Poll: Best The Cross album?

Interesting poll. I wasn't a huge fan of their first album. A couple of good tracks but yeah, didn't really grow on me. Mad.Bad is my favourite. Some silly lyrics but musically was pretty solid with some nice riffs. I like the 'rough' production feel to it. Blue Rock was a little more polished and laid back than Mad Bad.

Blue Rock is without a doubt the most well-produced album, but I think the songwriting and playing was better on Mad, Bad and Dangerous To Know. Shove It is still fun, but in my opinion can't hold a candle to the other two.

I think Roger's best work(for The Cross, not his entire career) came from Mad, Bad, and Dangerous. By the time Blue Rock came about, he was in 90's mode(Happiness) in regards to the general style.

For me, Shove It isn't at the top, though I do have a soft spot for songs like Stand Up For Love and Manipulator(if that counts).

I think what made Mad, Bad, and Dangerous were the Noone compositions. To me, his work(including Hand Of Fools) was consistently strong from both a songwriting, and a mixing standpoint(assuming the 12" and 7" versions of Liar were his doing).

Overall, I'm partial to Blue Rock as I just enjoy the overall feel of it. However, if I had to give criticism besides what I mentioned about Roger, it is that Spike's sole-songwriter tracks were either unoriginal in a way(Baby It's Alright takes the verse melody from Strange Frontier)or lacking in musical variety(Dirty Mind/Put It All Down To Love

Blue Rock by a light year.

Blue Rock by an absolute country mile.

Shove It is good but clearly not a band effort and comes across more of a mish mash of rock and dance songs. A few stand out songs on it like Heaven For Everyone, Contact and Love Lies Bleeding, which are worth the price of the album alone. More of a solo Roger effort in my opinion.

Mad Bad is generally generic sounding straight rock with bland production that has a few really good songs on it (Power To Love, Final Destination). It's fairly energetic in places and I did give it another listen a few weeks ago but it's just not for me. Better Things for me is the worst Cross song ever recorded. If they had put I Can Take You Higher on this album, it could have potentially saved it from mediocrity but alas, they didn't put it out on any of their albums.

Blue Rock has a wealth of melodic and interesting material on it and for me, every track apart from Dirty Mind (and maybe Ain't Put Nothin Down) is an absolute cracker. When I first came across it in around 1997, I didn't like it at all, probably because Roger had less to do with it than the other two albums and because it was produced by someone other than Rog! I've grown to love it over the last few years. Life Changes is in my opinion the best song by The Cross and it's a hidden gem because the album isn't known by a lot of people.

Oh, and a quick shout out to Heartlands. What a brilliant song. Should have been on Blue Rock, no question.

Blue Rock terrified QPL / EMI / Parlophone and they withdrew all financial backing for The Cross once it was obvious that Roger was already making plans for post-Freddie life.

That album is the best, most consistent solo project by any member of Queen bar NONE.

[QUOTE] [b]Khizzy wrote:[/b]

Oh, and a quick shout out to Heartlands. What a brilliant song. Should have been on Blue Rock, no question. [/QUOTE]

There are probably some more good tracks in what Spike stated was an approximately 20 song reject pile


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4Dk5hYcE5M

I'll have to hear the other two before i can vote. I've avoided THE CROSS even in the YouTube era because I'd not thought much of the one album I DID hear. Dang.

And i used to be a completist fan

Guess I've got homework to do

Same here. They just didn't really do it for me at the time so had no reason to follow up. But I am fond of Shove It. It's quite odd.

"Blue Rock terrified QPL / EMI / Parlophone and they withdrew all financial backing for The Cross once it was obvious that Roger was already making plans for post-Freddie life."

Care to expand on this? I'd like to know more about what happened during/after the Blue Rock release.

Does not sound right @ Pim Derks. He started the cross because he got bored. They were mostly popular in Germany and Roger was always available for Queen when he had to be.
Seems very unlikely QPL or EMI or Parlophone cared or were terrified of his side adventure.

Apparently there were plans to tour more before Freddie's death occurred. You could say the pulling of the Life Changes single was the beginning of the end for them

Mad Bad. Because of Power To Love (would have been a hit if it was done by Queen, IMHO) and Old Men. The rest is pretty amazing too.

Blue Rock is great because of Bad Attitude. Don't really like the Shove It.