Customer Reviews
Love this album! It rocks the cosmos indeed! - By: Alexandra Ciucu, 07 Nov 2008 
The long awaited Queen + Paul Rodgers studio album has totally surpassed my expectations. It's a high-quality piece of work & I enjoy listening a lot to tracks such as We Believe, Call Me, C-Lebrity or Time To Shine. I recommend it to all Queen fans & Paul Rodgers fans!
Brill Music - By: JA Fairhurst, 01 Nov 2008 
This is a great return to the market for the greatest bandin the world (my opinion!!).
The quality of both the songs & production is top notch, with C-Lebrity being a favourite off the CD.
However, I do have to say that there is a loss of something with no Mercury around - just an added twist that he could give a song to make it extra special but that can't be & Paul Rodgers is a fine replacement.
"Rock 'n' Roll Never Dies" or A Fine Debut by Queen + Paul Rodgers - By: Jeffrey Combs, 23 Oct 2008 As a longtime Queen fan (of the WHOLE band, not just Freddie) & an admirer of the talents of Paul Rodgersin whatever form, I was so anxious to hear this album that I bought it as an import. After a couple of listens I wrote up my impression of the individual songs, of the album as a whole, & of the band as they release their first studio collaboration. Here are my thoughts -
Cosmos Rockin' - a great rockin' opener, very classic stuff, great hand-clappin', head-bobbin' ,foot-tappin', singin' along fun. I really enjoyed this one. Paul sounds great, the guitar really rips, Roger is really delivering. The call-and-return chorus is fun. Fun lyrics, obviously meant to be fun & with tongue firmlyin cheek. I had a big smile on my face the whole track.
Time to Shine - a great opening vocal from Paul, very nice hearing real piano on a Queen-ish track again, as it kind of disappearedin the '80s, usually replaced by synths. I like the urgency & the driving quality of this song, Roger is really great here. Lyrically, I like the spin of optimistic challenge they put on the phrase "its time to shine". I like the karma of the entire record actually. I admire them for putting something positive like this out into the ether. With a few lyrical changes this could almost be a hymn. Quite spiritual, or as much as one could expect from a rock song & without straying into U2 territory.
Still Burnin' - there's a nice groove on this track, some tasty bits of classic May guitar. I love how unpretentious the album is - "rock 'n' roll never dies" is so down-to-brass-tacks. Has a nice solo. These guys clearly have had itin their bellies to make an unapologetic back-to-basics rock record & I like that they didn't try to dress it up too much. There's a rawness to it. The "We Will Rock You" sample is kind of fun. I wasn't expecting that. It works.
Small - I was really taken with how this affected me. I love simple songs that express a simple feeling. The chorus is nice, very direct, communicating something very universal. Rodgers is such an unpretentious vocalist. I really like the solo, lots of emotionin there. This is one of my favorite tracks on the album. Very nice toward the end when the chorus gets big. That was a "Queen moment".
Warboys - I think this is magnificent. I'd heard Rodgers' live solo version of this, & this version just takes it to a whole other level. The acoustic guitar, the drumming & the vocals are so crisp. This was this first "I got chills" moment on the record. That "warboys" chorus with the Queen-esque vocals stacks really lays it out. And Roger is killing it with that percussion. The drums & guitar are so tight. Excellent.
We Believe - I'm really of two minds on this one. It is very Pollyanna-ish but its also very sincere, which I appreciate. And its pretty. There are some nice moments. I like how it builds, & I like the "I believe", "you believe" back & forthin the verses. But lyrically its trying to say too much & with too many words. I think talking about leaders & so forth probably makes it a little too on-the-nose to really resonate enough. It was better when it was about "me" & "you". And no song should ever include a phrase as clumsy as "deed of obligation". But I really can't take much issue with the "peace, reconciliation & forgiveness" spirit behind it. There's probably a better songin there somewhere but it needed a rewrite to tighten it up. Paul's vocal *almost* saves it. He's really gives it his best but if there's a track I'm tempted to skip on the album, this is the one.
Call Me - I was into this. Its kind of a refreshing change after some of the musically heavy & lyrically heavy stuff that it follows. Its simple, fun, easy to sing along to. Reminds me of "Let Your Heart Rule Your Head" from Brian's solo album & a bit of "Who Needs You" from "News of the World". The buzzy guitar is fun & I love the solo. I really think this could have been a track on "A Day at the Races". One of the reasons I have loved Queen for almost 20 years now is the variety, & this is a nice left curve track.
Voodoo - This track has a very Santana-ish quality, which must have been fun for them to work on since I don't think Queen-proper ever did a track like this, this well. This is obviously what something like "My Baby Does Me" from "The Miracle" was aiming for & didn't come close to. Totally Paul's territory & he just glides effortlessly through this. Brian's guitar is nicely understated & plays well against the vocal. The whole track is smooth as silk & is just about perfect for what it is. I don't think they could improve a note on this one.
Some Things That Glitter - Lovely opening with the piano, guitar, & cymbals. I love the symbolism of the butterfly. Very groovyin a laid back, '70s kind of way. Paul's vocal, again, is effortless & lovely. Nice to hear Brian doing those very Queen-esque backing vocals. "My butterfly grew golden wings" & then that lovely bit of trademark May guitar is a great little moment. A nice restrained solo. I could hear Freddie singing this, circa 1976. Probably my favorite track on the album.
C-lebrity - being the single, I have heard this a lot by now & its grown on me quite a bit. I love the lyrics, all trademark Roger Taylor stuff - the humor & the sarcasm. Again, a recurring vibe of this whole record for me is "fun" & this to my ears is a fun track. I like that it's a bit rockier & poppier than some of the other stuff, & thus taking Rodgers out of his comfort zone a bit. A nice to-the-point guitar solo. "I want to be a starin a Broadway musical - they're gonna love me - I can't sing or dance at all", I love that bit. Roger is, again, really killing it on the percussion. And it gets fun & a little sing-songy at the end with that weedly-weedly guitar. Another song I could hear Freddie doing well, say, around 1984 or thereabouts. And I imagine the video would have been hilarious.
Through the Night - Again, the guitar/drums/piano mix here is something I really missed about post-70s Queen. I like the melody here, Paul's very emotive vocal really sells it. I love the little change between the verse & chorus. Very raw emotive solo from Mr. May. "Without your love there's nowhere I can hide", that's a great line. Lovely guitar at the end, another overt "Queen moment".
Say Its Not True - As this song was released as a free download on New Year's Eve, this is the one I've obviously lived with the longest & I really fellin love with this version. Great hearing some lead vocals from Roger & then Brian, then some beautiful harmonising between the two of them before Paul sweepsin toward the middle & just takes it into the stratosphere. His voice really soars & he gives it all the power & emotion its due. I have always had a very emotional reaction to the song & specifically to this version. Its just big & sincere &in your face, & they go way over the top at the end with that huge sweeping guitar, & its really satisfying. Amazing that they were able to take the simple little acoustic song that this track started its life as & turn it into this epic.
Surf's Up ... School's Out! - I loved this one & specifically because its so different from anything else on the record & anything I've ever heard Paul sing. Again, taking Paul out of his comfort zone worked very well for me. Great hearing Roger's vocals. This sounds completely like his track to me. I like the way the verses & the chorus contrast so much & that there's some different dynamicsin the song. I love tempo changesin songs & songs that kind of go offin two or three different directions. I like the bridge with the twinkling synthsin the middle, & then its some crunchy guitar & driving drums to take it home. It's a bit of a curveball & it just works for me. If anything I wish they had mixed it up just a tad more on the whole album.
Small reprise - a pretty way to end the record. I find it perfectly hummable.
So I liked it quite a bit. It's a 4 of 5 or 8 of 10 record for me (although I'm bumping this product up one star because of the value-added live highlights DVD, which is excellent). I wasn't blown away but,in fairness, I also wasn't blown away by "Jazz", "The Game", "Hot Space", "The Works", "A Kind of Magic" or "The Miracle" - all good albums to varying degrees, but none were mindblowing. This album is three flavors I like mixing it up very well & doing what they do. A nice variety of songs, & if anything, I wish there had been even more. I like that it was a pretty raw, straight forward record without a lot of gloss on it. Its very genuinein that way & I respond to that. And,in the Queen tradition, I like that its not taking itself *too* seriously, that they gave themselves the freedom to just have fun, make fun music, & just sort of be lads playing music together. On the flip side, I like that there's a lot of genuine, unadorned emotion - some hope, some sadness, some loss, some ambition. It's a rounded record, if you know what I mean. And it has a very organic, "all came out of the same pot" kind of feeling to it, which contrasts rather sharply, to my ears at least, with most of the Queen-proper studio albums starting with "The Game", all of which sound to me like 3 or 4 great singles surrounded by some very pleasant but mostly inconsequential filler, written by 4 seperate songwriters working more or less alone. Conversely, I do wish this album had had a couple of poppier tracks. Queen became as much a pop band as a rock bandin the '80s & '90s, & my ears have become somewhat attuned to that.
I absolutely think that this trio is,in every way, a new band. Being the vocalist, Paul's influence is very strong, but having heard a lot of Paul's solo work from the last 15 years, Brian & Roger's influence on Paul is crystal clear. It's a much more defined & shaped album than Paul's solo stuff, a much broader variety of sounds, & of course the elements of the classic Queen sound are easily & frequently identifiable. And I think Paul allowed Brian & Roger to be unburdened from the shackle of having to have a specific "Queen sound" that refers to something that stopped developing organically 17 years ago. I imagine that "sound" is simultaneously something they want to perpetuate since they helped create it & also something that has to feel limiting & confining at times too. "Can we do this? Does this sound 'Queen' enough?" I don't really feel that tensionin this record. I'm not sitting here saying to myself "ok, this reminded me of Queen album _______ " because this just feels like a very different animal. Too many things have changed & too much time has passed to make that kind of comparison. Not a new chapterin a book so much as a new book. It just feels like a new creative entity, & rather like a second marriage. Both people bring their baggage, good & bad, from their prior marriages, & those elements blend into something that's new & old at the same time.
After listening to "The Cosmos Rocks", I hope they make another album together as Queen + Paul Rodgers. They've made themselves a very interesting beginning, & I would really like to hear how they develop as a writing unit & as a band.
The Queen is dead; long live the Queen.
Package Review - By: A. Reid, 16 Oct 2008 
This is not so much a review of the music which I think is Good. Not ground-breaking but of a quality you'd expect from seasoned Pro's.
My Gripe is with the Packaging. Nice looking but the two cardboard sleeve compartments for the CD & DVD are so tight that its impossible not to score the surface of the discs each time you remove & replace them. Ive only played the CD about 4 times & it already looks like its spent a year on my sons bedroom floor carpet along with his PS2 disc collection.
Accordingly I would advise anyone who purchases this CD to copy it immediately & play the copies otherwise you'll be lucky if you get a dozen plays out of the orignal.
What a Bargain!!! - By: Graham Smith, 14 Oct 2008 What an absolute bargain. For this price you get a CD & DVD.
I think Freddie would approve of this - there isn't a duff track anywhere & the DVD picture & sound quality will blow you away. I liked it!
