Queen Album: “A Kind of Magic”

In the early 80s, Queen were contacted to do a song for a new movie, "Highlander." Intrigued by the movie, they agreed to do more than just one. Queen performs every non-orchestra track that appears in the soundtrack to Highlander. However, no actual soundtrack was released (Despite the claims of the movie's credits).

Enter Queen, "A Kind of Magic." While these are not the same versions, they are indeed the same songs. From the theme to Highlander (Princes of the Universe) to the Title Track, played during the closing credits, most of the songs from Highlander appear here. One Vision, featured in the Film "Iron Eagle" appears here also, along with a bonus extended version of it.

Missing from the Highlander set are Hammer to Fall, which appears on "the Works." and "New York, New York," which cannot be verified to exist, short of the clip in the movie. Enough about Highlander, on to the songs themselves.

The highlights are clear: A Kind of Magic contains entire guitar lessons and chapters of music theory in BRian's solo. Princes of the Universe contains Queen's Trademark power rock harmonies and excellent guitar. Who Wants to Live Forever shows off the sheer Beauty of Freddie's Voice. Gimme The Prize (The Kurgan's Theme) is awesome hard rock. Don't Lose Your Head is a more synth pop oriented song, but shows what the rest of the 80s musicians should have done with them (Aside from maybe the cars). Forever, an instrumental piano based version of Brian's touching ballad, delivers depths in the fashion of true masters of symphonic music.

Despite Queen's loss of popularity in the US during the 80s, all of their records have essential hits on them, even "The Game" (Which features Another One bites the Dust, Dragon Attack, and Save Me). "A Kind of Magic" is no exception, featuring many solid songs which are essentials to any Queen or serious rock collections.

I recommend this both for it being a solid Queen album, and for it being the closest you can get to a Highlander Soundtrack. I'd rather get the cuts to "Princes" and "AKoM," but I will take what I can get.

A Kind of Magic seems a bit uninspired to me.Although the band is as confident and sharp as ever in their execution,the songwriting is weak.

One Vision is an 80's style Queen rocker,although the "rock"at this stage in their career seemed to be getting pushed further back in favor of pop.It's A Kind of Magic I belive is a brilliant pop song in every aspect,even though I thought it was a Pepsi commercial when I first heard it.We are a long ways from Ogre Battle and March of the Black Queen here follks!

One Year of Love is a standard love song with sax solo and over the top Freddie vocals.Pain is so close to Pleasure has Freddie singing in falsetto over bass heavy synths and in terms of Queen's best,is very lackluster.Friends will be Friends has never done much for me.

Who Wants to Live Forever is a great cinematic epic by Brian.Gimme the Prize,while very pedestrian in it's structure,has a monsterous vocal attack by Freddie and Brian May's faux bagpipe guitar solo.Don't Lose Your Head is a drum and synth heavy number by Roger Taylor,and is a complete waste,uninspired background techno,stupid lyrics,etc.Why Roger why?Princes of the Universe is a charging balls to the wall rocker by Freddie where it seems they're trying to retain some of the old Queen elements.

This album has it's merits but it's simply too lackluster to hold up to the best of Queen.Even The Works was more inspired than this,and there are too many limp songs on this album.It seems Queen moved very far away from their bluesy/prog rock roots during the 80's.At times it seems Freddie and the boys are pop stars TRYING to rock out.And the songs that are memorable are so over the top you either love them or loathe them it can seem at times.

Luckily,with the followup album The Miracle,Queen finally fused all the elements together and made a good modern hi-tech pop album(though by no means classic or perfect).To me,they never again(even with the pomp of Innuendo)were able to make albums filler free,without one wince inducing number to make you say"What were they thinking?".

But to paraphrase,"Yes,they kept on trying........."

This album polarises Queen fans; it's either loved to death and reviled with a passion. I happen to fall into the former camp. MAGIC sets out to produce a group of songs inspired by (and used in) the classic first HIGHLANDER film . . .and Queen (generally) succeeds in this task admirably. It is a shame that in the U.S.A, the album and the film were relegated to cult status. Hopefully, this will change for the better in the near future; but for now, here's a review of the tracks:

ONE VISION - Recorded after Live Aid (but written before it), this rock stomper for peace was ironically used in the soundtrack of the first IRON EAGLE flick. Highlights inlcude great synthesiser/guitar interplay and the thunder drumming of Roger Taylor.

A KING OF MAGIC - A lot of people though Roger Taylor could not write another epic like RADIO GAGA . . .how wrong they were! MAGIC gives of perfect summation of HIGHLANDER's main plot device . . .the contest between the immortals. The 'poppiness' of this track meshes well with the precise axework of Brian May and the ethusiastic vocals of the great Freddie Mercury. The video clip shot by HIGHLANDER's director Russell Mulcay, is a spectacle in itself.

ONE YEAR OF LOVE - Used in HIGHLANDER and HIGHLANDER 2 (both on bar jukeboxes!),this 'Queen soul' ballad has Freddie going right over the top vocally . . .but would we expect anything less from the King of Queen? This is filler, but pretty good nonetheless.

PAIN IS SO CLOSE TO PLEASURE - Mercury does Mowtown in a falsetto to rival Mick Jagger and Barry Gibb! Filler again, but with a good bounce, courtesy of bassist John Deacon. The vocal echo effect at the end of the track is a bit annoying,though.

FRIENDS WILL BE FRIENDS - Quickly became a concert singalong favorite with a soaring intro from Brian. The lyrics state that things may get bad, but so long as you've got true friends you'll be alright.

WHO WANTS TO LIVE FOREVER - The main probelm with being immortal . . .everybody else dies,while you remain the same. A ballad sung by Brian and Freddie, with orchestral,keyboard and band backing. If this track doesn't bring tears to your eyes, then you must have a stone heart.

DON'T LOSE YOUR HEAD - It's techno time in the Queen camp, with backing vocals by Joan Armatrading. Filler track with the message to 'play it safe out there'.

PRINCES OF THE UNIVERSE - Song that opens the film. Great harmonies and the boys are firing of all cylinders.I love the comments Freddie lets loose with as Brian hammers the frets:"

ONE VISION (EXTENDED VERSION) - Same as the first track, only longer. That final lyrical joke always cracks me up:"Just gimmie,

A Kind of Magic features some very fine songs, especially Who Wants to Live Forever and One Vision, but this 1986 release also boasts what I consider the worst song in the band's history, Pain is So Close to Pleasure. It's really awful. Friends Will Be Friends mines the same subject matter as the much better You're My Best Friend from Day at the Races. For every good song on this disc, there's another that may very well leave you pressing the skip button. Too bad the band stopped featuring lead vocals from Brian May and Roger Taylor with The Game. Their absence is missed. The band would return to better form with The Miracle.

is one of the best soundtracks in the world.Queen's A Kind Of Magic serves as the soundtrack/score to the 1986 sci-fi classic film Highlander.Of course I grew up watching the T.V. series,where I first heard the song Princes Of The Universe but never heard any of the other songs untill I saw the film when I was 14.All the songs are so wonderful and beautifully writen but the one the stands out so much is of course the track Who Wants To Live Forever which is the most beautiful and most outstanding song in both the movie and the album.Anyone who's a fan of both Queen and the film,will love this CD.