Happiness?

Happiness? Artist: Roger Taylor
Label: EMI Int'l
Category: Music


Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1


UPC: 724383005925
EAN: 0724383005925
ASIN: B0000074DE


Release Date: 2000-06-27

Happiness?


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Tracks:

  1. Nazis 1994
  2. Happiness
  3. Revelations
  4. Touch The Sky
  5. Foreign Sand
  6. Freedom Train
  7. 'You Had To Be There'
  8. The Key
  9. Everybody Hurts Sometime
  10. Lonliness
  11. Dear Mr Murdoch
  12. Old Friends

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Album Details

1994 Third Solo Release from Queen's Drummer.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars I really like this album.......2007-02-05

I have had this CD since it was first released in the UK. I have listened to it thousands of times. It is a very melodic and softer side to RMT's musical compositions. It is an extremely good CD and again showcases how much range RMT has as a song writer and performer. I absolutely love this CD.

3 out of 5 stars A bit to strange perhaps.......2004-12-13

This one cant really be rated really but its not an album to get for most. Roger Taylors got some strong lyrics as he does usually however Rogers songs are more varied and stranger then ever, even then his mostly aggressive sometimes laid back songs in Queen. He does not sing on this album but speaks. SOme of the stuff here will really test listeners.

3 out of 5 stars Even on a bad day, better than most.......2001-10-20

If you're browsing for a Roger Taylor CD, choose one of the other 3 - this is the worst of the bunch. Mind you, it still has moments of breathtaking quality, so my score of 3 stars is reflective of Roger's general standard being missed.

So what do we have here?

Originating from 1994, this has always felt like an unfinished album to me - too many of the songs seem like demos; ideas not quite fully formed. Take the title track for example - a couple of verses, a couple of choruses, and then it dies away as if noone could come up with an outro. The same applies to Loneliness, Everybody Hurts Sometime, and You Had To Be There - all nice enough songs, but with more potential than delivery. It's not as if Roger Taylor has to rush to finish records in order to make the lucrative Christmas release dates...

He's always been at his best when he writes with a little passion, especially in his solo work, and there are some great examples here. Dear Mr Murdoch, an extremely well written diatribe against a certain Australian media mogul, and Old Friends, a track for the (then) recently deceased Freddie Mercury both come across well. The exception to this is the first track, also bizarrely chosen as a single, Nazis 1994. Consisting almost entirely of drums and vocals, this is the most political song in Roger's history, and one of the worst too. In case you're wondering, it's anti-Nazi, which is probably the nicest thing I can say about it.

The high point, though, is the magnificent Foreign Sand which is easily worth a whole star on it's own. OK, it's a little overblown - but he was in Queen for 20 years...

It's actually a collaboration with a Japanese star by the name of Yoshiki, who contributes drums & piano to the track. 7 minutes of world peace, brotherhood, and mutual respect, all in the loveliest of epic ballad melodies (if Jim Steinman could write tasteful lyrics and was more restrained, this is what you'd get).

So should you buy this? Make sure you're heard another Roger Taylor album first, because if this is your first one, you might not buy another and that would be a shame.

3 out of 5 stars The search for happiness.......2001-10-10

A concept album dealing with the two major feelings that dog us each and every day, happiness and sadness and the things that cause us to feel this way.However, the album begins with "Nazis 1994" and it's more angry than anything. This was a time when skinheads were rearing their ugly heads in Germany and it ...[ticked] Rog off. In the "banned" version of this track he sings.."We gotta kick these... nazis", darn right!The happy cousin to "Masters of War" is "Foreign Sand" in which Rog pleads for everyone to come together. Naive in nature, I know but the sentiment makes sense. Backed with a powerful orchestra, if this song doesn't move you, you're dead.Roger has a bone to pick with FOX owner Rupert Murdoch and his monopoly. The in your face "Dear Mr. Murdoch" has Rog venting "dear mr murdoch, you do it with zing. at lowering standards you're really the king." I liked that line.It all ends with his tribute to Freddie with "Old Friends". Roger and Freddie were the closet from Queen so it's even more touching. This encapsulates the album...ending with "..rest in peace old friend, for me you'll never die." Knowing something is gone is evened out by the fact that they can live on in your memories.A mature, provocative and powerful album.

5 out of 5 stars

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