843. The Cross / Shove It. 1988. 3.5/5

I regret not knowing about nor being able to buy and hear this album when it was initially released. There's no guarantee that I would have liked it then I guess, despite my deep deference to Queen, but it would have been nice to have had the opportunity. Of course in that different age, not all information or releases about bands and musicians filtered down to my neck of the world in Australia, and so it wasn't until very recently that I was even aware of The Cross as a band, or the albums they released.

The leader and architect of The Cross is Queen drummer Roger Taylor, who was looking for a band with which to record and tour with. Following the tour promoting the A Kind of Magic album, Taylor recorded the majority of this on his own before other musicians had been recruited for the project, much as he had done for his previous solo albums. Several versions of the album exist, with two completely different track list orders for the UK release and the US release. The version I have is the US version, where "Love Lies Bleeding (She Was a Wicked, Wily Waitress)" is the first song on the album rather than the penultimate.
While pieces of this album drew me in at an early stage, it did take some time for this to catch on with me. Its style is similar but different from Roger's other albums. This combines a lot of the kind of improvisation and experimentalising that his previous solo work had done, as well as tricks and techniques drawn from his Queen recordings. he also utilised his band mates in places, more so than he had done in the past. Certainly, playing this material live would have been an interesting task, given the places where it almost appears as though sampling has been done. The title track itself would have been a task live at least.
So yes, there are some songs here that grew on me the more I listened to this album, some of them unexpectedly so. The title track "Shove It" was one of those. Interspersed with snatches of Freddie Mercury's "Yeah!" and Brian May-like guitar flicks and other sampled effects, and an unusual song structure throughout, this was a song that I felt I would never actually enjoy or get used to. Shows how much I know. It may have taken a while, but the song grew on me and I now enjoy its unorthodoxy. Another was "Stand Up For Love", which initially annoyed me for the over-repeated title throughout the song, almost to the point of carnage. It too won me over, much in the way some of Brian May's solo songs did. "Love on a Tightrope (Like an Animal)" I initially felt was just too basic, hardly changing its programmed feel throughout. Nope, it soon got me too, and probably when the undercurrent values raised their heads, allowing me to hear the multi-layered parts of the song as it flowed along.
Other songs were not so tough. It's easy when you already know one of them. "Heaven For Everyone" was re-recorded by Queen for their Made in Heaven album after Freddie's death. The vocals he provided here were used on Queen's version as well. as it turns out, there are two versions of this song for The Cross as well, one with Freddie providing lead vocals, and one with Roger providing lead vocals. Both provide interesting currents and flows. "Love Lies Bleeding (She Was a Wicked, Wily Waitress)" is a terrific number, featuring Brian May's lead guitar, but it allows Roger to establish the song through his vocals as a starting point.

It's interesting that this failed to chart on the UK albums charts at least. It was a time that was still dominated by pop, and the Stock, Aitken and Waterman stables was providing the path for the hits factory for several artists and saturating the airwaves. Even for someone as well known and respected as Roger Taylor, it was a tough market to crack. This album is quirky and off-centre, and hardly the easiest to promote in any market. But that's what I like about it most. It isn't a copy of material he has released before, and it isn't trying to glean off his more famous band. It is an album that doesn't grab you instantly, but grows on you gradually, such that you don't really know you like it until you HAVE for some time.

Rating: She was a rebel without a cause, she was a girl who needed applause.  3.5/5

841. Roger Taylor / Fun in Space. 1981. 2.5/5

Up until the mid-1990's I was unaware that Roger Taylor had done his own solo albums away from his presence in Queen. It was only when his controversial song "Nazis 1994" made waves in the media during that time that I found out he was doing stuff since Queen's demise, but that he had also done stuff before that! Despite that knowledge it still wasn't until very recently that I was able to discover this music, via a box set containing all of his material. Fun in Space is the first of those albums.

This was released all the way back in 1981, and is as far removed from Queen's material as you can be given the contributions of all four members to that band. Here Roger not only takes on the lead vocals, he plays all of the instruments himself. A pretty fair way to showcase your ability.There is plenty of experimentation with the keyboards, and very little of the rock-infused music his other band is renown for. It's probably a bit too retro and funky and psychedelic and even rockabilly for my liking, but it is fun to hear this side of Roger's music uninhibited by outside influences. "No Violins" is a rock based opening. "Laugh or Cry", "Future Management" and "Let's Get Crazy" are fun enough pop rock songs in their own way. "My Country I & II" goes on too long in that kind of experimental freeform jam kind of way. "Good Times Are Now" settles back to some sort of normality, but is replaced by "Magic is Loose", which sounds like it is supposed to be a Broadway musical number on acid in space, like an early David Bowie song. "Interlude in Constantinople" continues in that vein with its keyboard dominated experimenting, before "Airheads' and "Fun in Space" complete the album.
What this does show is the amazing talent and versatility of Roger Taylor. His vocals here are terrific, and while he had done songs on his own in Queen here we are blessed with an album of Roger on lead vocals. as always, his drumming is terrific, but it is also great to hear him on those other instruments - the guitar, the bass, the piano. But then to not only play all of the instruments on the album, but to have written it all himself as well. It's quite extraordinary.

This album has helped me understand Queen's HOT SPACE album a lot more, because it came after this, and now I understand a little of how it came out the way it did. And just because you like Queen doesn't mean you will like this. In essence this isn't an album I would jump at to put on at a party or in a crowd of people. For me the main interest I had in it was to listen to what Roger can do in a solo place, and I enjoy it for its technical differences than perhaps the music itself. I wouldn't say that about many albums in a similar vein, but Roger Taylor is so obviously brilliantly multi-talented that just hearing him do his stuff is reward enough.

Rating:  Red light warning, break down coming.  2.5/5