Strange Frontier

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Strange Frontier
Strange frontier.jpg
Studio album by
Released25 June 1984
Recorded1983–84
Studio
Genre Rock
Length41:55
Label Parlophone, EMI, Capitol
Producer Roger Taylor, David Richards, Reinhold Mack
Roger Taylor chronology
Fun in Space
(1981)
Strange Frontier
(1984)
Happiness?
(1994)
Singles from Strange Frontier
  1. "Man on Fire"
    Released: 4 June 1984
  2. "Strange Frontier"
    Released: 30 July 1984 (UK, Canada, Australia, The Netherlands and US only)
  3. "Beautiful Dreams"
    Released: August 1984 (Portugal only)

Strange Frontier is the second album by the English musician Roger Taylor. This album includes two covers as well as a heavier sound than the previous album. Although Taylor again played most of the instruments himself (drums, guitars, bass and keyboards) and did most of the vocals, there were some occasional cameos from producer David Richards (on synths and piano), Status Quo member Rick Parfitt (on rhythm guitar) and Queen bandmates John Deacon (on bass and mixing), Brian May (rhythm guitar on "Man on Fire") and Freddie Mercury, (who provided backing vocals on "Killing Time"). The US edition has the track order rearranged.

Contents

Multiple musical elements from the song "I Cry for You (Love, Hope and Confusion)" (the drum machine, harmonies, chord progressions and overall arrangement) had already been used for the Queen hit song "Radio Ga Ga", released earlier the same year. Many of the songs of this album were previously worked by Queen during "The Works" sessions in 1983 ("Beautiful Dreams, "Man on Fire", "Strange Frontier", "Killing time", "Abandonfire" and "I Cry for You (Love, Hope and Confusion)") , and many of the arrangement were re used, hence the similarity of sounds and styles between this solo album by Roger Taylor and the album that Queen had released in that 1984.

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Track listing

All tracks are written by Roger Taylor, except where noted

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Strange Frontier"4:16
2."Beautiful Dreams"4:23
3."Man on Fire"4:05
4."Racing in the Street" (Bruce Springsteen)4:28
5."Masters of War" (Bob Dylan)3:51
Side two
No.TitleLength
1."Killing Time"4:58
2."Abandonfire" (Taylor, David Richards)4:12
3."Young Love"3:22
4."It's an Illusion" (Taylor, Rick Parfitt)4:03
5."I Cry for You (Love, Hope and Confusion)" (Taylor, Richards)4:16

Personnel

Singles

A-Side: "Man On Fire"
B-Side: "Killing Time"
Released on 4 June 1984.
Reached #66 in the UK Singles Chart.
Released in the UK, Japan, USA, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Australia and South Africa.

A-Side: "Strange Frontier"
B-Side: "I Cry For You"
Released on 30 July 1984.
Reached #98 in the UK Singles Chart.
Released in the UK, USA, Canada and The Netherlands.

A-Side: "Beautiful Dreams"
B-Side: "Young Love"
Released in August 1984.
Only released in Portugal.

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References

  1. Album Cover