It's important to evaluate this album for what it IS and not what you would have it be. It is NOT a collection of Queen tracks that were dropped into a movie and then thrown together in album format and called a "soundtrack." It IS, in the truest sense, a film score, of and inspired by Flash Gordon. It works simbiotically with the film which dictates its structure. That makes it superior to something like the Highlander soundtrack, where Queen songs are sporadically tossed in for effect in a fractured fashion. Not to put down the Kind of Magic album (AKA Highlander soundrack), which is quite good in that standard rock, album-oriented way. The Flash Gordon album functions more as a single work - one 50-minute track, as it were. Anyone who goes in examining track by track like a standard-issue rock album will come away scratching thier head. This music fits the film like a glove and some of the synth work is very reminiscent of Vangelis's "Blade Runner" music, which this predates by a couple years. I also enjoy the movie dialog which is sprinkled throughout. That has the potential to be very annoying if done improperly or excessively, but they chose their spots well here ("For God's sake, strap yourselves down! ").

Oh my.

To say this Queen album was full of good cheezy fun is quite the understatement. In essance, this album typifies the big budget movies of the late 70's/early 80's quite well with it's hugely dramatic and sprawling guitar riffs akin to that of some kind of electrified opera. It's as if their hit BOHEIMIAN RHAPSODY had spawned an entire album, or more to the point, it's as if it was THIS album that actually produced it, because most of the music on this album is just that kind of kitschy, grand drama that we loved as kids of the time period.

We loved that about Queen... ready to do opera at a moment's notice, if only someone would give the fat lady a Fender electric guitar.

This soundtrack is of the type i love most... the muscial score trimmed with bits of dialogue from the film itsself. It's like listening to a condensed version of the film, with all the good stuff left in. In fact, when I was a young lad, I had actually recorded parts of the movie on my old boombox for listening later, and was VERY surprised to find that in comparison, both my recording and the actual soundtrack were damn near IDENTICAL. Perhaps the album contains the most interesting bits of the film after all?

I have to admit, to fully enjoy this Queen offering, you really do have to like the movie. If you don't, you will simply be bored to tears.

The best tracks for me are "In The Space Capsule" with a driving drum beat, "In The Death Cell" with it's dream like simplicity and any of the tracks dealing with the battle scenes at the end of the film. I admit, it's kinda hard to describe this album in terms of tracks, because any individual track doesn't seem to stand up on it's own as a song, and isn't terribly interesting to listen to out of sequence or without knowledge of the film's storyline.

Even when Freddie Mercury makes a vocal appearance on the album it feels like a last minute thing, like somehow it's being revealed that Queen was indeed the providers of music. It's not his best...even the "Boheimian Rhapsody"-ish "The Hero" is just a gentle rip-off of the far superior source material.

This album was re-released on cd in 1991 with a bonus track by Mista Lawnge, which if you ask me, is totally pointless and totally uniteresting. If we needed a bonus track for this album why didn't we include the Queen single "Flash Gordon" which did get airplay and was what got me interested in the movie in the first place? It's nowhere to be seen. Personally, I have programmed my cd player to skip the Mista Lawnge offering with minimal effort.

Basically, this album is probably for either total Queen-philes or anyone who really enjoyed the goofy movie... of which I am both. You may want to weigh this before purchasing.

If you're not a Queen fan, don't start with this album. If your're looking for goofy fun and a great album to drive to you could do worse. I would like to call your attention to to one track and other than the title song, the only other song with lyrics. The Hero is a hard driving metal extravaganza. One of Queen's hardest songs and often overlooked because it's on a sound track. But like Highlander, who of us doesn't get a few goosebumps when the credits roll and we see "Music by QUEEN" Enjoy being a kid again.

Could a soundtrack be any more cool? I love this soundtrack! The movie is cool, but the sountrack ROCKS! It has so many cool sound bites from the movie, it's like listening to the movie. They picked some really good ones, too. Flash's theme starts off great, with Ming: "Klytus, I'm bored. What plaything can you offer me today?" "An obscure body in the S-K system, your majesty. The inhabitants refer to it as the planet 'Earth'..." Then the beat kicks in, and you get the build up to the legendary "FLASH!!! AAAAH-AAAAHHH!!!" You gotta love the words to that song. "Just a man with a man's courage. Nothing but a man but he can never fail. No one but the pure in heart may find the golden grail."

And man, who can forget Vultan's Theme? That is an AWESOME song! It really pumps you up. I've listened to it over and over... And speaking of pumping you up, The Hero is one INCREDIBLE song also. Man, you gotta love it!...

The CD case also includes a few good pictures of Queen, as well as some pics from the movie....

He's for everyone of us! Stand for everyone of us! He save with a mighty hand every man every woman every child he's a mighty Flash!...

A must-have for any die-hard fan of this 80's cult classic!