The Cosmos Rocks

 Three or four years ago, Paul Rodgers, the lead singer of the success groups Free and Bad Company got together with the active members of Queen:  guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor.  They went on tour billed as “Queen + Paul Rodgers” playing both old Queen songs along with the hits of Free and Bad Company.  We saw them 2½ years ago at Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim (now called Honda Center).  Well, they enjoyed working together so much that they released an album of original material, “The Cosmos Rocks” on October 28.

“The Cosmos Rocks” is a straightforward rock record.  The music seems more akin to Bad Company than Queen, though it has much more of a polished, pop sound than Paul Rodgers’s earlier music.  It has kinetic rockers (“Cosmos Rockin”, “Time to Shine”, and “Surf’s Up, School’s out”), rhythmic tracks (“Still Burning”, “Call Me”), soulful ballads (“Small”, “Some Things that Glitter”), rockin’ jabs at the military (“Warboys”), and pop culture (“C-lebrity”) and brooding blues tracks (“Through the Night”, “Voodoo”).  Paul sings lead on most songs with Roger and Brian on backgrounds.  What brings the songs above the ordinary is Brian May’s guitar playing especially during the solos.  “Warboys” is interesting in that they use war sound effects such as explosions and machine guns.  The song seems to glorify war but then turns to critique with the line “Warboys, your boys, politicians’ toys.”  I think my favorite track is “Voodoo” because it doesn’t fit a generic mold.  At times it’s dark and others rockin’ with Brian’s guitar solo dominating.  “Say it’s not true” features all three of them singing lead at different times.  It’s about the devastating effects of AIDS, the illness that took Freddy Mercury, Queen’s original lead singer and frontman.

Paul, Brian, and Roger aren’t trying to sound like Queen, Bad Company, Free, or anything from the past.  They’re just playing what they want to play and it makes for fun listening.