Queen + Paul Rodgers – The Cosmos Rocks Review

Posted by Michael Melchor on 10.28.2008

Not quite the violent train wreck one would expect...but still a good derailing.

This should be interesting, to say the least.

Queen is a band that should need no introduction. Their place in history is secure and their status as legendary is a given. Be it as performers or musicians, they’ve raised the bar several times and dared others to top what they’ve accomplished.

If that sounds like a grand and pompous introduction, there are a couple reasons. First of all, we’re talking about my favorite band ever. A little bias goes a long way. Second, this isn’t quite a matter of, “they’re my favorites, therefore they get all this praise”; it’s more like, “Queen has accomplished all these feats and made such great music that I can’t but help to put them at the top of my list.” They’re not the greatest because they’re my favorites; they’re my favorite because they’re the greatest.

All that having been said, all of the above applies to the band’s output with one of the most legendary singers/performers in music, Freddie Mercury. His legacy and style – much like the top of this introduction above – were majestic and well over-the-top. When he passed in 1991, Queen honored him like no other passed frontman was honored before or after him and then kept a low profile releasing tracks that Freddie worked on in his last days as well as compilations that kept the legacy alive.

Then, about three years ago, they found another singer. (I can’t and won’t say “replacement” for obvious reasons.) They’d recorded a live album with Paul Rodgers, Return Of The Champions, which wasn’t the abomination that many were prepared for. With a reception that wasn’t akin to Anne Frank receiving Mein Kampf, Queen decided it was safe to do the unthinkable and release a full album with Paul Rogders – with, quite possibly, one of the dumbest titles ever conceived. They at least made the distinction of adding Rodgers’s name to their own instead of soldiering on as “Queen” proper, as this sounds almost like a different band.



The Cosmos Rocks starts, oddly enough, with “Cosmos Rockin’”. It’s your typical opening rock track – one that even Queen was known to do (“Tear It Up”, “Tie Your Mother Down”). However, Queen was at least subversive-to-cleaver about their selections. With Paul Rodgers in the mix, it almost feels like they had to dumb things down a bit for the guy known for singing “All Right Now”. “The Cosmos rocks with the power of rock and roll.” No, seriously, that’s one of the lines in the song. This is one of the reasons I don’t like bands like AC/DC and the Rolling Stones – they’re swagger and leering threats were rendered impotent long ago in lieu of automatic crowd-pleasers where the same sentiments, chords and everything else are recycled for the sake of guaranteed money.

That, unfortunately, happens a lot here. “Voodoo” is another prime example of having to write for Rodgers, as it almost sounds like a sequel to “Ready For Love” that he never got to record with Bad Company. “Some Things That Glitter” starts out with the lament of a butterfly and drops the last half of that line (about gold) that you’d expect to hear around a rhythm and melody that would be a great cure for insomnia. The penultimate track is called “Surf’s Up...School’s Out”. I’m sorry, but aren’t these guys in their 50s and 60s?

There are still flourishes of the old band present here. “Call Me” starts out with a groan-inducing opening line, but then shuffles into a bluesy—well, more like rockabilly snap-a-long that’s easy to get stuck in your head. “Still Burnin’” would almost qualify as another MOR groaner save for a few key changes and a beat recycle that’s at once insulting and clever that grabs the attention. Much the same can be said for ballads like “Through The Night”; in Queen’s hands, a ballad was touching and meaningful (thanks to Mercury’s vocal and keyboard prowess). With Rodgers, it all sounds like an excuse to hit & run, if yeh catch the drift – kinda like “Feel Like Makin’ Love” was in the first place. The one time Rodgers strays away from that – the humanitarian “Say It’s Not True” – sounds forced, but still a lot less sleazy than the other attempts here. (The vocal appearance of drummer and co-founder Roger Taylor help a lot with that.)

Therein lies some of the maddening issue here – both Queen and Rodgers have their own (very strong) music identities and neither know how to merge them well. One of the reasons guitarist and band co-founder Brian May decided to tour and record with Rodgers was that had his own style and wasn’t trying to replace Mercury at all. That should make some fans sigh in relief, but it still makes for some confusing (bordering on maddening) listening with this record.

One shining example of both parties merging well is, ironically, on a subject neither one has conquered in-depth. “C-lebrity”, a rant against the “look-at-me-I’m-famous!” culture that pervades our media nowadays, eschews the trademarks of both and instead, goes for a solid melodic punch that hits hard.

The 411: Queen + Paul Rodgers is aptly named, as both parties almost refuse to come together to record anything cohesive as opposed to songs that have the trademarks of one or the other. The result is an uneven pondering of why the band decided to go through with this in the first place. Granted, there are some great highlights here, both individually and together, but overall it’s a decent (if confusing) rock record that may serve Rodgers’s legacy, but certainly not that of his bandmates.

Final Score:  4.5   [ Poor ]