their first five albums is hopeless. When you listen to the first two songs, you have understood that the worse can be expected even if there are still hopes with songs as "The Miracle". Not brilliant but vocally and melodically above par.

Lots of very average songs are unfortunately available here. "Breakthru" being one of the best. A classic number but waaaaaaay beyond their greatest work.

If ever you were tired of these awful disco beats, press next to avoid to listen to "Rain Must Fall". Just a poor joke of a song. But this album isn't really good. Too much weak songs with average melody. No great rocking numbers. Just a bunch of below average pop songs again.

The band is just releasing another weak album. I know that it is difficult to compare some works of a group but frankly, this album is MILES away to be a miracle. Boring tunes, that's for sure. But innovative music? Forget it!

Even if there are some reviewers rating this album with FIVE stars (a masterpiece ?), I can't go over two. Another poor "Queen" album. Is it necessary to tell you that you shouldn't expect any prog in here. Maybe for their next album?

And I want it NOW!

With the 80s coming to an end most people would likely wonder if Queen would ever return to their hard rocking routes as hinted by a few scattered songs over their 80s discography. Well, those who hoped are in luck. 1989's The Miracle is likely Queen's hardest rocking effort since the turn of the decade. The disco-type influences are sill kicking around, but they've been put far to the background on this effort. With 4 hit singles, all of them non-dancable, it's no wonder that Queen finally snapped out of their disco-trance.

A mix of stadium rock and a tiny bit of progressive influence, but mostly just the hard-rocking the band used to do, The Miracle comes as just that to some of us Queen fans, a miracle. While there are still a few weak or un-noteworthy tracks they're all, for the most part, excellent songs. All of the hit singles from the album are also actually worth mentioning and not pop-garbage! The title track with it's worldly lyrics, I Want It All with it's killer (Brain) May licks and solos, The Invisible Man with it's infectious bass riff and Breakthru with it's break-neck pacing - each one a work of rock glory and with none of the pop moments of some of their recent albums.

It's not all good, however, as some of that disco is still sticking around, even if it sounds a bit more rock like now. The first two tracks are rather forgettable even if they're still good, and the three tracks following Breakthru are all 80s-synth laden pieces that most prog heads won't enjoy. Rain Must Fall keeps the typical synth beat that expects the audience to bust a move while Scandal just presses on the keys a bit to heavily.

Coming to the end however, we're given an unexpected gem. Was It All Worth It is likely the standout of the album with it's almost Iron Maiden-esque riff as it chugs along carrying Mercury's voice as it was meant to be performed - at top volume.

A couple of bonus tracks are included on recent remasters, Hang On In There is a typical rocker and Chinese Torture, a quick 'n dirty, good instrumental.

Not Queen's best album but by no means their worst this one is quite good. 2.5 stars really! Not essential, but certainly not disappointing, still recommended mostly to fans of the band and fans of hard rock. Most prog fans may not find a lot to like.

A miraculous album?

I really like Queen's last three genuine albums (A Kind Of Magic, The Miracle and Innuendo). Brian's guitar work is amazing on these albums! Freddie's vocal performance is fantastic! Roger Taylor's powerful drumming! And it would be unfair not to mention John Deacon's bass skills. Sure, a few of the songs here still have that definitive 80's sound and production that might put you off; The Invisible Man, Rain Must Fall and My Baby Does Me are a little bit of an embarrassment. But the incredible guitar solo saves The Invisible Man (By the way, notice the resemblance with the theme song from the film Ghost Busters!). Even Rain Must Fall, though quite awful otherwise, has a great guitar break. Even with a few weak tracks, this album, like the previous one, is something of a "breakthru"!

The best and most progressive tracks are probably the border-line Metal I Want It All, and the orchestral and autobiographical Was It All Worth It?

I must mention again the guitar work of Brian May; almost every single track on this album has a blistering guitar solo that just has to be responded to with playing air guitar. May is one of the best and most unique guitarists in the history of rock music and for me he is up there with Steve Howe and Steve Hackett as my favourite guitarists of all time.

And the vocals? What can you say, Freddie is the best rock singer of all time. Perfect and very powerful (and the other members backing vocals are a trademark of the band's sound as well).

The previous album, A Kind Of Magic, was a return to form for Queen and the best album since A Day At The Races in the mid-70's. The present album continues in the same strong fashion. The next album, Innuendo, would be even stronger. Sadly that would also be the last album they ever could do. But The Miracle is a very good album too.

Highly recommended!

The miracle from 1989 is a Queen album all the way in musical terms, and the best from the'80's from them no doupt. Some realy good pieces I can point out:Miracle, Breakthru, Scandal (one of my fav Queen pieces ever) and Chinese Torture an instrumental piece available only if you have like me the Cd version from Capitol records, the rest are not bad but not special either. Some improvement is made with this album, in comparation with Kind of magic, much more mature and intrsting arrangements, great composed and well played. Queen always knew how to catch the usual listner with that pop rock sound combined with the intristing and unique voice of Mercury, this album is no exception. So, to The miracle a big 3 stars, a good album for sure but not something special, still far from the early recordings.

The 80s turned out to be a bit of a tough decade for Queen; while the 70s saw the band playing hit after hit and making some of the best records of that time, the Queen of the 80s really struggled in terms of quality and consistency. 1982's Hot Space was especially ruinous to the band's popularity, trading in rock anthems for pretty bizarre dance numbers. The Works, while it could have been good, suffered from rehashing too many musical ideas. A Kind of Magic was a partial return to the band's roots, but it didn't do as well commercially as the band hoped. On top of all this, the recording of the 1989 album the The Miracle was especially emotional as guitarist Brian May was trying to recover from his divorce and Freddie Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS. So with all of this in mind, it was understandable for so many people to expect this record to be a disaster. Luckily, that's not the case; in fact, this is the best Queen record since 1978's Jazz.

The biggest thing to point out here is that The Miracle has more of the traditional Queen vibe than the band's last few albums. The sound is bigger and more bombastic once again, and the music doesn't sound as artificial as on The Works or Hot Space. Granted, there are a few heavily synth-laden songs such as "The Invisible Man" and "The Miracle," but they are so much more bearable (even good enough to be considered some of the album highlights) than the ones on the other 80s records (barring The Game). As for the hard-rocking songs, there are quite a few. The first two songs on the album are of this variety, but bring sort of a fun, dance-oriented vibe that sets a nice entertaining tone for the rest of the album. Going back to the synthrock songs though, they strangely end up being some of the best songs as I said. "The Invisible Man" benefits from Roger Taylor's percussive drumwork and the sort of suave atmosphere you'd hear in a James Bond film. The title track, on the other hand, is quite an unusual song for the band; the keyboards exude a "mystical" feel as Freddie Mercury sings about the miracles and other strange occurrences that happen in everyday life. The chorus is very inspirational-sounding as vocal harmonies are smoothly included in the song and the synthesizer work becomes a bit more expansive in sound.

And that's when it was hitting me: the reason this album is so good is because it sounds like the band members actually care again! They sound more invested in the songwriting and emotive melodies throughout the album and don't sound as fake as they did on their last few albums (perhaps excluding A Kind of Magic). Also contributing to that aspect are the heavier tunes; Brian May and John Deacon really shine here as they are scorching their fretboards with some great songs. "I Want It All" should be familiar with most rock fans by now, with the heavily multilayered vocals in the chorus and the almost punk-esque solo section where Roger Taylor's fast drumming kicks things up a notch. However, many people seem to forget about "Was It All Worth It." This song is exactly what Queen needed to get back on track. A beautifully arranged intro with the keyboards and guitar leads into one of the band's most metal-oriented riffs; this is Queen with the same ferocity they had in songs like "Ogre Battle" or "Liar," and it really rocks. Freddie Mercury swiftly changes between a gravelly vocal style and emotional melodic singing with ease, and he fits well with the arrangement of the song. Overall, it's quite mindblowing.

But is the entire album mindblowing? Sadly, it is not. There are certainly some throwaway tracks, the two most obvious ones being "Rain Must Fall" and "My Baby Does Me." Both fall into the category of synth-oriented soul/funk music and they really don't go anywhere. The arrangements are bland and Freddie doesn't seem very invested in terms of his vocal work. On top of that, Brian May barely does anything on these songs except for the occasional solo here and there. The other song that's a little 'meh' is "Scandal." This song details the media attention given to Queen about Brian May's divorce and Freddie Mercury's declining health; while the song has its moments (for instance, another great synth/guitar intro), the midtempo sound of it feels a little forced. The song wears out its welcome at about the 2:30 mark as it starts repeating itself a bit too much after that. These songs aren't horrendous, but they're just a bit too average compared to the rest of the album's quality.

But speaking about the album's quality, this is still a fantastic release. Yeah, it has flaws, but with The Miracle, Queen finally managed to get more of their old touch back. The rockers are great, a good number of the synthrock songs are surprisingly good, and the band functions more as a cohesive unit here. Just skip a few of the 'meh' tracks and you'll be all set. Luckily, the highlights are just too damn good. I consider this one of Queen's most underrated efforts, so get this album whenever you can.

Almost at the end of the 80's, Queen released "The Miracle", their thirteenth album, in a scenario in which there were still rumours about a probable break-up of the band and incipient speculations about Freddie Mercury's health. An optimistic and emotionally intense album, adapted to the sonorities of those times, it shows the Englishmen cohesive and committed, and for the first time signing the authorship of all the songs together, in a demonstration of solidarity and unity in the face of the imminent tragic destiny that AIDS had in store for Mercury, the most immortal of mortals.

The festive spirit is present from the start with the extroverted "Party" and "Khashoggi's Ship", where the lively melodies are dominated by Brian May's powerful guitar riffs and Mercury's energy on vocals, a spirit that is maintained in the galloping and groundbreaking "Breakthru" with its operatic reminiscence and John Deacon's bass leading the melody.

The more serious and reflective vein comes with the hard-rocking "I Want It All", one of the band's last anthems with May again in the lead role, the conciliatory "The Miracle", the album's eponymous title track and its conscious anti-war pronouncement, and the denouncing "Scandal" and its critique of the sensationalism of the gossip press with May on keyboards, a heartfelt and brief guitar solo and Deacon's persistent bass lines.

And if "Rain Must Fall" as well as "My Baby Does Me" are failed expressions that don't seem to make much sense in the overall context of the album (the bonus tracks on the CD release, "Hang on in There" and May's solo on the instrumental "Chinese Torture" would have fit much better), the imposing, at times orchestrated and at times raspingly brilliant forcefulness of the superb "Was It All Worth It" with a confessional and heartbreaking Mercury, brings the album to a stupendous close.

"The Miracle", which didn't have a promotional tour due to the singer's illness, even though initially it was argued that he was tired and fed up with the album-tour cycle, was probably the best work of the English band in the 80's.

3/3.5 stars

Review Nº 782

"The Miracle" is the thirteenth studio album of Queen and that was released in 1989. It was recorded when the band was recovering from Brian May's marital problems and Freddie Mercury's AIDS diagnosis. The album was originally to be called "The Invisible Man", but three weeks before its release, they decided to change the name to "The Miracle". The striking cover art utilized the Quantel Painbox, a computer graphics workstation for composition of broadcast television video and graphics, which state of the art image manipulation technology, to combine photographs of the familiar faces of the four band members into one morphed image. The back cover of the album went a step further with a seamless of the bands' eyes. This album was considered their most energetic and interesting release of the 80's since "The Game".

"The Miracle" has ten tracks. The first track "Party" written by Freddie Mercury, Brian May and John Deacon is a song built around disharmonic vocals and drum beat from the drumming machine. I really think that we are in presence of a very weak song, without any kind of creativity and imagination. In my humble opinion, this is one of the worst openings for a Queen's album, only superseded by "Staying Power", the song that opens their album "Hot Space". The second track "Khashoggi's Ship" written by Queen is another rock song like the previous one. Unfortunately, it has more in common with that song that it should have. So, despite be a little bit better than "Party" is, it's a very repetitive song also without any kind of creativity and imagination. The third track is the title track "The Miracle", which was written by Freddie Mercury and John Deacon. It was the fifth and the last song to be chosen as a single from this Queen's album. It was released six months after the album. This is a very good and interesting song that represents, for me, one of the highlights on the album. It's a very creative song with some very complex musical arrangements. If such thing existed, we could call to it a true great progressive pop song. The fourth track "I Want It All" written by Brian May was the song chosen to be the lead single of the album. This is a great rock song, with full of mood changes and some nice guitar solos. It's a kind of a classic Queen's hard rock song that satisfies almost all rock fans and represents the second highlight on the album, really. The fifth track "The Invisible Man" written by Roger Taylor was the song released as the third single of the album. This is clearly a pop song with a synthesizer bass driven. It's a very fast song and very repetitive too, so typical for that pop era. Sincerely, I don't like particularly of this song and, as happened with "Party" and "Khashoggi's Ship", it represents, for me, another weak point on the album. The sixth track "Breakthru" written by Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor was the song chosen to be released as the second single of the album. This is a good rock song with a nice gospel vocal overture, which rocks very fast, indeed. Despite I prefer other songs on the album, this one represents one of the best musical moments on the all album. The seventh track "Rain Must Fall" written by Freddie Mercury and John Deacon represents, without any doubt, one of the weakest musical moments on the album, despite it has some great guitar work. Sincerely, I don't like of this song. It has the power to annoy me a little bit and it makes me a bit nervous, really. The eighth track "Scandal" written by Brian May was the song released as the fourth single from the album. The song is about the attention that Brian May and Freddie Mercury received of the press, involving Brian May's divorce and Freddie Mercury's health problems. It's a great and brilliant dark song with some great musical moments. This is, for me, another highlight on the album. The ninth track "My Baby Does Me" written by Freddie Mercury and John Deacon is almost the same of "Rain Must Fall" and represents, therefore, another weak musical moment on the album. Both songs represent, without any doubt, the worst tracks on the album. But, "Don't Try Suicide" from "The Game" is much worse. The tenth and last track "What Is All Worth It" written by Freddie Mercury is, fortunately an excellent track. But, unfortunately, this is the best and only truly progressive song on the album. It's a song with great musical moments that reminds the good old Queen, which closes the album perfectly and beautifully.

Conclusion: I can't agree with many of my colleagues here that consider "The Miracle" the best Queen's album of the 80's. By one hand, I'm absolutely convinced that Queen hasn't released any great studio album in the 80's. By the other hand I'm also absolutely convinced that "The Works" is their best musical studio work from that musical era. In my humble opinion, "The Miracle" is a non balanced album that oscillates between some very good songs and some very weak songs. "The Miracle", "I Want It All", "Breakthru", "Scandal" and especially "Was It All Worth It" are the only real good songs on the album. The other songs are average or even bad songs, really. Besides, on the subject of merely of progressive rock music, I can't see anything really progressive on it. In my humble opinion, after the 70's, the only great studio album from Queen is "Innuendo". However, "Made In Heaven" deserves also to be mentioned as an album with some great musical moments. So, this is another poor Queen's album that doesn't deserve more than 3 stars, really.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)