Retro Spins: Roger Tayor - Strange Frontier

 

Spring boarding off yesterday's post for Roger Taylor's 1981 solo studio debut, Fun In Space, I immediately dove into his 1984 follow up, Strange Frontier. Much like its predecessor, it's a product of the time that Queen was in. In fact, many of the tracks were initially worked by Queen in 1983 for potential inclusion in their forthcoming album, The Works. Also mirroring his prior release, Strange Frontier was hindered in promotion by Taylor's current touring schedule with Queen. The end result being that his sophomore outing would also result in lackluster notice.

One of the aspects that made it of particular interest to me were the contributions from fellow band members, Freddie Mercury, Brian May, and John Deacon. Mercury would provide backing vocals on Killing Time, while Brian May would contribute rhythm guitars for Man On Fire. Meanwhile, the biggest contribution would come from Deacon who provided bass on It's An Illusion, as well as mixing of tracks.

Though it's touted as having a strong similarity to The Works for containing many of the arrangement which were reused, I honestly didn't hear this at all. In fact, by the halfway point, I also hadn't heard anything that necessarily resonated with me. Truthfully, at this point, it really did feel like a series of abandoned tracks deemed not good enough for Queen's album.

I particularly wanted to love Killing Time, if for nothing else, the contribution from Freddie. However, I did not. I don't want to say this, but if I had to say what the worst track was from Strange Frontier, it would take the prize.

Overall, I wasn't impressed. Nothing resonated, or stood out. I didn't even hear anything that I added to my shuffle list, which is the complete opposite of Taylor's prior album, where they all made the cut. When it finally ended, I found myself audibly saying, "Yeah, that wasn't very good."

As noted yesterday, Roger went on to form the band, The Cross, and with them, release albums in conjunction with Queen through 1991. Upon their breakup in 1993, he would return to his solo career while also continuing to tour with Brian May as Queen. With exception of Queen's final 90's albums, I really don't have any interest in Taylor's solo works past the 80's. I am considering picking up his 1988 Shove It from The Cross. However, it's not presently a high priority. Since I'm writing this in November 2024, who knows, buy the time this post goes live, I may own it.

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THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS
June 4, 1983

 

THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS
June 4, 1988