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4 out of 10
After several years of 'Queen +' projects, you could be forgiven for thinking that it's about time Brian May and Roger Taylor called themselves something else if they're going to continue flogging songs to the credit-crunched public. Take this album, for instance. It looks like a well-made bootleg and should more accurately be called 'Free + Brian May and Roger Taylor', such is the dearth of Queen trademark sounds. The famous multi-harmonies are strangely stale and May successfully manages to sound like just another session player much of the time. Of those tracks which do sound like Queen, one is never far from thinking how Freddie Mercury's singing the same material would've blown Paul Rodgers out of the studio. From there it is but a short step to pointless nostalgia - not the effect the trio were after at all, I am sure. Not that Rodgers performs badly - he is a great rock and blues singer in his own right, of course - it's just that there are too many occasions when 'Freddie would've done that much better' pops into one's head. Not that I suppose they really care - they had fun making the album and have said all the right things in the credits, dedicating it to Mercury, thanking the absent John Deacon and (very) absent Paul Kossoff, etc. The album does have a whiff of 'vanity project' about it but because of who they are, EMI bang it out rather than it being 'just for fun'.
It doesn't do anything unexpected, so if you're a fan of Queen or Free and you don't like anything 'weird', you'll enjoy it. It'll play well on your BMW's stereo as you drive home from the office and put you in the mood for a great evening watching that Top Gear DVD. The rest of us will have to be content with snickering a little at the cheesy lyrics that are more entertaining in print than they are in song ("Warboys / your boys / politicians' toys. Warboys / our boys / make a lot of noise" (Warboys), or "It's Saturday night and I'm home alone / With the music on quiet I'm flying solo" (Cosmos Rockin') ), cringing at the self-sampling (We Will Rock You drumbeat, sir? Certainly. Have you seen the musical, yet?) and thinking for the umpteenth time how unique Freddie Mercury was and how 'Queen +' should be renamed 'Queen ½'.
Listen: www.queenpluspaulrodgers.com
Tracklist:
1. Cosmos Rockin'
2. Time to Shine
3. Still Burnin'
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!
14. Small reprise
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