![]() They should have been B-sides or twelve-inch fillers. Just rather bland and pedestrian – not unlike Life Is Real (1982) and One Year of Love (1986). Breakthru and Was It All Worth It? are two of the very best later-Queen songs, but Rain Must Fall and My Baby Does Me are two of the worst. In other words, it’s a typical 80s Queen album. And the B-side, Hang On In There, had a refreshing having-fun-in-the-studio first-take vibe to it.Īs for the album itself, there was/is much to enjoy but also too much that is mediocre at best. I Want It All hinted at a back-to-basics approach but still delivered the anthemic sound of 80s Queen at their best. ![]() Publicity ahead of the album’s release – talk of a whole year in the studio, of batteries recharged and of old magic rediscovered – more than whetted the appetite, and the lead-off single certainly didn’t disappoint. (I am alluding to the interview that was used to open Channel 4’s broadcast of the Wembley concert in October 1986.)įast-forward to 1989. Perhaps I was just expecting too much.Īfter the success of Live Aid and the Magic Tour, which elevated Queen to megastar status on a par with the likes of the Stones and Michael Jackson (in Europe at least), band activity suddenly ceased in August 1986 – despite what Brian had said publicly about plans to immediately either record new stuff or continue touring. I was, to be blunt, a bit underwhelmed when I first played the album, back in May 1989. (As I argue here, Live Killers is seriously overdue the super-duper all-you-can-eat treatment.) So when it comes to reissues and the like, The Miracle was far from the top of my wish list. In fact, based on gut reaction, I once rated it my least favourite – more about that here. I should also say that The Miracle has never been one of my favourite Queen albums. For more about that, see my review of Queen + Adam Lambert at Manchester in 2022. Yes, I think of myself as a fan – they have been my favourite group for more than forty years – but I still try for a bit of objectivity too. I should start by saying that if you want to read something that tells you that Queen are fabulous, this box set is fabulous, everything Queen do is fabulous, you may as well stop reading now. The not inconsiderable sum of £150 buys you one vinyl album, five CDs, one BluRay, one DVD, one hardback book and assorted bits of memorabilia. The Miracle: Collector’s Edition is the latest Queen box set and comes thirty-three years after the album’s original release. My favourite song from The Miracle and also a question I have been asking myself since The Miracle: Collector’s Edition landed with a veritable thud on the doorstep a couple of months ago.
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