Queen: A Kind Of Magic - 1986
"The album's confused origins made for a somewhat uneven listening experience" - Mark Blake
An appealing number is the anthemic, grandiose and powerful Friends Will Be Friends. This is the track that harks back to Queen's late seventies material more than any from its period or indeed this album, just check out Brian's regal guitar solo. The plaintive Who Wants To Live Forever is heartbreakingly moving, of course, and would prove to be even more so five years later. When it breaks out into its huge rock and choral denouement it is thoroughly magnificent.
After Queen's renaissance with 1984's The Works and the triumphant show-stopping Live Aid performance, they were hip again and seemingly could do no wrong. Maybe they got a bit lazy, because this is a typically mid-eighties, patchy album.
There is some classic material on this album, don't get me wrong, but there is some questionable stuff too. The sound quality throughout is outstanding on the latest remastering, however. The album was originally conceived as a soundtrack album for the 1986 film Highlander, six its songs coming from that concept. As Queen biographer Mark Blake has suggested, it leads to a lack of cohesion in the final album. Let's be positive and talk about the good ones.
One Vision, written about Bob Geldof, is simply one of my favourite riffy Queen rockers of all time. When Brian May launches into it - wow. Love it to death.
The stadium-friendly groove of A Kind Of Magic (another fine Roger Taylor song - incredibly) is pretty impossible to dislike. It has a warm, deep and innately melodious bassline and beat and is accompanied by some fetching Brian May guitar interjections. It sounds great in its latest remastered format - as bassy and full as anything Queen did. I love Freddie's playful "a-ha-ha - it's magic!" little bit halfway through too.
Now on to the less wonderful material. John Deacon's One Year Of Love is not a funk-rock outing, but an eighties-era Elton John-style ballad, redeemed by Mercury's vocal and a deep, resonating bass beat. It also has a late-night, easy-listening saxophone solo. Alright in that type of song, but is this Queen? Surely not! Look, it is pleasant enough, but you have to say Queen had become very middle-of-the-road with material like this.
Pain Is Close To Pleasure is a slice of AOR eighties slick disco, that sounds like something Diana Ross may have put out around this time. How fans who had been into Queen since the start, like myself, could tolerate tosh like this is difficult to understand. The excellent sound quality detracts from what is a pretty awful track.
Gimme The Prize (Kurgan's Theme), one of several tracks from the soundtrack of the afore-mentioned film Highlander, gets things back on track with an excellent, muscular, thumping rocker full of chunky guitar, a classic Brian May solo, samples from the film and a powerful Mercury vocal. Nice one. Don't Lose Your Head is an unremarkable synth-rock number from Roger Taylor. Mercury's vocals are typically strong, but the song is similar to the worst ones on Hot Space. Again, what Queen fans see in this is beyond me. Princes Of The Universe is a bit clichéd lyrically, and musically, with its big clunky heavy riffs, but it's ok. It has a quick snatch of Brighton Rock-style guitar at one point, though.
This is not a Queen album I revisit too often. I have to say, though, that listening to it now I have quite enjoyed it, but it certainly is no classic.
