The Cosmos Rocks (2008)
1. Cosmos Rockin'
2. Time to Shine
3. Still Burnin'
4. Small
5. Warboys
6. We Believe
7. Call Me
8. Voodoo
9. Some Things That Glitter
10.C-Lebrity
11.Through the Night
12.Say It's Not True
13.Surf's Up...School's Out!
14.Small Reprise
I’ve seen this one credited under at least four different names. “Queen.” “Queen +.” “Queen + Paul Rodgers.” Even just “Paul Rodgers.” For simplicity’s sake (and because it’s right there on the front cover), let’s go with *Queen + Paul Rodgers*. Though truth be told, that moniker alone might be enough to scare a few longtime fans away — and honestly, I wouldn’t blame them.
Let’s start with the obvious: Brian May and Roger Taylor still had the fire to make music, and who can fault them for that? But without Freddie Mercury — and with John Deacon having quietly stepped away from the spotlight years earlier — things were always going to be different. Drastically so. Rather than starting fresh under a new band name, though, the remaining duo decided to keep the *Queen* flag flying. Enter Paul Rodgers — a veteran vocalist best known for fronting Free and Bad Company. Good singer? Absolutely. Right fit for Queen? Not remotely.
That mismatch was painfully obvious on their earlier live release Return of the Champions, which felt like watching a Shakespeare play performed by a touring rockabilly outfit. This time around, though, they’re working with brand-new material — which helps. A lot. If you go in expecting a straight-up rock record from a power trio with decades of experience, there’s some good stuff here. But if you go in expecting Queen, well…you might find yourself mentally rewriting every chorus with Mercury’s voice in your head. I know I did.
There are moments where the old magic flirts with the edges. Brian May’s guitar work is front and center — as it should be — and Roger Taylor still hits like a heavyweight champ. But without Freddie’s theatrical flair and genre-bending brilliance, the band starts to sound a bit lopsided. It’s all rock, all the time. Which might work for some people. But for those of us who loved Queen’s stylistic detours — the funk, the cabaret, the opera, the *weirdness* — this feels like only half the band showed up.
To be fair, nobody was trying to fool us. The cover says *Queen + Paul Rodgers*, not just *Queen*, and by 2008 everyone knew what they were getting into. That transparency helps. So does the fact that the record isn’t bad — just misbranded. Take the *Queen* name off it, and you’ve got a perfectly respectable rock album by three seasoned pros. Keep the name on, and you’re setting expectations that it just can’t live up to.
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