Episode 137: Queen - The Miracle (1989) Part 2

That's not a typo in the show title; this really is Part Two of Brian and Sarah's discussion surrounding the 1989 Queen album The Miracle. Part One was released waaaay back in May of 2021 (episode 128), and it actually covered the time period after the 1986 album A Kind of Magic, leading up to the recording of this album. Now, all these months later (and by popular demand, as is revealed later in the episode), Brian and Sarah finally sit down to discuss the album itself!

Part 1 - Album History

Since they didn't cover it in the previous episode, Brian and Sarah do start off by talking about the recording of The Miracle--including the locations, the producer, and some rather significant changes to the band's traditional operating mode, only one of which was truly decided on as a group. The release and chart history are also discussed, and the hosts are interested to see where The Miracle charted in the US compared to other 80s Queen releases.

Both hosts have album reviews to share; Sarah providing several from publications that reviewed the album at the time of release, and Brian providing some from his library of Queen reference books. (Both Sarah and Brian have quite a few comments on the reviews from the Queen books!) And of course the album cover itself gets a mention, with some insight provided on how the innovative and striking images were produced. And it's not the first time Brian has been on a podcast talking about graphic designer Richard Gray-- check out the link below.

Part 2 - Personal History

Even though Queen is one of Brian and Sarah's very favorite bands, their personal history with this album isn't too momentous, with Sarah's history being only marginally more interesting than Brian's. However, don't take that as a reflection on what they think about the album itself!

Part 3 - Track by Track

Finally, it comes time for the hosts to get down to business and start talking about the album tracks! The album starts off with a quick one-two punch of energetic, rocking tunes. Then Queen does what they've done for their entire career-- switch things up with a song in a very different style. Brian and Sarah talk about these first three tracks on The Miracle in this episode, and both hosts reveal how even though they've heard the album countless times, they came to some surprising realizations as they examined the first two songs. The third track was released as a single, so there's some chart information to share, but more importantly, there's an absolutely delightful video to discuss!

Party Khashoggi's Ship The Miracle

See the videos discussed here:

The making of The Miracle album cover

The Miracle

Check out friend of the show Andrew Dineley's "Art on Your Sleeve" podcast to hear Brian talk more about Richard Gray and another Queen album cover he's designed, as well as insightful and entertaining discussions on other classic album covers:

https://softoctopus.co.uk/episode-18-international-podcast-day-2021/

And if you are interested in the other excellent podcast we discussed, The Giddy Carousel of Pop, visit Gavin and Simon here: https://giddypoppod.home.blog/

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