History Music / TheMiracle

** "Khashoggi's Ship" also counts. Just partying with a famous arms dealer, gun-wielding giants be damned.

* CoverVersion: "The Invisible Man" received one by-- of all people-- Music/ScatmanJohn in 1996.
* DesignStudentsOrgasm: The album cover sophisticatedly blends the band's faces into one seamlessly flowing unit, with the back cover making a stunningly elaborate honeycomb-like structure out of their eyes. Both were achieved using a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantel_Paintbox Quantel Paintbox]], a computer graphics workstation typically used for television broadcasts (''Series/DoctorWho'' fans will recognize it as the software used to produce many of the show's more sophisticated effects throughout the 80's).

* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Brian May sings co-lead vocals on "Party" and "I Want It All". Roger Taylor sings co-lead vocals on "The Invisible Man".

* {{Was It Really|WorthIt}}...? / WorthIt : The gist of the closing song, known as "Was It All Worth It?". According to the band, despite all the effort and heartache they put into it all, even after they knew that Freddie had AIDS, "It was a worthwhile experience!"

* {{Mondegreen}}: The title track mentions Captain Cook, but Mercury's pronunciation sounds like [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries "Captain Kirk"]].

Despite its cheery sound, however, it was recorded during a turbulent period full of personal crisis. Namely, guitarist Brian May was recovering from tensions in his marital life, and more significantly, vocalist Freddie Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS the year after their world tour for ''Music/AKindOfMagic'', with the visible effects of the disease (most notably Mercury's significant weight loss) leading to widespread and unfortunately correct media speculation that he was seriously ill; a good number of outlets even correctly guessed that he had AIDS. Thus, alongside ''Music/{{Innuendo}}'' and ''Made in Heaven'' after it, ''The Miracle'' represents a sense of approaching finality for Queen, as the band were forced to confront Freddie's mortality in a time when an AIDS diagnosis was regarded as a death sentence. Indeed, Mercury would die at the end of 1991, months after the release of ''Innuendo'', only confirming his battle the day before his death; before then, he tried to brush off speculation by claiming that he was simply exhausted from over a decade and a half of energetic performing.

''The Miracle'' is the thirteenth studio album by British GlamRock band Music/{{Queen}}, released in 1989. A return to the HardRock sound of the band's early material while simultaneously blending it with the synth-driven style of their later output, it was welcomed as a veritable comeback album that put the band back on the map outside the UK and got their best reviews in almost a decade. In the UK, they had already made their comeback in 1985 off the success of their iconic performance at Live Aid.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/11426054_350_350_7987.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''I want it ALL and I want it NOW!''.]]

Despite its cheery sound, however, it was recorded during a turbulent period full of personal crisis. Namely, guitarist Brian May was recovering from tensions in his marital life, and more significantly, vocalist Freddie Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS the year after their world tour for ''Music/AKindOfMagic'', with the visible effects of the disease (most notably Mercury's significant weight loss) leading to widespread and unfortunately correct media speculation that he was seriously ill. Thus, alongside ''Music/{{Innuendo}}'' and ''Made in Heaven'' after it, ''The Miracle'' represents a sense of approaching finality for Queen, as the band were forced to confront Freddie's mortality in a time when an AIDS diagnosis was regarded as a death sentence. Indeed, Mercury would die at the end of 1991, months after the release of ''Innuendo''.

* AlbumTitleDrop: As expected from a TitleDrop, this occurs frequently throughout "The Miracle"

* ColdBloodedTorture: "Chinese Torture" is named after the water-dripping torture technique, where someone is tied up while a drop of water keeps dripping on their forehead.
* ContinuityCavalcade: The music video for "The Miracle" shows "Little Freddie" in kid-sized versions of Freddie's various outfits over the years, including his black-and-white diamond jumpsuit from 1977, his white shirt and jeans look from Live Aid, and his yellow jacket outfit and white pants look at Wembley in 1986.

* ImportantHaircut: Freddie shaved the now-iconic thick mustache he sported throughout the majority of the 80's during the era for this album, with his clean-shaven look on the album cover representing Queen's return to a harder sound in-line with their late 70's work. At the same time, however, promotional photos and music videos for the album see Freddie grow a five-o-clock shadow, an apparent attempt at making his AIDS-induced weight loss less noticeable; it didn't work. Freddie would shave the beard while working on and promoting ''Music/{{Innuendo}}'', and would instead appear in that album's videos in heavy makeup and with DeliberatelyMonochrome image processing, which more effectively obscured his gaunt figure. The difference between mid-80's and late 80's Freddie would be further emphasized by the music video for "The Miracle", which features a child actor impersonating Freddie's Wembley '86 getup, complete with mustache, [[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ed/f5/d9/edf5d9186c73a40ea4cb3a2895b3ddc5.jpg side-by-side]] with the real, bearded Freddie, wearing the same outfit.

** "Scandal" is an attack on the celebrity-obsessed media, who were giving both Freddie (over his health problems, resulting in a picture of him looking haggard and emaciated on the front page of ''The Sun'') and Brian (over his divorce and subsequent marriage to actress Anita Dobson) a hard time in the late eighties.

* DesignStudentsOrgasm: The album cover sophisticatedly blends the band's faces into one seamlessly flowing unit, with the back cover making a stunningly elaborate honeycomb-like structure out of their eyes. Both were achieved using a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantel_Paintbox Quantel Paintbox]], a computer graphics workstation typically used for television broadcasts.

As per usual for Queen, ''The Miracle'' was a considerable commercial success for the band, topping the charts in the UK, Austria, the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland, and peaking at No. 24 on the Billboard 200. The album would go on to become the 14th best-selling album of 1989 in the UK, and would be certified platinum in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Switzerland, and gold in Australia, Austria, Finland, France, and New Zealand. Well-regarded in its own time, its acclaim has only grown since its release, and among both fans and critics it is nowadays considered a classic in Queen's back-catalog and one of their best albums of the 1980's.

* DesignStudentsOrgasm: The album cover sophisticatedly blends the band's faces into one seamlessly flowing unit, with the back cover making a stunningly elaborate honeycomb-like structure out of their eyes, both making use of state-of-the-art digital image manipulation technology.
* FaceOnTheCover: A very special and literal example of this trope: the band members' faces are composed into one. Notably, ''The Miracle'' is the last Queen album to abide by this trope (discounting the collaborative album ''The Cosmos Rocks''), with ''Music/{{Innuendo}}'' featuring appropriated J.J. Grandville illustrations and ''Made in Heaven'' featuring just a back shot of the surviving band members on the ''back'' cover (with the front cover using a back shot of a statue of Freddie).

* RevisitingTheRoots: ''The Miracle'' sees Queen return to the HardRock style of GlamRock that had punctuated both [[Music/QueenAlbum their very first album]] and their material from 1977-1980. ''Music/{{Innuendo}}'' would take the approach even further, modernizing the ProgressiveRock style that first brought them to mainstream attention in the mid-70's.

** "The Invisible Man" is a shout-out to ''Literature/TheInvisibleMan''. The song has been covered by-- of all people-- Music/ScatmanJohn!

* FaceOnTheCover: A very special and literal example of this trope: the band members' faces are composed into one. Notably, ''The Miracle'' is the last Queen album to abide by this trope, with ''Music/{{Innuendo}}'' featuring appropriated J.J. Grandville illustrations and ''Made in Heaven'' featuring just a back shot of the surviving band members on the ''back'' cover (with the front cover using a back shot of a statue of Freddie).

* FaceOnTheCover: A very special and literal example of this trope. The band members' faces are composed into one face.

** "Khashoggi's Ship" was written about billionaire Adnan Khashoggi and his large private yacht "The Nabila" (nowadays the "Kingdom 5KR").

Despite its cheery sound, however, it was recorded during a turbulent period full of personal crisis. Namely, guitarist Brian May was recovering from tensions in his marital life, and more significantly, vocalist Freddie Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS the year after their world tour for ''Music/AKindOfMagic''. Thus, alongside ''Music/{{Innuendo}}'' and ''Made in Heaven'' after it, ''The Miracle'' represents a sense of approaching finality for Queen, as the band were forced to confront Freddie's mortality in a time when an AIDS diagnosis was regarded as a death sentence. Indeed, Mercury would die at the end of 1991, months after the release of ''Innuendo''.

* MonaLisaSmile: "The Miracle"
--> ''Mona Lisa just keeps on smiling''.

* NostalgiaFilter: "Was It All Worth It?", where the band looks back on their career and success. Eventually Freddie decides it was!

** "The Miracle" name-drops several things that are a miracle, among them The Golden Gate, The Taj Mahal, Captain Cook, The Hanging Gardens Of Babylon, Cain and Abel, Music/JimiHendrix, the Tower Of Babel and the Mona Lisa.

* PepTalkSong: "The Miracle", "Breakthru", "Rain Must Fall" are all energetic songs that confirm to the listener that life is great, despite that sometimes "some rain must fall".

* AlbumTitleDrop: "The Miracle"
--> ''It's a miracle!''

* ColdBloodedTorture: "Chinese Torture" is named after the water-dripping torture technique, where someone is tied up while a drop of water keeps dripping on his forehead.

* CoolShip: "Khashoggi's Ship", about the ''Nabila'' (now known as the ''Kingdom [=5KR=]''), a superyacht formerly owned by Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi. For those wondering, a financially strained Kashoggi sold the ship in 1988 to Brunei sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, who sold her to American businessman and future president UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump, who sold her to Saudi prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, who as of 2020 is still the ship's current owner.
* DesignStudentsOrgasm: The album cover sophisticatedly blends the band's faces into one flowing unit seamlessly, with the back cover making a stunningly elaborate honeycomb-like structure out of their eyes, both making use of state-of-the-art digital image manipulation technology.

* TrrrillingRrrs: "The Invisible Man"
--> ''Rrrrrroger Taylor!''

* {{Was It Really|WorthIt}}...? / WorthIt : The gist of the closing song, known as "Was It All Worth It?". According to the band, despite all the effort and heartache they put into it all, even after they knew that Freddie had AIDS, "It was a Worthwhile Experience!"

* SingerNameDrop: All four band members are name-dropped over the course of "The Invisible Man", in time to when they first make their presences heard.

* CoolShip: "Khashoggi's Ship", about the ''Nabila'' (now known as the ''Kingdom [=5KR=]''), a superyacht formerly owned by Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi. For those wondering, a financially strained Kashoggi sold the ship in 1988 to Brunei sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, who sold her to American businessman and future president UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump, who sold it to Saudi prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, who as of 2020 is still the ship's current owner.

* GrandFinale: "Was It All Worth It" was written with this in mind.

Despite its cheery sound, however, it was recorded during a turbulent period full of personal crisis. Namely, guitarist Brian May was recovering from tensions in his marital life, and more significantly, vocalist Freddie Mercury was diagnoses with AIDS the year after their world tour for ''Music/AKindOfMagic''. Thus, alongside ''Music/{{Innuendo}}'' and ''Made in Heaven'' after it, ''The Miracle'' represents a sense of approaching finality for Queen, as the band were forced to confront Freddie's mortality in a time when an AIDS diagnosis was regarded as a death sentence. Indeed, Mercury would die at the end of 1991, months after the release of ''Innuendo''.

* CoolShip: "Khashoggi's Ship", about the yacht of the billionaire with the same name.
* DesignStudentsOrgasm: The album cover sophisticatedly blends the band's faces into one flowing unit seamlessly, with the back cover making a stunningly elaborate honeycomb-like structure out of their eyes.

** John Deacon once went AWOL during some recording sessions, leaving just a note on his bass saying "gone to Bali", which shocked and upset the rest of the band. The line "we went to Bali" was incorporated into "Was It All Worth It", which Freddie thought at the time would be his swan song (as he didn't think he'd live long enough for another album; he proved himself wrong two years later).

* TakeThat: "Scandal" is an attack on the celebrity-obsessed media, who were giving both Freddie (over his health problems, resulting in a picture of him looking haggard and emaciated on the front page of ''The Sun'') and Brian (over his divorce and subsequent marriage to actress Anita Dobson) a hard time in the late eighties.

* LongestSongGoesLast: On LP and cassette copies and all versions of the 2011 remaster, the closing track is "Was It All Worth It?", which at 5:45 paces out every other song on the record.

* ThePowerOfLove: "Breakthru", "My Baby Does Me" are powerful love songs.

* DesignStudentsOrgasm: The album cover.

''The Miracle'' is the thirteenth studio album by Music/{{Queen}}, released in 1989. It is best known for the hits "I Want it All", "Breakthru",
"The Invisible Man", "Scandal", and "The Miracle".

When the album was first released, it was welcomed as a veritable comeback album that put the band back on the map and got their best reviews in almost a decade. It all sounds fresh and energetic and puts the listener in a great mood.

Unfortunately, by this stage Freddie Mercury was suffering from AIDS, which forced Queen to stop touring and led to Mercury's health deteriorating. They would release one more album during Mercury's lifetime - ''Music/{{Innuendo}}'' from early 1991, before he died at the end of that year.

[[AC: Side One]]

[[AC: Side Two]]

CD Bonus Tracks:

** "The Invisible Man" is certainly uncatchable, it seems.
* ColdBloodedTorture: "Chinese Torture" about the water-dripping torture technique, where someone is tied up while a drop of water keeps dripping on his forehead.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: "Khashoggi's Ship" was written about billionaire Adnan Khashoggi and his large private yacht "The Nabila" (nowadays the "Kingdom 5KR").

** "The Invisible Man" is a shout-out to ''Literature/TheInvisibleMan''. The song has been covered- of all people- by Music/ScatmanJohn!

** John Deacon once went AWOL during some recording sessions, leaving just a note on his bass saying "gone to Bali", which shocked and upset the rest of the band. The line "we went to Bali" was incorporated into "Was It All Worth It", which Freddie thought at the time would be his swan song (he didn't think he'd live long enough for another album).
* SingerNameDrop: All four band members are name-dropped during "The Invisible Man".
* SpinOffBabies: In the music video of "The Miracle" the band is played by children, dressed up as them. [[spoiler: The grown-up Queen joins them on the set at the end.]]

* {{Was It Really|WorthIt}}...? / WorthIt : The gist of the closing song, known as "Was It All Worth It?". According to the band, despite all the effort and heartache they put into it all, even after they knew that Freddie had AIDS, 'It was a Worthwhile Experience!'

* AsTheGoodBookSays: "The Miracle" name-drops Cain and Able and the Tower Of Babel.

Back then it was welcomed as a veritable comeback album that put the band back on the map and got their best reviews in almost a decade. It all sounds fresh and energetic and puts the listener in a great mood.

** "Khashoggi's Ship" also counts for the six of us who've heard it. Just partying with a famous arms dealer, gun-wielding giants be damned.

Unfortunately, by this stage Freddie Mercury was suffering from AIDS, which forced Queen to stop touring and led to Mercury's health deteriorating. They would release one more album during Mercury's lifetime - ''Innuendo'' from early 1991, before he died at the end of that year.

* MundaneMadeAwesome: Freddie does this literally in "The Miracle", where among the various things he considers to be a miracle he also lists stuff like "Cain and Able" and "Sunday mornings with a cup of tea".

* BadassBoast: "The Invisible Man" is certainly uncatchable, it seems.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The title track and "Breakthru" mention "All God's People" and "Headlong" in their lyrics, both songs that would appear on the next album "Innuendo".

* TakeThat: "Scandal", aimed at the British tabloid press.

* {{Was It Really|WorthIt}}...? / WorthIt : The gist of the closing song from ''The Miracle'', known as "Was It All Worth It?". According to the band, despite all the effort and heartache they put into it all, even after they knew that Freddie had AIDS, 'It was a Worthwhile Experience!'