Music / A Kind of Magic (1986)

aka: A Kind Of Magic

One dream, one soul, one prize, one goal…

A Kind of Magic is the twelfth studio album by the British rock band Queen, released in 1986 through EMI in the UK and Capitol Records in the US. It is considered an unofficial soundtrack album to the 1986 movie Highlander, with only three songs — "Pain Is So Close To Pleasure", "Friends Will Be Friends", and "One Vision" — not appearing in the film. ("One Vision" was previously released in 1985 and had also appeared in the 1986 movie Iron Eagle.) This album would be the last one promoted with a tour, because of Freddie Mercury's diagnosis with HIV the following year, leading to his death in 1991.

Furthering the synth-rock sound of The Works before it, the album was the band's first to be recorded and mixed digitally instead of with traditional analog equipment (though the initial US CD mistakenly labels it an analog recording). The decision to do this gave Queen greater flexibility with their trademark elaborate production style, which on at least one occasion had worn down a reel of analog tape to the point where parts of it became transparent; the band would continue using digital equipment for their subsequent albums.

The album was also the band's first to be oriented with the Compact Disc in mind — CDs had just received their big breakthrough with Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms (also recorded and mixed digitally) the previous year, and Queen were eager to make use of the format as well, featuring three bonus remixes (dubbed "Extra Magical Ingredients") on the CD release of A Kind of Magic. The band would also include bonus remixes on their next album and on the North American reissues of their backlog by Hollywood Records in 1991. Furthering Queen's enthusiasm for CDs, EMI commemorated the release of A Kind of Magic by releasing their first ten studio albums on the format in most of the world (The Works was already released on CD worldwide in 1984, concurrently with the LP and cassette versions). The one region that didn't get these releases was North America, who would have to wait until the Hollywood reissues to obtain most of these albums on CD^note News of the World, The Game, and Greatest Hits were previously released on CD by Elektra Records in 1983, though these versions went out of print within a year.

A Kind of Magic was supported by more singles than any other Queen album, at a whopping seven. Of the nine tracks included on the base album, the only two that weren't released as singles were "Gimme the Prize (Kurgan's Theme)" and "Don't Lose Your Head"; even the three bonus remixes included on the initial CD release were sourced from those singles.

Tracklist:

Side One

1. "One Vision" (5:11)
2. "A Kind of Magic" (4:24)
3. "One Year of Love" (4:27)
4. "Pain Is So Close to Pleasure" (4:21)
5. "Friends Will Be Friends" (4:06)

Side Two

1. "Who Wants to Live Forever" (5:15)
2. "Gimme the Prize (Kurgan's Theme)" (4:33)
3. "Don't Lose Your Head" (4:38)
4. "Princes Of The Universe" (3:33)

Extra Magical Ingredients

1. "A Kind of 'A Kind of Magic'" (3:38)
2. "Friends Will Be Friends Will Be Friends..." (5:58)
3. "Forever" (3:20)

Principal Members

• Freddie Mercury – lead vocals (all tracks), backing vocals (1-6, 9), keyboards (2, 4, 5, 9), sampler (1, 4, 5)
• Brian May – electric guitar (all but 3), backing vocals (5, 6, 9), synthesizer (1, 6), sampler (1), lead vocals (6)
• Roger Taylor – drums (all but 3), backing vocals (2, 5, 6, 9), drum machine (2, 6, 8), synthesizer (2)
• John Deacon – bass (all but 6), electric guitar (4, 5, 8), synthesizer (3, 4), sampler (3, 4), drum machine (3, 4)

Heeeeere we are! Born to be kings, we're the tropers of the universe!

• Album Title Drop: "It's a kind of magic" on the Title Track.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: The band members and girls in the album art feature vivid, neon blue skin.
• Badass Boast:
  • "Gimme the Prize (Kurgan's Theme)" was written as a theme song for the Big Bad of Highlander and appropriately features lines such as "I am the one, the only one, I am the god of Kingdom Come."
  • "Princes of the Universe" boasts about the immense power that Immortals hold, with the song describing them as "born to be kings."
• Bragging Theme Tune: "Princes Of The Universe" for Highlander.
• Call-Forward: "One Year of Love" features the line "pain is so close to pleasure," the title of the song immediately afterwards.
• Design Student's Orgasm: The album art consists of an elaborate collage of cartoons related to the album title, depicting caricatures of Queen atop a sparkly backdrop on the cover and a variety of magic-themed paraphernalia elsewhere throughout the packaging.
• Double-Meaning Title: The name and title lyric of "Don't Lose Your Head" refer to losing one's head in both the figurative sense (panicking) and the literal one (being decapitated, the only thing that can kill an Immortal).
• Face on the Cover: Caricatures of the band members appear on the front cover.
• A God Am I: "Gimme the Prize", sung from the villainous Kurgan's perspective, features him describing himself as "the god of Kingdom Come" to justify his belief that he should be the last Immortal standing.
• Heavy Mithril: "Princes of the Universe", a Hair Metal track describing the premise of Highlander.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The LP and cassette releases label the sides in the traditional "Side One"/"Side Two" manner, but the original CD release lists its bonus tracks as "Extra Magical Ingredients".
• Instrumentals: "Forever", a truncated piano rendition of "Who Wants to Live Forever".
• Living Forever Is Awesome: "Princes of the Universe" is all about how awesome immortals are.
• Lyrical Dissonance: "One Vision" is an upbeat, inspirational song mostly about Martin Luther King Jr. It was covered by Laibach, who rendered it as a German-language faux-Nazi song. Critics at the time had sometimes equated Queen with fascism, due to the hold Freddie had over the audience coming as one and the critics' dismissal of the kind of arena rock Queen did so well.
• Lyric Swap: Near the end of "One Vision": "Just gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme... FRIED CHICKEN!"
• Metal Scream: "Gimme the Prize" showed that Freddie could do this, even though he hated the song.
• The Power of Friendship: Celebrated in "Friends Will Be Friends".
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Around the mid-80s, John Deacon lost his license for a year because of a DUI. Roger Taylor referenced that with the lines "don't drink and drive my car; don't get breathalyzed" in his song "Don't Lose Your Head".
• Rearrange the Song:
  • Several songs on the album are touched up from the versions heard in Highlander. Among other things, the Title Track is driven by synths rather than guitars, the instruments in "One Year of Love" are re-recorded, "Who Wants to Live Forever" features added vocals by Brian May, "Gimme the Prize" incorporates sound clips from the film, "Don't Lose Your Head" omits the quotation from "Theme from New York, New York" (as Freddie Mercury wasn't fond of the latter), and "Princes of the Universe" features an added guitar solo.
  • "Don't Lose Your Head" was remixed as the instrumental track "A Dozen Red Roses for My Darling", released as the B-side to the Title Track.
  • Each of the bonus tracks included on the original CD release is an alternate version of another song on the album. In order, "A Kind of 'A Kind of Magic'" is an instrumental version of "A Kind of Magic" (which was fused with it on the 12" mix), "Friends Will Be Friends Will Be Friends..." is the extended 12" version of "Friends Will Be Friends", and "Forever" is a piano rendition of "Who Wants to Live Forever" (included as a B-side of that song's 12" release).
• Record Producer: Queen, Reinhold Mack, and David Richards. The latter previously produced Roger Taylor's first two solo albums, and would continue his working relationship with Queen by co-producing all of their following albums. On this album, Mack co-produced "One Vision", "One Year of Love", "Pain Is So Close to Pleasure", "Friends Will Be Friends", and "Princes of the Universe", while Richards co-produced the Title Track, "Who Wants to Live Forever", "Gimme the Prize (Kurgan's Theme)", and "Don't Lose Your Head".
• Re-Cut: The 1991 remaster by Hollywood Records removes "A Kind of 'A Kind of Magic'" and "Friends Will Be Friends Will Be Friends...", compensating for this by adding the 12" version of "One Vision" after "Forever". The former two songs' removal was never explained, given that a single CD has room for the base album and all four bonus tracks.
• Roger Rabbit Effect: The video for the Title Track integrates live-action footage of the band with animated versions of the album art's characters and effects.
• Rule of Cool: During the video for "Princes of the Universe", Connor MacLeod (played by Christopher Lambert and all) challenges Freddie Mercury to a sword fight. Freddie's fighting with his microphone stand... and the duel ends in a draw. Think about that for a second...
• Sampling: "Gimme The Prize (Kurgan's Theme)" contains voice clips from Highlander.
• Shout-Out: The Highlander sample in the bridge of "Gimme the Prize (Kurgan's Theme)" features Clancy Brown (in character as the Kurgan) quoting the Neil Young lyric "it's better to burn out than to fade away" from "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)".
• Special Guest: Kittitian-English singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading provides guest vocals on "Don't Lose Your Head".
• Title Track: "A Kind Of Magic".
• Villain Song: "Gimme the Prize (Kurgan's Theme)", as indicated by the subtitle, is sung from the perspective of Highlander's Big Bad and revolves around him explaining his ambition, pride, and wrath.
• Vocal Tag Team: Brian May and Freddie Mercury trade off vocals on "Who Wants To Live Forever".
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: The song on the album is the Trope Namer, and discusses the sorrow that the ageless and immortal Connor MacLeod feels when watching his wife Heather grow old and die.

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