Queen
The Miracle

THE REVIEW

In general, when discussing the value of records, there are three types of albums. The first is the masterpiece, that work which makes you argue with others about its value and importance in the history of rock. The second, the dud, is a terrible product, which at least leads you to sustain a conversation about how bad it is. The third, the sterile one, is a null work, lifeless, thus devoid of any spurs for an interesting discussion about it.

The Miracle by Queen belongs to this last category. I know many fans rave about it and consider it a sort of creative peak (of what, then, remains to be seen); but in reality, it is not an interesting work at all, actually quite useless. If one owns all the previous albums, this one can be skipped, as it is nothing more than a sort of collage of things already heard and repeated here by the four for the umpteenth time. Just listen to the first two tracks, Party and Khashoggi's Ship, recorded in one take, but totally lacking in energy, not even remotely reminiscent of the fine performances of Sleeping on the Sidewalk or Spread Your Wings.

The band then proves, as in the previous A Kind Of Magic, more concerned with chart success, with pop songs such as The Miracle or Scandal, than the listener's ears. Furthermore, the banality of the lyrics is striking, a remarkable step back compared to even the minimal efforts of The Works; it all is then sealed with a series of poor fillers that complete the weak B-side. May's guitar in the usual stadium anthem I Want It All is not enough to save this work. It's hard to believe that a group of artists, visibly in creative decline, within two years could produce an album like Innuendo. If they had continued to make records like The Miracle and Mercury had not left us, they would have hardly been able to save themselves from a slow decline.