Review Summary: There are a few decent cuts on “A Kind of Magic,” although the ending of the album is disastrous.
After the commercial success of 1984’s “The Works” (Well, outside the States anyway) and a years long tour to go with it, ‘Queen’ took a break from one another, Freddie did a solo album (which I reviewed before this review), and the rest well just… well… chilled.
Bob Geldof took them of their hiatus by asking them to perform in 1985’s legendary ‘Live Aid’ show, and the band who were always an exceptional live act blew the 80,000 Wembley away with their quick fire renditions of the hits “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Radio ga ga” “Hammer to fall,” “Crazy little thing called love,” “We will rock you,” and “We are the Champions.” Suddenly Queen were at their most popular (well outside the US) since 1975’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Soon afterwards came the song “One Vision” in which the making off is now documented in an infamous making of video.
A couple of months later came the first official single (although One Vision is on this album) called “A Kind of Magic” which would also be the name of their new album. So had “Live Aid” invigorated Queen? Were they now wiser and more prepared to springboard to a new level? Well… actually no.
There are a few decent cuts on “A Kind of Magic,” although the ending of the album is disastrous. Its main problem is that around the same time the band were recording the album they were asked to provide music for the film “Highlander,” and most of those songs appear here. Problem is bar two, the rest is a tepid rock affair that churns out dull and uninspired tracks.
Anyway we begin with the first hit of this album “One Vision.” It starts of promisingly with a fine, epic, synthed keyboard intro near it’s conclusion Freddie dupes out ‘Aye’ then sadly apart from the middle section that produces the same trick but with Brian adding guitar distortions, the rest of the song turns out to be an average rocker that tries to be as if it’s triumphant and coming from the pits, but sadly staying at the pits is all it can manage. It’s especially ruined with the non-sensicle ‘Fried Chicken at the end of the song…
“One flesh, one bone, one true religion, one voice, one hope, one real decision,
Give me man, give me one bar, just give me, one man, day, hey, hey…
GIVE ME, GIVE FRIED CHICKEN????”
Just what a wannabe fist pumping anthem needs, and what do bars have to do with helping the world or visions or whatever this song was supposed to be about??? Still the middle section and beginning save this from being a complete ‘stinker.’
“A Kind of Magic,” is an excellent song. It starts of with the now familiar Freddie utterance of ‘It’s a kind of Magic, it’s a kind of magic,’ the ‘one dream, one goal’ lyrics were for the movie “Highlander” but that’s ok because the song in general is damn cool, and one of the best chill out tunes ever did. The middle section alone with Brian May’s ‘chill out’ solo combined with the synthesized essence that surrounds this sound makes it damn cool.
The sombre “One year of Love,” is below average filler, it tries to be a love song about a guy who is so alone that all he yearns for is a lover for one year, rather than a ‘lifetime alone.’ The problem is the song never leads anyway and Mercury’s non-caring delivery of the lyrics don’t help. 3/5 for the lyrics, 1/5 for Freddie’s effort.
“Pain is so close to pleasure,” is a ‘Motown’ style song, Freddie even gives a good soulful performance. Sadly the song is nothing but an average soul song, although the ‘Pain, Pleasure’ reference at the end of the song does add some needed emotion to the song, even though some may argue that it still turns out artificial.
One of the most woeful Queen songs released as a single comes next. Why anyone brought “Friends will be Friends” is beyond me. It has a clichéd guitar solo at the beginning, the ‘Friends will be Friends, right til the end’ chorus is vomit-inducing, it also gives memories of what was bad about 1980’s rock ‘POWERPUF ANTHEMS.’
After that damage to your ears anthem, comes one of the albums, and Queen’s, best moments. “Who wants to live forever,” is one of Queen’s most epic, and down to earth songs, and whilst never really being a lyrics band, it manages to produce one of the bands best lyrical openings to a song:
“There’s no time for us,
There’s no place for us,
What is this thing that builds our dreams?
Yet slips away from us?”
It was just as powerful, when used in ‘Highlander.’ Brian sings the first verse, whilst the second is sung by Freddie. After a real serious, yet for a change emotional ‘guitar solo’ from Brian, both he and Freddie take turns in unisom to perform this gem of a middle section:
“So touch my tears with your lips,
Touch my world with your fingertips.”
Brian then utters the darkest of lyrics at the end:
“Who waits for ever anyway?”
This is one of Queen’s strongest ever songs. The classical instrumentation, combined with Brian’s guitar makes this extremely epic, yet moving. Sadly it’s on this filler induced album.
The rest, sadly, is just tuneless hard rock songs. The first is “Gimme the Prize,” it starts with a promising reprise from the ‘Highlander’ film, of a report of a man’s ‘severed head.’ Sadly the rest of the song is a tuneless, zero effort, rock catastrophe. Even Kurgan’s ‘evil laugh’ and ‘Now you die’ quotes can’t save this. Or to quote him in this song ‘I have something to say, it’s better to burn out than to fade away,’ this song certainly should have faded away. As I’ve said millions of times before… HARD ROCK & QUEEN DON’T MIX.
Looks like the band didn’t learn their lesson cos next comes yet another ‘1980’s’ vomit inducing ‘POWERPUF’ anthem called “Don’t lose your head.” It’s really sad to hear a band in their 40’s trying to act young and sing youthful lyrics when in reality you’re really cracking yourself up with laughter and thinking “Ha ha ha, maybe in 1974 but not now.” Ok this was for the “Highlander” film too but why put this on an ‘actual studio album,’ I mean, I could accept this being on a ‘Highlander’ soundtrack album, but why an official album release? It’s almost as if Queen were CASHING IN.
The album ends with the tuneless “Princes of the Universe.” The mix of the film is better than on this album. And I’ll protect the film by simply saying that it was based in the 80’s so to introduce a typical eighties rock tune ain’t too bad. Admittingly this song isn’t bad, but it just turns out to be average for its time.
The album also has as a bonus feature (after the official album finishes) an extended version of “A Kind of Magic” called “ A kind of a Kind of Magic,” it even has the cheek to put an extended version of “Friends will be Friends,” although the piano instrumental of “Who wants to live forever,” is quite dandy.
Ok enough with the ‘Magic,’ and here’s ‘A Kind of’ recap.
ONE VISION
Starts well but just turns into an average 80’s rock song. 2.5/5
A KIND OF MAGIC
Great chill out track. 5/5
ONE YEAR OF LOVE
Not bad, just below average love song. 2/5
PAIN AND PLEASURE
Average motown style song. 2.5/5
FRIENDS WILL BE FRIENDS
Puke inducing anthem. 1/5
WHO WANTS TO LIVE FOREVER
One of Queen’s most beautiful, yet epic songs. 5/5
GIMME THE PRIZE
Bad, bad rock song. 1/5
DON’T LOSE YOUR HEAD
You’ll want to after listening to this. 1/5
PRINCES OF THE UNIVERSE
Average, if not a bit below, 80’s rock song. 2/5
That gives “A Kind of Magic” an average of 2.44
So comparing to others.
Queen 2.7
Queen II 2.59
Sheer Heart Attack 3
A Night at the Opera 3.96
A day at the races 2.59
News of the world 2.4
Jazz 2.3
The Game 3.15
Hot Space 2.86
The Works 2.33
TO CONCLUDE
Mediocre, was sadly a “norm” for the band now. Compare that with Freddie Mercury’s solo effort that I reviewed yesterday, and now the problems become clear. “Mr Bad Guy” dared to do everything and basically, yet amazingly succeeded. “A Kind of Magic,” despite its title is a sapid, yet boring attempt to just do what the band always had done. They try to rock like Queen and Queen II but still make the same mistakes they did on those releases as they would also on “News of the World” and Jazz.
Whilst touring for this album Freddie once joked live on stage ‘I keep wanting to leave, but they won’t let me.’ After listening to the brilliant “Mr Bad Guy,” and then having to listen to this, one has to wonder if there was some actual truth to what Freddie was saying.
2/5
