THE MIRACLE

To those who had written Queen off as a pointless pop band, this album not only put Queen at the top with a vengeance, but signalled one of the most prolific writing periods in the band's career. I saw someone mention here that the title track is about Freddie Mercury's illness, which is completely untrue. Yes, this was supposed to be the final Queen album as the band knew he was very ill...this is why the band recorded in upwards of 35 songs during the 88-89 sessions. Sure the song is uplifting and positive...but not about Freddie at all!

Several of the songs here seem a bit rushed, such as "My Baby Does Me" (a pseudo funk throwaway that would have fit on Hot Space) and "Rain Must Fall" which is basically a close cousin to "My Baby...". The rest of this album is wonderful!!!! The pop songs rock more than before and the rock songs just kick serious ass!!! "Party / Khashoggi's Ship", "I Want It All", "Scandal"...great rock tunes here!!!! Sure they have some synth, but it isn't the cheesy synth that can be found on the "Kind Of Magic" album.

This album is TIGHT!!!! The band knew they were on borrowed time with Freddie, and so to stop all the fighting (hmm) they agreed to just write everything as Queen no matter who came up with the original ideas. This is STILL among my Top 5 Queen albums and will probably always remain there.

The final track here "Was It All Worth It" is one of my favorite Queen songs of all time, not only because of the great heaviness, the great riff, the strange interlude in the middle...but also because this could have been Freddie's final song and I would have forever been happy with that! I'm not sure if these were even Freddie's lyrics, but what a wonderful final thought to all of Freddie fans around the world....

Was It All Worth It? Yes, it was worth it...

It's such a shame that Freddie had to be cut down because I believe this album was just the beginning of what could have been a complete Queen revival...proof which was shown even more clearly with 1991's "Inneundo."

The bonus tracks on this CD version are all B-sides from the singles surrounding the "Miracle" album. Several were simply 12" remixes or extended version which were used to promote the band in the club scene. Included is the CD only track "Chinese Torture", a really cool and way too short instrumental focusing on Brian's chorus guitar effect. The other CD track, "Hang On In There" could be found on the original 1989 CD and the remaster, and it was also one of the band's B-sides.

Unfortunately not included is a great 12" version of "Breakthru" along with several other awesome non-album tracks that appeared only as B-sides, including: "Hijack My Heart" (typical off the wall Roger song), "Stealin" (a great acoustic / rock tune), and "My Life Has Been Saved."

I'm adding all of this detail to prove a point. Along with these many songs already listed above, there were several more that eventually found a place on "Innuendo" and even more that have still not seen the light of day. Although there may be people out there who will bash Freddie Mercury for being bi-sexual, bash him because he died of AIDS (actually it was pneumonia), bash him for his flamboyance and odd songwriting ability, you can never bash his work ethic!!!!

One thing is certain - walking in the shadow of death Freddie Mercury did what he loved doing best, writing music for his fans, as much as he possibly could before his time was up. Yes he was in terrible pain, yes it must have been horrible!! But he did it for all of those who still loved Queen's music.

He loved his music and his fans!!! That's more than could be said about most musicians, and they certainly weren't facing a death sentence at the time. BUY THIS ALBUM if you want to hear some of the last brilliant songs from one of the greatest songwriters, singers, and performers of the last 50 years.

To those who critisize ANYONE'S music: it means nothing until you can write and compose something that is better!!! It's easy to break things down, but can you build them up?????

LONG LIVE FREDDIE AND LONG LIVE QUEEN

PS - This gets a 5-star rating not based on "prog or not" but based on the music. Queen is not prog, I love em...they just aren't prog.