I've beed a fan of Queen since early childhood. However since I was born in 1990 I sort of already knew about the bands seeming end when I started to watch them. I said seeming as Queen have been doing things since 1995's Made in Heaven. Just, most of them have not exactly shaken the public consciousness by storm like what Queen used to do.
I've only experienced their "The Cosmos Rocks" Album from the post Freddie Mercury days, aside from hearing Let me in Your Heart Again recently. And listening to The Cosmos Rocks as a whole and comparing it with Let me in Your Heart Again is like night and day.
Allow me to summarise my feelings on each song, in brief, listed in the order I listened to them:
* Voodoo: a bit on the mellow side
* Small: also very mellow
* We Believe: better then the previous, a good feel song, sort of a much much watered down version of "Wind of Change". The rhytm in it does work you up a bit more then the previous two songs, but you won't exactly remember the song too much.
* Some Things That Glitter: melow but more Queen in style then the previous
* C-lebrity: finally a song that picks up the pace. It doesn't reach quite classic Queen levels of Rock, but it still is better at getting your blood going then the previous four songs.
* Through the Night: starts off on a less mellow note as well, but it goes back into mellow territory....and I'm getting sick of writing that word over and over !
* Call Me: once again a song that start out on a more energetic note, but then pulls the drag shoot. It only ever gets back to being really energetic a few seconds before it ends.
* Warboys: a song that got a lot of flak. I admit the beginning of the song feels a bit off, but it is still the most energetic of all the songs yet.
* Surf's Up...School's Out! The song's a bit of a mess. Sometimes it sounds more bluesish, sometimes it almost reminds you of "NeverEnding Story" and then there's a sudden harsh yelp from the singer. It's probably one of the best songs thus far either way.
* Say It's Not True: music plus the video clip does seem like it wants to be "Another Day in Paradise". It's trying to be sappy and emotional right from the get go. Made in Heaven had some emotional balladic mood pieces, but you already have We Believe on the same album and you can't try to do the "this is wrong" extra sappy note multiple times and still keep the effect. Their heart is in the right place but maybe make a song people will actually remember so it can get the message across.
* Still Burnin: A more rocking sort of song, but the inclusion of the "We will rock you" esque hand clapping towards the end feels a bit like Queen stealing from themselves.
* Time To Shine: It's less energetic then one would hope but it does have some good bits, even with the sing-songey nature of a few spots. One of the best songs on the album lyric-wise.
* Cosmos Rockin': begins promisingly but it sort of degenerates into a rather samey beat that you swear you heard a hundred times before, at times.
* Small Reprise: it's a rather brief piece as the name suggests and once again another not very deep or memorable mellow mood piece like We Believe.
The album, overall, somewhat stumbles. Queen has made it's name on being creative and unrestrained and genuinely going from smooth ballads to head rocking hard rock tunes. The problem with the album is that it's just too soft. Of the 14 songs (not including the iTunes exclusive bonus track) only C-lebrity and Warboys seem to ever reach familiar territory as far as rock is concerned, and Cosmos Rockin' tries but the music there is a bit too uninspired sounding to really catch your attention. Surf's Up...School's Out! sometimes hits a rock note, but is sort of hard to place due to it's overal chaotic nature, even if the more laid back tone is probably the intended note, if one goes by the title.
That leaves 10 songs which either just meander on the same old mellow note, or some that occasionally try to play up the emotions like it's 1990 again and Queen has suddenly renamed itself after a predatory pouisonous arachnid and relocated to Hannover. The best you can say about most of these songs as a whole is that they are inoffensive and you might just let them play if you hear them on the radio, the sole exceptions to these being Some Things That Glitter and Time to Shine which do feel like they could have been made by Queen back in the day.
This probably sums up the tragedy of the whole album right there. The very first all original album since the Freddie Mercury dedicated posthumous "Made in Heaven", a full 13 years later, and most of the songs are just "inoffensively unmemorable".
This sadly looks like the reason why Queen has not been able to add a single new song to their various regularily released Greatest Hits albums since Freddie Mercury's death.
They claim they're not looking for someone to replace Freddie but....maybe they should, as I feel hos raw energy and charm and creative force is what gave the band it's sharp, distinctly memorable edge for over two decades. Take that away and you basically have just inoffensiveness and mediocrity.
