QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS: THE COSMOS ROCKS

When you see a collaboration named Queen + Paul Rodgers you expect Queen with Paul Rodgers as a guest musician. What you really get is Bad Company with guest appearance by Brian May and Roger Taylor...

That's how I see it. It's simply not Queen. All the little elements that made Queen such a great band are absent here. No vocal harmonies, no uplifting melodies, no "feeling"... Paul Rodgers is an OK musician but just not in the same league as Queen has always been in. If he had only filled in as a vocalist on couple of songs, maybe that wouldn't be so bad. But he dominated the album too much. Brian May and Roger Taylor are additions to Rodgers, not other way round. Rodgers' bluesy style 'purged' the old Queen style. What you get is mostly just a generic blues rock. There are some catchy melodies here and there (especially in the May-penned ballads "Small" and "We Believe") but Paul Rodgers vocals kill it all. If only Brian and Roger sung more on this album it would feel more Queen-like...

All the mentioned circumstantes, plus the fact that I'm reviewing it on a progressive rock site, force me to give it no more than 2 stars. And I'm being really generous...