Artist: Queen + Paul Rodgers
Label: Parlophone Records
Release: 2008
The nerves of many a Queen fundamentalist were put through the test of a lifetime when Paul Rodgers, once the lead voice of blues rock giants Free and Bad Company, practically overnight stepped into the shoes of the immortal Freddie Mercury in 2004! Why? Well, it’s far from simple. When the sensational news echoed out, plenty of people clutched their heads or at least shrugged sullenly, saying that for the big experiment to work properly, the two still musically active members of the “royal family”, Brian May and Roger Taylor, would need a crash course in the basics of blues and soul, and that Paul Rodgers’s way of communicating would have to go under the knife for a thorough facelift too. Who’d have thought back then that this freshly baked romance would now be heading into its fifth year and, on top of that, thriving in the form of sold-out tours, not to mention an album that’s a thoroughly praiseworthy piece of work too! With that album, Brian May, Roger Taylor and Paul Rodgers have actually pulled off the impossible. They’ve created a document of high artistic value and quality that nobody dared even dream of, and now they’re proudly storming ahead on the fruits of their labor, of course under the Queen + Paul Rodgers banner, which surely can’t hurt in this whole circus, right?
Cosmos Rocks invites us on an interplanetary cruise with the straightforward rocker Cosmos Rockin’, which proves above all to be a rather cautious, strictly conventional opener for the album. The first “acute cultural” shock hits with Time To Shine, which hides, in the catchy melodiousness of Rodgers’s vocal twists and turns, a yearning for late-seventies Bad Company. The Time To Shine formula is well known, a simple showcase of a well-oiled riff machine that has celebrated the sheer impressiveness of Rodgers’s vocal caliber countless times in the past. But the fun is only getting started here. Still Burnin’ may look at first glance like a crowd-favorite tune belted out drunk by a bunch of proud midlife-crisis sufferers, but this effectively executed blues rocker, seasoned with a pinch of strongly aromatic spices from the traditional Queen school, hides much more in its meaty bosom, above all thanks to a once again commanding Rodgers, well used to playing in the sandbox of vocal soul and blues.
Paul Rodgers, as expected, remains the main player of the whole album, the guiding thread around which the creative processes of the post-Mercury days mostly revolve. The profile of his mission is plain to see. It really stings the eye in the characteristically themed lyrical assault. The fantasy and dreaminess tied to the man and the Bad Co. tradition are picked up by Some Things That Glitter, more than obviously Brian May’s baby, and the bluesy-inspired gem Voodoo. Thematically cold and dark, Through The Night brings another, and certainly welcome, step toward heavy blues, which, with Rodgers in high spirits on board, is obviously getting into the blood of the Brian May and Roger Taylor duo as well. For the job done, Paul Rodgers earns a grade of excellent. It’s thanks to him that Cosmos Rocks is, if we had to choose, “by some strange coincidence” more a Bad Company album than a Queen one. The big experiment finally gets its big-triumph stamp with Say It’s Not True, an atmospheric and dynamically polished vocal delivery by the whole trio of vocally gifted comrades, which of all the Cosmos Rocks creations smells by far the most Queen-like. If it must be! The gamble definitely paid off for the guys here. Say It’s Not True carries an emotional charge worthy of Innuendo magic, and Taylor, May and finally the superb Rodgers also took exceptionally careful care to place a striking ambient leap, where a swarm of superbly harmonized motifs teems.
Really the only enigma worth mentioning on the album is the track Call Me, a missable concoction that, with its vaguely drawn compromises between lyrical and musical satire, fails to convince even after repeated listens. In that respect the illuminating We Believe in Small fares much better, where after a festival of blues-rock maneuvers we do get, at moments, a taste of genuine Queen tradition. Warboys and C-lebrity grew in the spirit of the latter, and with them Queen & Paul Rodgers boldly surrounded themselves with an expertly steered set of compromises that undoubtedly add to a more attractive overall picture of the finished product. The result (surely to the great surprise of many) is a highly satisfying blend of character and 14 rocker stampedes that, by respectfully distancing themselves from the immortal Queen legacy and marching proudly in their own direction, open an exciting new chapter in the story of three rock & roll giants.
Line-up
Brian May: guitar, bass, vocals, keyboards
Paul Rodgers: vocals, bass, piano, harmonica
Roger Taylor: drums
Taylor Hawkins: backing vocals on C-lebrity
Production
Queen + Paul Rodgers
Tracklist
1. Cosmos Rockin
2. Time To Shine
3. Still Burning
4. Small
5. Warboys
6. We Believe
7. Call Me
8. Voodoo
9. Some Things That Glitter
10. C-lebrity
11. Through The Night
12. Say It’s Not True
13. Surf’s Up…School’s Out
Album length: 58.46
