the miracle

Somewhere out there, there’s a cruel prankster circulating a rumor that The Miracle is Queen’s official return to hard rock. Well, off with his head. The band hasn’t been so bogged down by synthesizers and pinging drum machines since Hot Space.

Even though Queen often seems hopelessly over the top — trapped between rock and an opera — the band has thrived for 18 years, most of them in the upper reaches of popular music.

Led by Freddie Mercury’s raunchy vocals and Brian May’s guitar slinging, the Queen machine rolls on with “The Miracle.”

With Freddie Mercury in vintage light-operatic form, here’s an album (like so many of Queen’s others) that should be used as a pop music how-to for aspirants.

Queen, whose latest offering, The Miracle, additionally addresses the question of how much bad taste is it possible to cram on to one album. Even the trick cover photograph, which depicts the members of the group as one four-headed, five-eyed person, is a monstrous piece of tack.