Roger Taylor - Outsider

  by Zena Grieg

published: 18 / 10 / 2021

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Queen drummer Roger Taylor, composer of classic tracks ‘Radio Ga Ga’ and ‘It’s A Kind Of Magic’, has released his sixth solo album – and the first for eight years. Pervading ‘Outsider’ is a keen sense of nostalgia, underscored by progressive rock guitars and keyboards, with Taylor demonstrating his usual versatility on his solo albums, providing most of the instrumentation, drums, guitar and keyboards. A prominent theme is mortality, the focus of several songs including the hypnotic, mournful opener ‘Tides’ and the seven-minute epic ‘Journey’s End.’ Shades of 1970s Queen are evident in the melodramatic soul ballad ‘I Know, I Know, I Know'. In ‘Gangsters Are Running This World’ Taylor castigates authoritarian regimes whilst the prevailing claustrophobic climate of the COVID-era casts its spell in ‘Isolation’:- “So here we sit – in isolation/We calm our fears – we’re marking time’, suspension marked by the chorus: “Strange times indeed/Strange times indeed/Strange times indeed.” Highlights of this, in Taylor’s words, twelve-track ‘autumnal’, collection include: a collaboration with Scottish singer KT Tunstall on ‘We’re All Just Trying To Get By’, the song accentuated by Tunstall’s mellifluous vocals; the energetic blues-rock stomp ‘More Kicks (Long Day’s Journey Into The Night…Life’; the stripped-back reworking as a bittersweet ballad of the 1994 solo single ‘Foreign Sand’, featuring intricate acoustic guitar; and the contemplative closer ‘Journey’s End.’ With a UK tour starting this month, this lockdown-inspired, reflective album, is one for old fans and new.

Track Listing:-

1 Tides
2 I Know, I Know, I Know
3 More Kicks (Long Day’s Journey Into Night… Life)
4 Absolutely Anything
5 Gangsters Are Running This World
6 We're All Just Trying To Get By [feat. KT Tunstall]
7 Gangsters Are Running This World (Purple Version)
8 Isolation
9 The Clapping Song
10 Outsider
11 Foreign Sand (English Mix)
12 Journey's End

Band Links:-

http://www.rogertaylorofficial.com/
https://www.facebook.com/RogerTaylor
https://twitter.com/OfficialRMT

Label Links:-

http://www.virginrecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/virginrecords
https://twitter.com/virginrecords
https://instagram.com/virginrecords/

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