Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must-have for any CD collection, 26 Mar 2002
Whilst most of Queen's early fans would have given up all hope by the time they listened to "The Works", for those that remained and the new followers "A Kind of Magic" was probably the peak of Queen's studio-based highly-polished era and blew me away when I picked up a copy upon its release in 1986.'Classic' may be an over-used word these days, but just listen to the album over and over again and songs such as "A Kind of Magic", "Who Wants to Live Forever" and "Princes of the Universe" will still sound fresh and such is the skill in the production of the album and its multi-layers that I STILL hear something different in each track even today! Gone is the diversity, pomp and tempo change of yesteryear, but here is a rock group at the peak of their output again out-classing the music of the moment (having seen out glam and punk, Queen were now taking on the new romantics). No excuses - you must own this.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just Brilliant!, 26 Sep 2002
The album starts well with Highlander theme Princes Of The Universe, then gets going with a terrific bass line from John Deacon on A Kind Of Magic. Pain Is So Close To Pleasure almost sounds like Diana Ross, with Mercury excelling at falsetto while the guys ham it up in a tribute to Motown. Friends Will Be Ffriends is an anthem which now seems to rival We Will Rock You; Queen said this was written to thank fans for being their friends. Who Wants To Live Forever was premiered as being Mercury & May rather than Queen at their 1986 concerts, and featured Brian at the organ. It starts as a melancholy song then soars into the stratosphere thanks to Freddie's powerful vocals. Gimme The Prize and Don't Lose Your Head are more Highlander tracks, rockier than most on this album, which ends with the Live Aid inspired One Vision. The only criticism I have of this album is that there isn't enough of it! Nine tracks just isn't enough! Nevertheless I saw Queen's last concert at Knebworth in 1986 and these songs were the flavour of that concert. This album will always remind me of a truly memorable experience in which I saw the world's greatest showman hold 200,000 people spellbound for two hours!
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"There can be only one!", 31 May 2006
It's rather ironic that one of Queen's biggest commercial successes of the `80's should turn out to be a fix-up album constructed from movie soundtracks (primarily `Highlander', though `Iron Eagle' spawned the opening track `One Vision') and straddling two producers. Perhaps the relative sales failure of the `Flash Gordon' album persuaded the band to disguise `A Kind of Magic' as a regular Queen album, though the lyrics to many of the songs (not to mention samples from the film) will confuse anyone who hasn't already seen `Highlander'.
Musically Queen are still firmly in super-clean over-produced `80's mode, but thankfully this isn't quite as soulless as previous hit-factory `The Works'. The title track itself, while technically good, is a little naff for my tastes, and `Friends Will Be Friends' is a little too cynical in it's attempt to create a lighters-in-the-air crowd-sing-along to match `We Are The Champions', but elsewhere the album shows signs of improvement in the Queen camp. Most importantly the band have remembered how to rock, and while `One Vision' tends towards big dumb stadium rock `Gimme the Prize' and `Princes of the Universe' are more interesting hard-hitters, with `Don't Lose Your Head' similarly pounding along with it's massive keyboard riff. `One Year of Love' finds the band going for a more soulful slow ballad style, while hilariously `Pain is so Close to Pleasure' finds Freddie in ultimate camp mode as he sings falsetto throughout the bands mimicking of 60's girl-group pop. Best of all however is `Who Wants to Live Forever', probably the best thing the band have recorded since the 70's, with a symphonic moody song and a welcome return to lead vocals (even if it is only for half the song) from Brian May.
I've always preferred 1970's Queen to 1980's Queen, and `A Kind of Magic' is rather to clean and slickly produced for my tastes, but this is undeniably chock full of good tunes.
NB: Of the bonus tracks 2 are pointless extended mixes, but `Forever' is a pleasant piano instrumental of `Who Wants to Live Forever'.
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