The legendary band Queen that included band members: Freddie Mercury, Brian May, John Deacon and Roger Taylor is back with a brand new studio album with all new original material but this time they decided to go on with a new singer. That new singer is Paul Rodgers, an English rock singer famously known for fronting the bands Bad Company and Free. Queen made it huge in the 70’s with classics such as “We Are the Champions”, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, and plenty of more hits. Queen has been known to blend a mixture of genres of music from hard rock to classical. Brian May have become one of the most influential and legendary guitarists of all times. The band’s main frontman Freddie Mercury died of AIDS in November of 1991.

Brian May and Roger Taylor decided to reunite Queen with a new singer to put out a new album with new material. The band’s former bassist John Deacon did not participate in the Queen reunion because he retired from the music business in the late ’90’s. So May and Taylor decided to go on without him. May and Taylor recruited Paul Rodgers as the new frontman. They released a new studio album this year titled “The Cosmos Rocks” which was just released in September of this year. This is the band’s new material since their 1995 album “Made In Heaven”.

As for my thoughts on the new queen album “The Cosmos Rocks”, I was a little worried about it at first. I thought it was going to be boring to listen to and didn’t think it would be that great. To my surprise, I was blown away and floored by the disc. It is actually an incredible record. “The Cosmos Rocks” strictly stayed true to the classic Queen sound. Most of the album is upbeat hard rock electric guitar driven just like the good old days of Queen. Paul Rodgers is no Freddie Mercury although he tries to sing like him but not even close, the songs on the new record are great though. Brian May’s guitar playing just blew my mind.

While the music industry today keeps getting worse and worse, once in a while a really good album comes out and this is one of them. I was really impressed with “The Cosmos Rocks”, the songs are tight and energetic. Other than Metallica’s “Death Magnetic”, Oasis “Dig Out Your Soul”, and Ac/Dc’s “Black Ice” being the best albums of the year 2008, I would throw Queen’s new album to the list. Gusn N’ Roses “Chinese Democracy” is coming out in a few weeks, could that album get added to the list of Best Albums of 2008 too? Who knows. For those who used to like Queen in the past with Freddie Mercurcy, the new album is defintiely reccomended. Pick it up next time you go CD shopping.

Score for Queen + Paul Rodgers “The Cosmos Rocks” = **** (4 stars as in excellent)

Kev