Queen is back on-trend, and this time the legendary rock band released a new compilation of live concerts with current singer Adam Lambert.
Photo courtesy: genius.com
The American Idol runner up impressed the world with his superb vocal technique in 2009 when he appeared on the show, making his way to the final where Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor participated with the two finalists.
Although Lambert lost in a controversial final today, it is not known what happened to Kris Allen.
In 2011 the American singer sporadically joined Queen, completing some minor concerts.
It was not until 2012 when, in front of the rock band Lambert, he met a two-hour setlist before the Ukrainian public, which to be the first time the showman completed a full concert with Queen was in front of more than 400 thousand people.
Since then, Queen, now under the name Queen + Adam Lambert, have become a touring band, doing shows at major musical events and all over the world and this is what this new album is about, to show what Brian May, Roger Taylor, and Adam Lambert have done for these last eight years.
"Live Around the World" is an album expected by many fans of this collaboration as many detractors expected it. Although Queen did not make an original album since 2008 with Paul Rodgers (Bad Company singer) who was Queen's singer, this album shows us familiar music from the Queen catalog that we already know.
It does not mix music from that album. It also does not feature music by Lambert (Unlike "Return Of The Champions" with Rodgers in 2005.)
This album includes hits that we all know from Queen, leaving the consumer a familiar musical repertoire and two Freddie Mercury solo releases that were never played live.
The album sounds excellent; some songs could pass as studio music like The Show Must Go On, but many more pieces have a terrible musical mix that seems to predominate most of the album.
The production focused on making this compilation sound like a single concert since the audience's volume remains stable for most of the songs, giving the sense that we are listening to only one thing and not a different show each piece.
In the musical aspect, there are no claims. Lambert's powerful vocals are present for most of the album, making it clear that the boy is not improvised out of the TV. Adam Lambert is possibly the best rock singer in the actuality, and it needs to be said, Adam does what Freddie Mercury could not do live.
Adam reaches those high notes in which Mercury took refuge with Roger Taylor as support.
Of course, at no time, Adam gives you a feeling that he is imitating the original.
Instead, you can feel how he has transformed these hits into his own, giving them his musical touch but not passing the original barrier.
Going through the other members, Roger Taylor sings along with Lambert the hit Under Pressure that was initially sung by David Bowie and Freddie Mercury, letting us glimpse that Taylor, at the age of 71, the man possesses a spectacular singing ability as he did in his youth.
Turning now to Brian May, his mythical guitar sounds powerful and present.
Brian is the sound of Queen. He is the piece that gives the legendary sound to all the songs, and here he is not the exception.
But not everything is perfect. As we already mentioned, a negative aspect of the album is the musical mix and the choice of songs. Most of these songs are not from unreleased shows.
It seems they went easy. Anyone can find these performances on YouTube, and for an album called "Live Around the World," they show very little of the world they have been in, and the setlist is very short.
They could include songs that were played in Argentina, such as "Las Palabras de Amor" from the Hot Space album or even Adam Lambert's solo hit, "Ghost Town," played at Rock In Rio 2014 and transformed into hard rock sound like of Queen.
Much more could have been done on this album in many ways, but it is still an excellent acquisition.