QueenZone discussion #654321
A Kind Of Magic personal Review
| Dancer, Dancer 06.11.2005 15:23 |
1) One Vision An awesome, really rocking song, great vocals by Freddie and all round great playing by the others. Particulary good because All of the members of the band contributed to its writing, marking a very rare union for this period, i think this makes it a bit more special. 2) A Kind Of Magic A great Taylor song, probably one of his best. Fantastic bass playing by John and Elec by Brian, contribute to great beat. A personal favourite. 3) One Year Of Love A Good old love song, which is used well in the movie 'Highlander'. 4) Pain Is So Close To Pleasure I think one of the weaker songs on the album, but with some great vocal input by Freddie. 5) Friends Will Be Friends A very good, basic 'sing along' song with brilliant guiatring by Brian. Too basic for me though. 6) Who Wants To Live Forever Probably the best song on the entire album, fantastic vocals by Freddie and Brian, i think the atmospheric effect created is just pure brilliance, to me on of Queen greatest 80's songs. Sad and powerful, and used in the emotional scenes in Highlander. 7) Gimme The Prize (Kurgan's Theme) (****) 8) Don't Lose Your Head (***) 9) Princes Of The Universe Another brilliant song, which i can never quite accept to be written by Freddie as the style was not at all typical Mercury. Great use in Highlander too! |
| Asterik 14.11.2005 15:19 |
Yes I agree with a lot of the points here. I think Friends Will Be Friends shows that Queen had lost their anthemic ability a little; at least compared to earlier songs like Lap Of The Gods Revisited, We Are The Champions, Save me etc. but Princes, One Vision and Who Wants To Live Forever are magnificent songs that would hold up in any era. Gimme The Prize and AKOM are also strong as well as One YEAR of Love. I can nver understand why people put this down. Freddie gives a magical vocal performance. The only two poor songs are pain/Pleasure which sounds very listless and Don't lose Your Head which is very synth based and dated. I wish Queen had done Princes and Gimme The Prize on the Magic tour- it seems strange to me that they left off two of the most- stadium friendly numbers that would rock very hard. |
| epwchill 14.11.2005 17:49 |
The reason, i believe, those songs were left off the 86 setlist was because it was basicly a "Greatest Hits" set list. That was one of the worst things about the 86 tour. What i want to know is why Q+PR didnt perform Invisable man, Headlong, Breakthru, and Scandal on this years tour. |
| Zander05 15.11.2005 01:23 |
I think they didn't want to do Scandal because Roger really hated the song. |
| Fraz 30.12.2005 10:55 |
I was listening to this album earlier, the album is great. A Kind Of Magic is one of my top 5 Queen Album, i would say the great songs are especially at the start and middle. I love how you have to turn the cd case up side down to read the song titles it's just magic. |
| NJQueenFan 30.12.2005 18:58 |
One Vision - 9 A Kind of Magic - 7 One Year of Love - 4 Pain is So Close to Pleasure - 1 Friends Will Be Friends - 4 Who Wants to Live Forever - 8 Gimme the Prize - 5 Don't Lose Your Head - 3 Princes of the Universe - 8 Awful Queen album, their worst by far |
| Sithmarauder 30.12.2005 23:01 |
Well done, with your opinion. I remember Brian coming to New York and was a guest at WNEW to promote the album. Ironically the DJ ( I forget his name) raved about Don't Lose Your Head. He said "Queen production coming through". And basically praised the entire album. I remember saying to myself "This could be the resurgence of Queen in the US and a tour." Sadly that never happened. |
| jcrawford79 30.12.2005 23:13 |
I know I'm in the minority here, but I think Princes of the Universe and Gimme the Prize are two of the worst songs Queen ever recorded. |
| Sithmarauder 31.12.2005 00:02 |
jcrawford79 wrote: I know I'm in the minority here, but I think Princes of the Universe and Gimme the Prize are two of the worst songs Queen ever recorded.I like Princes of The Universe but Gimme The Prize........I realize it was made for the movie but I still don't like the song very much. |
| TRS-Romania 31.12.2005 05:20 |
1) One Vision (album version) I actually hate the guitar solo that hits in after the keyboard intro. It sounds to flat, and when I am sorry to say say when it goes into the part when Freddie starts to sing (1st verse 1:27 min) it sounds like it was poorly produced. On the other hand the Greatest Hits II version is the one I prefer, the guitar solo in the beginning is edited out, and it sounds really so much better. The rest of the song is ofcourse awesome. 2) A Kind Of Magic I love the bassline, it sticks in your head very iventive. The guitar(s) are subtle, and suit the song perfectly. I think Brian deliberately choose to lighten up the guitar, since it doesnt sound too screamy to me (as opposed to his guitar solo as in let's say Boh Rhap) 3) One Year Of Love The song is great, but lacks some instruments ... I think it has too many keyboards on it, and in my opinion the sax solo is just dreadful. Freddie does stretch his voice to the ultimate (almost as he does in In My Defence). 4) Pain Is So Close To Pleasure This is just great. Here you can hear what Freddie is capable of doing with his voice (a kind of a high falsetto voice he has) as opposed to One Vision. I think it's really enjoyable 5) Friends Will Be Friends it's a boring theme. It's like they wanted to create an anthem as that was the starting point of creating this song. In my opinion the sounds and instruments (piano,guitar,bass , drums) are great and when it goes into the bridge part at 1:55 (when Brian comes in with some heavy guitar) it's the change we were waiting for in this kind of boring song 6) Who Wants To Live Forever Excellent production, great arrangements with the strings. And the first verse sung by Brian brilliantly moves towards the somewhat raw voice of Freddie. The guitar solo is just BRILLIANT, and the outtro is kind of sad, but so beautiful. 7) Gimme The Prize (Kurgan's Theme) This song I personally do like because of some great guitar riffs and the (again) raw Freddie voice (it's like he sounds angry at ). Allthough I dont listen to this one too often, I think its still a gem on the album 8) Don't Lose Your Head Wonderful wonderful song .... great drums, great guitar, good arrangements. I love this ! (especially the part at 2:55 min "Love's stronger... love conquers all" 9) Princes Of The Universe Weak! I am sorry I didnt like the chords arrangements, at times it sounds to odd for me. It goes from one way to to the other and it doesnt stick in my head as being a pleasent song to listen to. The only good thing is that little guitar riff Brian does in the middle (totally awesome) starting at 2:19 min Well just my humble opinion |
| Mr. Barcelona 01.01.2006 05:19 |
I think "magic" is a fun album, obviously not vintage queen, but still good. one vision- 10 magic- 10 one year of love- 10 (great love song) pain and pleasure- 7 friends will be friends- 8 who wants to live forever- 10 gimme the prize- 9 don't lose your head- 3(one of their worst) princess of the universe- 10, great rocker(one of brians favorites). |
| Mr. Barcelona 02.01.2006 03:16 |
princess was one of brians favorite freddie songs, I'm not sure how anyone could complain about "one year of love" freddie is at his best and also has a nice sax solo. |