The Miracle (2011 Remaster: Deluxe Edition) [Original recording remastered]

December 1986 - May 1989 was a strange time to be a Queen fan. After being switched onto the band by my brother's purchase of Live Magic I spent the first few months of 1987 collecting the band's back catalogue and then wondering when I would get to experience the joy of buying completely new material for the first time. I knew the band had taken time off before to do other things - 1983 and 1985 were albumless years but the gap between A Kind of Magic and The Miracle was almost interminable to wait through. Eventually May 1989 came and The Miracle made its way onto my stereo for the first time. As wonderful as it was to hear the new album for the first time I also have to admit to feeling a little anti-climactic about the whole thing.

There is a feeling that Queen's 1980's output from The Works onwards featured singles that were the high point of the album and tracks that at best were simply 'fillers'. Hearing The Miracle and looking at it now 22 years later it is a view that holds some truth to it - though The Miracle has a little twist in that it features possibly the best Queen song never to be released as a single - Was It All Worth It - a heavy, semi-autobiographical song asking if all the time and effort put into music and touring was worth it? This and not Breakthru' should have been a single and means that five of the tracks on the album are outstanding whilst the other five are not.

The oustanding are Was It All Worth It, The Miracle (great optimistic lyrics), The Invisible Man (Queen's pop sensibility as its peak), I Want It All (classic, epic rock) and Scandal (my favourite track on the album and it still grates that it did not feature on Greatest Hits III yet crap like Living on my Own did!).

The less good are Party, Khashoggi's Ship, Breakthru' (nice opening a la We Are The Champions giving way to repetitive dirge about making a girl smile), Rain Must Fall (Euro-pop at its worst) and My Baby Does Me (laid back and pedestrian but goes nowhere). Nonetheless the re-mastering of the album is again worth the cost. At times it feels like you are in the studio with the band (if only) and I defend the re-issues on that basis to anyone.

Where this re-issue falls down is the separation of the three original bonus tracks on its 1989 release (Hang On In There, Chinese Torture and The Invisible Man 12" version) from the main CD onto the bonus EP disc. This means we only get four 'new' bonus tracks on this collection and one of them, I Want It All (Single version) features on Greatest Hits II anyway, whilst two of the other three (Stealin' and Hijack My Heart) came out on the single box sets last year. This means the only song worth buying the bonus disc for is the demo version of The Invisible Man, but well worth it in the end it turns out. Taylor sings most of the track with Freddie popping up for an Elvis interlude in the middle. Early versions like this just whet the appetite for a full anthology collection from the band (please QPL and Island pull your finger out on that project!).

Overall then, not a classic Queen album but with enough high points to balance out the low points and if you have never heard the bonus tracks before then it is worth buying on that basis.

Around 1986/87, Q magazine reviewed Queen's newly released first-issued CDs. Having listened to Queen since 1974 when my big sister first started playing Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack, I was perplexed by the critical savaging the magazine awarded the group's back catalogue from the 70s and early 80s. Nowadays, with the Island reissues, this magazine (and others) seem to have had a change of heart with, at least, Queen's 70s output (yes, even Jazz, except the awful More Of That Jazz track, has dated really well). Listening to all of the group's music again, I do tend to agree that the band's 70s albums stand up really well but the 80s albums slip into the category "good quality singles with average albums tracks" (with some exceptions). The Miracle, for me, definitely falls into this category. The best tracks on here are the excellent singles I Want It All, Scandal and Breakthru. They throw the kitchen sink at the tracks Was It All Worth It and The Miracle (title track) but, for me, the lyrics are, at best naive, at worst naff (e.g. yes we were Brill!). Tracks Party and Khashoggi's Ship are fun, but again, lyrically light. The Invisible Man is an enjoyable single, but Rain Must Fall and My Baby Does Me are fairly dull.

Reviewing the other 80s albums, I would say The Game was the probably the best and most consistent. Hot Space was a commercial flop but not quite as bad as people make out. The Works is fairly consistent (but short) and was considered a return to form at the time but the best songs on there are the 4 singles. A Kind Of Magic, although not a classic Queen album, should be viewed as an enjoyable mix-and-match, which served its purpose by incorporating songs from the Highlander film and producing the massive Magic '86 tour off the back of it.

Queen hadn't put out new material for years. The 'Kind Of Magic' album had an epic, dark sound but was a bit confusing as its songs were tied to films. Then there was the heavily edited 'Live Magic' LP.

'The Miracle' was the first full album since 'The Works' which showed a unified commitment to new songs in their own right (if you forget that 'Keep Passing The Open Windows' was also written for a film).

Queen were said to have returned to heavy rock and the strong lead single 'I Want It All' really sounded like it. Yet the album went on to exhibit the band's devotion to exploring synthesizers.

The album cover is utterly fabulous; kitsch and cool at the same time, which is what this band were all about.

The opening song sounds like Freddie's voice exercises being tracked closely together. 'Khashoggi's Ship' is BARELY a song-- Brian May finds a new sound on his guitar and milks it while Freddie ad libs about an imaginary (or not) party on a boat owned by a notorious arms dealer.

The title track is pretty cheezy but serves up the triple vocals we know and love. 'The Invisible Man' was a surprise when it was heard on the original release date-- and 'Breakthru' provides Disney-like harmonies over a cool, washy set of chords. 'Scandal' sports a wailing riff, which is unfortunately underscored by needless electronics.

When this album was released, thecloser 'Was It All Worth It' sounded like a kiss off to the industry. What we didn't know then was that Mercury was HIV positive, and the band thought this LP could very well have been their last.

Of the extras, 'Hang On In There' is better than some songs which made the album proper. The heavy instrumental 'Chinese Torture' is too short!

Then there's the b-side, 'Stealin''. It's absolutely brilliant from beginning to end. Where else can you hear Freddie conjuring up his best Delta blues voice to exclaim "Baby, let it bleed"...? Sometimes the best Queen tracks ('I Go Crazy') were relegated to b-sides.

The same can't be said for 'Hijack My Heart', which was notable in '89 for hosting the first Taylor lead vocal for several years. It's one of the worst tracks Queen did, and is essential listening for that reason alone.

We get the highly synthesized 12 of 'Invisible Man', but not the long version of 'Breakthru', which is surely lurking out there somewhere. Are May and Taylor hanging onto a few 12 inch versions for a separate release?

The album's not as good as 'The Works' or 'Innuendo'. But it's better than 'Hot Space', and more wholesome than 'A Kind Of Magic'.

So why four stars?

Because the remaster is pretty great. And after all, it's Queen.