Queen
A Kind of Magic

"A Kind of Magic" was released in 1986, and stringing together one hit after another, it achieved tremendous commercial success, marking in some ways a revival after some previous episodes that critics judged a bit uncertain.

Whatever one might say, there is NOTHING in this album that can be called rock, nothing. It is a pop album. With "A Kind of Magic," Queen dive (or sink?) fully into a commercial climax, now completely bastardized from their glam roots, which only ten years earlier led them to write historic songs like "Somebody to Love."

It is a very heterogeneous product, as it is composed of nine pieces absolutely disjointed from any common conceptual and musical plan. On one side, we have the more melodic and sickly sweet ones ("One Vision", "A Kind of Magic", "Pain is So Close to Pleasure"); on the other, a kind of angry pop, quite tacky, frankly, passed off as a sort of Hard Rock branded Brian May ("Princess of the Universe", "Gimme the Prize", "Don't Lose Your Head"); and finally, the three beautiful ballads ("One Year of Love", "Friends Will Be Friends", and "Who Wants to Live Forever"). A shame, I would have liked to hear more pieces like these last ones. If the album had been all like this, it would have turned out to be a masterpiece. I allow myself a digression, "One Year of Love" is extraordinary. The only one that in a decidedly cheerful and defiant mood manages to bring out that bar melancholy that I love so much and that, at least for a few minutes, takes the album away from the party lights to bring it directly to the end of it, in a much more intimate and touching background. Curiously, Deacon decided to replace the guitar with a sax solo after a discussion with May, and I am thankful because that sax part is truly enchanting; probably the guitarist would have ruined everything, as everything he touches here destroys, or almost.

All things considered, I don't see the reason to dismiss an album like this, which moreover lent six tracks to the soundtrack of a great film like Highlander. Of course, it depends on the perspective in which you look at it. If it had been the work of a very ordinary pop band of powdered wigs from the decade in question, I could easily have given it a four, but since the Queen are involved and things are not very clear to me, I opt for an honest three. Clearly, these are not the Queens I like, but in all honesty, "A Kind of Magic" seems to me an enjoyable album, appreciable even by the most radical fans.

Simply its main feature is to be fun; who knows, maybe this wasn't the goal the band had set for themselves, but on the other hand, there are no concrete goals in this album, except for sales. Take it as it comes, and enjoy it too.