For Roger Taylor, Fun on Earth is both a full-circle return to his solo career — with a punny title referencing his debut away from Queen — and a chance to take stock.
Queen, of course, has made a series of well-received stops of late with Adam Lambert, while Taylor and fellow founder Brian May have overseen related projects like the Queen Extravaganza talent contest and the musical production “We Will Rock You.”
There has been precious little time for Taylor to follow up 1998’s Electric Fire, so Taylor simply continued collecting musical items — storing them away for a future solo effort. With Fun on Earth, the drummer is ready to present the results.
Due on November 11, 2013 from Virgin EMI, Fun on Earth finds the author of Queen hits like “Radio Ga Ga,” “Days of Our Lives” and “A Kind of Magic” presenting 13 tracks, including a collaboration with Jeff Beck on “Say It’s Not True.”
At the same time, a set focusing on Taylor’s completely solo recordings (cheekily called The Lot) has also been prepared for release, also on November 11. Taylor issued Fun in Space, a Top 20 UK smash, in 1981, followed by 1984’s Strange Frontier, and then Happiness a decade later.
The Lot will also include albums from Taylor’s work in the side project the Cross, including 1988’s Shove It, 1990’s Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know and 1991’s Blue Rock.
“It’s been a long time since my last album and it’s taken me a long time to make it,” Taylor says of Fun on Earth. “It’s been labor of love over four or five years really. It’s an accumulation of material that I’ve had that I’ve wanted to get off my chest. I’ve got a really great studio here at home, so it’s been really nice for me to go into my studio for a bit and work on my thing in between the rest of the projects Queen tend to be doing.”
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