Published on Sep 14, 1999
Whenever a band has been around for quite some time, it will
invent and reinvent itself in an attempt to stay fresh and current.
Then, after a while, said band will return to its original sound to
capture the fans who may have been put off by the new sound and
their original attitude. This has happened to all bands — no
matter the name. The Beatles, The Stones, U2, Van Halen and the
Smashing Pumpkins have all done it or gone through it with various
degrees of success. After all, in such a fickle world, bands who
age quicker lose fans quicker. Just ask all those mid-80s glam rock
bands.
So, it should be no surprise that a band as quirky and talented
as Queen would go through such a change. After hitting a peak with
the mid-70s success of over-the-top operatic rock of albums like
A Night At The Opera,
Sheer Heart Attack and
News Of The World, Queen went through such a change for the
80s. They began to churn out more pop-oriented ditties and albums.
Hits such as “Another One Bites the Dust,” “I Want To Break Free,”
and “A Kind of Magic” exemplified Queen’s new sound. No longer
where they into long, complex songs like “Bohemian Rhapsody,” but
instead released albums like
The Game and
The Works. Not bad, but different.
Then, in 1989 — after a very-succesful (and, unknown to all,
final) world tour to support
A Kind of Magic — the band released their new album,
The Miracle. With it, you can feel that the band was
attempting to marry their 80s-pop sound with their 70s-bombast.
And, as you can expect, sometimes it works and sometimes it
doesn’t.
The album begins with the one-two punch of “Party” and
“Khassoghi’s Ship.” What I mean by that is that the songs seem like
part one and two of the same song. They’re pretty much along the
same vein. The problem is that neither song is memorable. They, at
best, fall into the same pit as “Pain Is So Close To Pleasure” and
“Drowse” — not innovative or exciting, but they’re there. In fact,
that is what keeps bringing down this album. For every highlight,
there is a corresponding stumble. In that pile, you can chuck
misses such as “My Baby Does” and “The Invisible Man” — which,
though having a very cool bass line, would have been better
released in 1979 and not 1989.
Another example is the title track. Now, I know that I should
take it as a sign of the times, but c’mon. In the era of “We Are
The World,” Live Aid and Musicians to Cure Jock Itch, I guess that
“The Miracle” fits in just fine. The problem is that now it seems a
bit outdated. What makes it worse is that it is usually included in
whatever greatest hits package is released — like perpetuating the
bad idea that disco was cool and punk really meant something. (By
the way, if there isn’t such a group as Musicians to Cure Jock
Itch, someone should get them balls rollin’. That’s a big problem
in the world).
Now, don’t think that every song is bad. Some of them deserve to
stand alongside the classics. Foremost is “I Want It All.” It tells
you something that when you pick this album up at your local music
store, the sticker on the album tells you this song is here. See,
the version that is on the
Greatest Hits compilation is a radio edit. The full-version
— sans the opening a capella beginning — is found only here and
it’s great. (I’ve actually heard of a complete version — featuring
the opening choir and the full version of Brian May’s ass-kicking
solo — is to be found out there somewhere. If anyone has it,
please send it this way).
There are other very cool songs here. The poppish “Rain Must
Fall” and “Breakthru” — with a great chorus — the sad and
appropriate “Scandal” — which has more relevance today than ever.
And then, the closing song “Was It All Worth It” seems to start the
vein of remembrance for Freddie Mercury and the band — as they
began to fight with Mercury’s incurable AIDS — that they would
delve into deeper for their last two albums,
Innuendo and
Made In Heaven.
Now, if you buy the newer Hollywood Records version of the CD,
you will get three bonus tracks. First, is “Hang On In There,”
which is alright, but nonetheless a B-side. The coolest part for me
lies at the very end as they’re fading out, when May, Roger Taylor
and John Deacon just start fooling around till fadeout. Next is
“Chinese Torture,” which is a few minutes of great May guitar work.
Metallica fans may remember this from a number of live
performances. Here you get the studio version. Finally, there’s a
12-inch version of “The Invisible Man,” which is horrible. They
added a number of effects and flushed an average song down into
awfulness. Oh well, being the last track, you can afford to miss
it.
As I stated before, the band was, by this time, fighting the
obvious, but private, reality of Freddie Mercury’s AIDS. This gave
the band an apparent new purpose as, for the first time, all songs
are credited to the entire band and not just one or two individual
members. However, only a few songs truly come out inspired. They
may have been fighting too much. In any case, their next two albums
would improve on the band’s return to their original sounds and
shadow this effort. This is probably more for the diehard fans and
the completists.