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

Roger Taylor - Fun On Earth (2013)

Genre - Rock / Pop
Label - Virgin / Universal

Track listing:

01 - One Night Stand
02 - Fight Club
03 - Be With You
04 - Quality Street
05 - I Don't Care
06 - Sunny Day
07 - Be My Gal (My Brightest Spark)
08 - I Am A Drummer (In A Rock n Roll Band)
09 - Small
10 - Say Its Not True (feat Jeff Beck)
11 - The Unblinking Eye (Abridged Version)
12 - Up
13 - Smile

Legendary Queen drummer, Roger Taylor returns with his first solo album since 1998's Electric Fire in the form of Fun On Earth, deliver up 13 brand new tracks for fans to get the stuck into. But this is my only problem with Despite Roger taking five years to record Fun On Earth, five of the thirteen new tracks have already seen the light of day in one form or another, even if in some cases, quite obscurely. One Night Stand was a download bonus 'mix track from 1998's Electric Fire sessions, Sunny Day was released a couple of years back with Roger's son un the moniker of Felix And Arty with the title, Woman You're So Beautiful (although this song has been heavily reworked here!, Versions of Small and Say Its Not True were releasedon the Queen plus Paul Rogers album, The Cosmos Rocks, and a longer verion of The Unblinking Eye was released last year as a single! that being said, this album is a solid album and a grower at that! The album opens with a riff busting One Night Stand, quite catchy and up tempo. Fight Club and Be With You are excellent tracks, with their sheer simplicity being the greatest part of their magic, plus Fight Club has some great sax ta boot! Quality Street is a good track with some nice lead vocals and I Dont Care is a fun little ditty. The reworked Sunny Day is much better than the original Felix and Arty Version, and Be My Gal is another sweet and great track. I am a Drummer in a Rock n Roll band demonstrates that Roger and Queen never really take themselves too seriously, that ability to write a song that gets the critics hook line & sinker, has always been there and this is another... a bit of light hearted self deprecation as opposed to some serious statement. The Unblinking Eye suffers from being an Abridged version, and I truly urge you to check out the original single version! The final two tracks, Up & Smile are also some of the better work, the former reminding me somewhat of Machines from Queen's The Works whilst Smile has a very Beatle-esque sound to it.
In Roger Taylors own words, Fun On Earth is an ecletic mix of songs, and as such is a good album a real grower, but considering he alledgedly was originally going to allow fans to choose the albums track listing from between seventeen and twenty tracks thats had been recorded, it is a little disappoining having five reworked songs. Would have loved to have heard Midnight Lightning and When We Were Younf, but what the hey. Fun On Earth is still a great little album.

Rating 9/10