Part Flash Gordon, part Queen, all high octane rock. Star Fleet Project was a solo effort conceived by Brian May, and featured the likes of Eddie Van Halen (of Van Halen) on guitars, Alan Gratzer (of REO Speedwagon) on drums, bassist Phil Chen (who played with both Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck), and Fred Mandell (of Alice Cooper, and touring keyboardist for Queen). May called it a mini album because he felt it was too short to be considered a full release, yet too long t classify as an EP. However, he also never intended for the sessions to be released.
The project was inspired by May's son, who was enraptured with the Japanese kids show of the same name. The boy would wake his father up on early Saturday mornings to watch the series with him, while also proclaiming his dad should make his own music for the show. The guitarist didn't think it was a bad idea, and in fact was finding himself rather enjoying the music from the series himself.
It was during a downtime for the musician, as well as those who helped on the project, that things would start to take shape. It was upon its completion that Capitol Records would opt to release it on Halloween 1983. Since then, it has been included a couple ways on CD, the first being the part one and two singles collection to Brian May's Back To The Light, and on the Japanese mini album, Resurrections. In 2023, it was re-edited by May, and re-released under his Gold Series as Star Fleet + Beyond.
As I played through the tracks, I was greeted by the familiar sounds of Queen's guitarist, which was mixed with a saltry rhythm and blues sound. In hindsight, I don't know that I would have enjoyed this had I not recently went through the 80's catalog of Eric Clapton. As I've stated before, this isn't, or wasn't, my kind of music for the longest time.
The three songs themselves are long, with the shortest being just over seven minutes, and the longest on the verge of fourteen. What this does is present an atmosphere where the musicians involved can jam, letting the music breath, and flow. However, the downside to this is that you're not going to get a radio friendly sound at that length. You further don't get any catchy lyrics, or hooking choruses. As such, you need to get lost in the sounds, feeling the music with the artists.
Overall, its okay. It fits the bill for being not only a solid blues album, but also a unique extension of Queen. For me, it's the latter that ultimately drew me to it. This isn't something I would have wanted otherwise. I suppose this could also be an added bonus for fans of Van Halen, REO Speedwagon, and / or Alice Cooper.
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| Back To The Light (Single) Part I and II |
Personally, I prefer my Brian May when he's working with Queen. Frankly, none of the member's solo efforts have been what I would call a massive success. Rather, its when they come together, edit and find inspiration from each other that I feel their music gets finely tuned and masterpieces crafted.
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| Resurrection (Japanese Mini Album) and Star Fleet Project + Beyond |
Don't get me wrong, I'm down with adding this to my collection from a Queen fan perspective, but as I said, if it weren't for Brian May's involvement, Star Fleet Project wouldn't be on my radar, nor in my collection.
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS August 1, 1981 |
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS August 1, 1987 |
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