Queen II is my favorite album ever. I still have to listen to the entire thing in one sitting. If I don't, I feel a little guilty. It's just so. Fucking. Awesome! I can't quite explain it, but it seems to be perfect for me in terms of auditory stimulation. And I love me some auditory stimulation (I consistently listen to my iPod on maximum volume when traveling). My one and only criticism for this is that there's no song writing contribution from John. What the hell, John? Way to be a team player!
I want to say right now that I do not regret purchasing The Cosmos Rocks. Just so we're clear. I'm very pro-Q+PR. I remember reading on Queenzone that this guy listened to that album and went through all of Queen's studio albums with Freddie, and he decided that The Cosmos Rocks was a pile of shit because it sounded nothing like any of Queen's original albums.
... Clearly this guy wasn't really paying attention. No Queen album sounds like another. There may be parallels and similarities, but everything from Queen to Made In Heaven is a unique and special snowflake sound-wise.
That, and Paul Rodgers is not Freddie Mercury. He's Paul Rodgers. And John retired from music. So it's no fucking wonder that The Cosmos Rocks is different from, say, The Works.
Anyway, the album itself isn't perfect. Sometimes I'm just not really feeling the blues sound, and yeah - some parts are just fucking awful. For starters, the intro to Cosmos Rockin' is... and I've searched tirelessly for the words to accurately describe this. These are the only words that can do my feelings justice: FUCKING STUPID! Surf's Up... School's Out is just as stupid, but I like the rest of the album.
In some ways, it almost sounds like these songs could have been on Innuendo (I can easily picture Freddie circa 1990 singing Time To Shine). And that made me feel even better about this collaboration. Paul Rodgers is his own man, but he fits in really well with Queen's sound.
And Say It's Not True is probably one of the most beautiful Roger tracks I've heard to date. Small follows very closely behind that.
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