If “Up” from Roger Taylor’s forthcoming solo effort reminds you, in some ways, of Queen’s “Radio Ga Ga,” well, there’s a reason for that: He used the same analog synthesizer in both.
There is, in fact, a sense of both timelessness and something utterly fresh about Fun on Earth, due on November 11, 2013 via Virgin EMI, Taylor says. It’s his first album since 1998’s Electric Fire.
“This album has taken me a long time to make, actually,” Taylor tells BBC’s Shaun Heaveny. “I’ve been doing it for about four or five years, on and off. I rejected a lot of stuff. So, some of it is old, and some of it is very new. It’s very ecclectic. But it did take me a very long time to finish it to satisfaction.”
The new 13-track album boasts a title pun based on Taylor’s solo debut, 1981’s Fun in Space, which reached the Top 20 in the UK. A new set collecting all of his albums away from Queen — including 1984’s Strange Fronter and 1994’s Happiness — is also set to arrive on November 11. That collection will be called The Lot.
Taylor wrote several hits while with Queen, including “Days of Our Lives,” “A Kind of Magic” and, of course, “Radio Ga Ga.” As for that old synth, Taylor adds: “I think they still sound better than the digital stuff.”
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