Heard for the first time in Queen history, the spoken outtakes from The Miracle Sessions invite fans onto the studio floor to experience the band’s unvarnished dynamic, more natural and revealing than any ‘official’ press interview. These unguarded exchanges – by turns mischievous, encouraging, witty, even affectionately waspish – capture the band as they truly were during The Miracle’s late bloom, buzzing with renewed enthusiasm at their return to the studio, and driven by a rare chemistry that still threw up sparks. Among its contents, the expanded set includes The Miracle Sessions: an hour-plus disc of further previously unreleased recordings, including six unpublished songs. Just as tantalising for fans, the audio includes the band’s candid spoken exchanges on the studio floor in London and Montreux, giving the most revealing window yet into the four members’ creative process and the joy, in-jokes and banter on their return to working together. The hugely prolific sessions for The Miracle began in December 1987 and stretched out to March 1989. It was to be one of the most consequential periods in Queen’s history. Fifteen months previously, on August 9, 1986, Queen’s mighty ‘ Europe Magic Tour’ had ended on a high, before an estimated audience of more than 160,000 at Knebworth Park in Britain. As the band left the stage that night – toasting the flagship show of their biggest tour to date – they could hardly have foreseen that Knebworth marked a line in the sand. This would be Queen’s final live show with Freddie Mercury and the first in a chain of pivotal moments that would lead towards a lengthy separation for the band.

The Miracle comes in at number 11 on my (objectively correct, of course) ranking of Queen’s 15 studio albums. From the associated merch drop I caved for only one item; the glorious Queen Rubik’s Cube – the Quoob, if you will – on which Roger unfortunately appears to lose both eyes. Presented here for the first time ever: When Love Breaks Up, You Know You Belong To Me, I Guess We’re Falling Out, Dog With a Bone, Water, and Face It Alone. Includes ’The Miracle Sessions’, containing over an hour of unreleased studio recordings including six previously unheard songs – plus intimate fly-on-the-wall audio of the band at work (and play) in the studio Featuring a plethora of fascinating insights into a hugely pivotal moment in Queen’s storied history, this is The Miracle fans have been waiting for.These alternate takes form disc 2 of the Deluxe Collector’s Edition – a treasure trove of unprecedented proportions While Freddie could no longer tour, Queen remained a band of staggering creative resourcefulness. As John Deacon implied, they instead channelled their live chemistry into the studio: “In the first few weeks of recording we did a lot of live material, a lot of songs, some jamming, and ideas came up.”

Irish Albums Chart: 25 November 2022". Irish Recorded Music Association . Retrieved 26 November 2022.The band discuss, in their own words, the creative process behind the album. The first interview, Queen for an Hour, was broadcast on BBC Radio 1 on 29 May 1989. Host Mike Read speaks with the band for what would be their final group interview. In this interview, Freddie suggests for the first time that his touring days are over. I was tantalised by the promise of finally getting to hear ‘Dog With A Bone’ properly, a rough demo having been floating around for a while. I even dared to hope that we might get some studio outtakes, as we had with the ‘News of the World’ Anniversary Edition. (‘This will be take thirty seven… THOISAND’ in a horribly RP accent is a personal favourite of mine). I did not think much beyond this. Both of these are Brian May compositions. Only the latter was worked on with Freddie Mercury providing vocals. They are both unfinished with their demo versions available in the box set.