Roger Taylor - Best (2014)

Genre - Hard Rock / Rock / Pop

Label - Omnivore Recordings

Track listing:

01. FUTURE MANAGEMENT (YOU DON’T NEED NOBODY ELSE)

02. I WANNA TESTIFY

03. LET’S GET CRAZY

04. MAGIC IS LOOSE

05. STRANGE FRONTIER

06. MAN ON FIRE

07. BEAUTIFUL DREAMS

08. NAZIS 1994

09. FOREIGN SAND with Yoshiki

10. EVERYBODY HURTS SOMETIME

11. HAPPINESS

12. SURRENDER

13. WHERE ARE YOU NOW?

14. A NATION OF HAIRCUTS

15. TONIGHT

16. NO MORE FUN

17. THE UNBLINKING EYE (EVERYTHING IS BROKEN) (Single Version)

18. SUNNY DAY

 

Queen’s legendary drummer’s Best!

"In 2001 Roger Taylor was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame with Queen, and is acknowledged as one of the most influential drummers in popular music. In addition to founding and wielding the sticks with one of the world’s best-selling groups, as well as collaborating with Robert Plant, Genesis, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Foo Fighters, and Gary Numan among others, Roger Taylor has also had a brilliant and long career as a songwriter and solo artist.
Hot on the heels of the Queen + Adam Lambert tour, Omnivore Recordings is proud to release the first-ever best of Roger Taylor’s solo material—simply titled, Roger Taylor : Best.
With Queen, he wrote or co-wrote hits like “Radio Ga Ga” "A Kind Of Magic", "Loser In The End", "Drowse", "One Vision"and “Under Pressure,” but on his own he’s delivered, to date, five critically acclaimed solo albums. Roger Taylor : Best draws from those releases with 18 tracks—from his first single, “I Wanna Testify” (recorded during Queen’s News Of The World album sessions) through his latest album, Fun On Earth from 2013. In between are key cuts from Fun In Space (1981), Strange Frontier (1984), Happiness? (1994), and Electric Fire (1998) providing a select survey of Roger’s solo work for new and old fans alike!
Available on CD and double LP (with tracks appearing on vinyl for the first time), Roger Taylor: Best presents an overview of a rock legend’s work in front of the stage, the listeners—and the world."

Okay, so best doesn't feature the track listing that I would have personally chosen, but its exceptionally rare that a best of ever does! What best does do well though is provided an interesting cross section through Rogers solo out put, even if material from The Cross is sorely missed. For anyone not familiar with Rogers solo material best is a good place for them to start. Best features three tracks from Rogers debut solo album, Fun In Space, his debut single (I Wanna Testify), three tracks from his sophomore album Strange Frontier, including its awesome title track, although sadly not his amazing cover of Bob Dylan's Masters Of War! For songs from his Happiness album (released shortly after Freddie's untimely passing) are included, including the beautiful Foreign Sand that was co-written with Yoshiki and his political protest song Nazi's 94. Five tracks are taken from  the excellent album, Electric Fire, including the two great rocking tracks A Nation Of Haircuts and No More Fun with the final two tracks being lifted from last years Fun On Earth album. (Although the version of The Unblinking Eye that is featured here is the single version and therefore superior in every way to the album version of the same song.
This is a fair selection and a fairly good representation of Rogers solo output, but on a personal level I would have preferred to have seen a few more obscure songs included, and definitely a few songs from the three albums he recorded with his side project, The Cross.

Well worth checking out if your are curious about this legends solo work, but I would recommend investing in the all career encompassing box set The Lot next.

Rating - 9/10