The Miracle (Collector’s Edition) from Queen is a sprawling set featuring the 1989 album, The Miracle, as well as a wealth of unreleased songs, outtakes, and extra-special recordings from the time the record was made the sessions for what turned out to be Queen’s 13th studio release began in 1987 and would mark a change in how the mega-hit quartet worked. This was the album where guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor, lead vocalist Freddie Mercury, and bassist John Deacon shared songwriting credits equally.
Quite the bone of contention within the band before (as rendered quite accurately in the Bohemian Rhapsody rockbio film), the quartet had decided here and going forward to simply indicate that Queen wrote all songs. Also, with The Miracle, the band would set solely on recording and making videos, knowing Freddie Mercury was too ill to perform live any longer. As Brian May has noted, the cover of this album depicts the four faces of the band members morphing into one, representing the seamless merging of the members to make great music and close their ranks.
The first disc is a Bob Ludwig sparkling, high-end remaster of the album’s original first-generation master mixes, done back in 2011. Delivering the fun rockin’ opening one-two punch of “Party” and “Khashoggi’s Ship,” we also get the title track, the silly “Invisible Man,” the lush vocals of “Breakthru,” and 80s-sounding danceable tracks like “Rain Must Fall” and “My Baby Does Me.”
The second disc offers The Miracle Sessions, a 16-song grouping of unreleased takes, demos, and roughs of the album’s tunes. Legendary (by Queen fan standards) “Dog With A Bone,” featuring some amazing Roger Taylor background vocals, Brain May wailing away with abandoned on the original take of “Party,” as well as plucking on his acoustic (as well as singing lead) on the gorgeous ‘You Know You Belong To Me,” are standouts. In addition, here is where we get all that delicious behind-the-scenes banter as the studio tapes kept rolling in London and Montreux while the band recorded. For Queen completists, this is truly wonderful stuff.
The third disc, Alternative Miracle, recreates a proposed follow-up to The Miracle. This compilation of extra tracks from the album, B-sides, extended versions, and singles was canceled due to a heavy release schedule. But featured here are eleven tunes, from the single version of “I Want It All,” to 12-inches, B-sides, and even some rough-sounding live tracks, “Stone Cold Crazy” and “My Melancholy Blues.” The last tune “Chinese Torture,” sees Brian May wailing around a string heavy background on a rather wild sounding, nearly discordant instrumental. Speaking of instrumentals, the fourth disc, Miracu-Mentals, features instrumental backing tracks (plus some backing vocals) of all The Miracle songs.
On the fifth disc, The Miracle Radio Interviews, Queen discusses recording The Miracle across two radio shows. The first Queen for an Hour, was broadcast on BBC Radio 1 in May 1989 and it’s in this interview that Freddie Mercury first suggests that his touring days are over. The second interview features just Roger Taylor and Brian May talking with host Bob Coburn and taking live telephone calls for US radio’s Rockline.
On the last piece of this set, the Vinyl LP: The Miracle, we are treated to the album’s supposedly long-lost original LP cut. Taken from the master tape, this grouping reinstates the song “Too Much Love Will Kill You,” as originally intended in its exact position on the original album’s side one. Queen’s original version of this beautiful song would finally emerge on Made In Heaven in 1995. Altogether, The Miracle (Collector’s Edition) is an exhaustive deep dive into a late 80s release by one of the biggest bands of all time — as they faced challenges, a new way of approaching their output and an uncertain future.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
