Clicking on links on the Internet is A Kind of Magic ... A Kind of Magic Mushroom Overall Album Score: 8.1 out of 10 A mixed album ... perhaps the most mixed album in their whole blooooody catalogue! A small handful of the songs on here are absolutely among the best the band's ever done ... in any decade. "One Vision" is an absolutely phenomenal arena rock song. Seriously! Too few groups from this era were able to match such a song. It's both ball-bashing and tremendously catchy. Then, there's the title track, "A Kind of Magic," which is another phenomenally catchy pop song with a great bass line. Another absolutely superb song in here is "Who Wants to Live Forever," which is perhaps Queen's only real heartbreaker. Ooooohhhhhhh man............ with such great songs as that, who is there to argue? Who would really care that most of these songs were written for movies??? Uhhhh... well... *shuffles feet* ... "One Year of Love" might just be one of Queen's most embarrassing songs of their career. And "Pain is So Close to Pleasure" is just ... cheese. A handful of other tracks are just spotty, such as "Gimme the Prize," which was merely redeemable for its KICK-BUTTEDNESS!!!!!! A few other songs in here aren't really *great* but they kick mighty butt. "Princes of the Universe" ... that song is crap, but notice that I gave it a 9. Crap never has been so awesome! And "Don't Lose Your Head" is crap, too, but it's got a great groove. ... Ummm... I think that just about does it. This album is probably more of a compilation, but there are enough great moments in it to make it worth adding to your record collection ... so many great moments, that I'd just assume forget the lousy ones. Overall Album Score: 8.1 out of 10 (This album is cool for three reasons: "One Vision," "A Kind of Magic," and "Who Wants to Live Forever." THOSE SONGS ARE TOOOOO AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Average Song Score: 8.4 (Some of the most awesomest 80s pop rock songs ever written ... intermixed with crap.) Album Tilt: 8.0 (Inconsistent ... and there are really only about four or five songs on here that I truly enjoy ........ but for those four or five moments, I give A Kind of Magic a type of high regard that I rarely give to such albums.) Artist Rating: 8.0 (Not an artistic album, but ... I doubt they didn't want to do anything else than to be fun. And they achieve that except for two songs.) Track Reviews One Vision 10/10 Oh man! Queen is so awesome! This is another attempt at doing another arena-rock classic, and they succeed! It sounds like every other cheese-metal anthem, but this one has a superbly catchy melody, fun 80s-style mixing, and some really really good guitar work from Brian May. This song wasn't meant to do anything except kick butt, and they do that with every breadth of its body!!! Crappingly awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm having fun already! A Kind of Magic 9.5/10 I love the bass line! The melody is very fun and catchy. Yet another Queen classic from the 80s ... Oh man... Queen is riding right on top of that 1986 pop-wave here! ... This period of rock-and-roll is largely considered one of the genre's worst (by me, even) ... but this is a great pop song. Queen should get at least some credit for writing awesome pop music in 1986. (Do you also realize that this is the first title track that Queen EVER did??? That's kind of odd, isn't it.) One Year of Love 6/10 Well, they couldn't ride that pop-wave in 1986 forever I guess. WIPEOUUUUTTTTTTT!!!!! This is a very very sickening romantic adult contemporary song that sounds way too much like Michael "Freaking" Bolton. It even has the cheesy saxophone and completely distant vocals. But ... Freddie's still a good singer. The song still has that going for it. The tune's all right too, but ... all in all, this is a BOOOOOOMBBBBBBBBB. Pain is So Close to Pleasure 7.5/10 This light adult contemporary song is quite a bit less crappy than "One Year of Love." For one, it isn't so dang SAPPY (but this still is pretty sappy) ... and this song is much more upbeat, and the melody is better. ... But this is still pretty dismal compared to those two freaking-cool songs... FRNOIGNOEIRNOG. Friends Will be Friends 8/10 Man.......... sometimes I just can't believe that Queen couldn't have come up with better lyrics than some of these songs. OH MAAAAANNNNNNNNN... This really isn't a great song, anyway. It has a pretty catchy melody, but it doesn't do much for me. Who Wants to Live Forever 10/10 This is such an awesome song that I can't even begin to tell you why. ... Because I really don't know why I think this is so awesome. Maybe it's because it sounds so epic and Mercury's vocal performance genuinely sounds heart wrenching. ... This is probably even one of Queen's most resonant songs. And it has a great melody, too, and nice wall-of-sound style instrumentation. Brian May is even more awesome in my book for penning this baby. Gimme the Prize (Kurgan's Theme) 8/10 Part of me wants to embrace the ball-bashing awesomeness of this track. The other part of me wants to criticize it to death for being totally stupid. The parts with the dialogue in it could have been cut out, even IF it was part of that Highlander movie. I think an 8 is a pretty good compromise, though. Parts of this song really do kick butt mercilessly ... 10 times more than Kiss could ever hope to. Don't Lose Your Head 8/10 I like the hard-pop groove! And ... this really is a fun song to listen to. But it doesn't give me much, unfortunately. It gets tiresome and the melody isn't absolutely pristine for Queen. Princes of the Universe 9/10 I consider Highlander a great movie for only one reason: it appeals to the gritty, dirty, cynical side of me. It might not actually be a **good** movie in the technical sense, but I enjoyed it. ... This song is the same way. It's not really a good song, but it appeals to the gritty, dirty, cynical side of me. And besides which, Queen has some good bits of melody here, even if they are not exactly linear. Forever Sort of a pointless inclusion of a piano version of "Who Wants to Live Forever" without the vocals. ... It does prove my point, though, that this is probably the most resonant song (musically speaking, as well as lyrically) that this craaaazy band has ever written. ... Not that such a distinction is difficult-to-achieve, but ... Still awesome!!! I don't think I'm going to score this in the final album count, 'cause this is kinda cheating. BONUS TRACKS An extended version of "One Vision." Awesome!! What can I say? It ain't a remix! 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All reviews are copyrighted by the author, Michael Lawrence. He is not not cool.