Roger Taylor has unveiled Violence Insane In A Beautiful World, the Queen drummer’s seventh solo album, led by the new single Come On Summer (It’s Party Time) featuring South Africa’s Ndlovu Youth Choir.
by Paul Cashmere
Roger Taylor has announced Violence Insane In A Beautiful World, his first solo studio album since 2021’s Outsider, with the Queen drummer, songwriter and vocalist set to release the record through Columbia Records on September 18. The album arrives with the launch of the lead single Come On Summer (It’s Party Time), a collaboration with South Africa’s Ndlovu Youth Choir, and will be followed by a UK tour beginning days after the album’s release.
The new record marks Taylor’s seventh solo album and continues a parallel career that has run alongside his work with Queen for nearly five decades. While Violence Insane In A Beautiful World is not presented as a concept album, Taylor says the songs are connected by concerns about conflict, environmental damage and social division, themes he believes have become increasingly visible in contemporary society.
“There is a theme, you know, it’s in the title really, what a beautiful world we live in, don’t fuck it up,” Taylor said when discussing the project. He described the current global climate as one marked by violence, war and environmental neglect, while also stressing that the album ultimately seeks to highlight the value of kindness and optimism.
The first single, Come On Summer (It’s Party Time), introduces one of the album’s key collaborators. Ndlovu Youth Choir, based in Limpopo, South Africa, gained international attention through performances that included a Zulu language interpretation of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. Taylor said he was inspired by the choir’s work and invited them to contribute to three songs on the album.
“I think it’s transformed those songs,” he said. “It gives them a whole new dimension.”
Taylor wrote every song on the album with the exception of Jealous Guy, the John Lennon composition he describes as “one of the greatest ballads ever written”. He also handled production duties alongside long-time collaborator Joshua J. Macrae and performed the majority of the instrumentation and vocals himself. Members of his touring band also contributed to the recording process.
The album’s title track and songs such as Chump continue a tradition that has long existed within Taylor’s solo catalogue. Unlike many of Queen’s arena-sized anthems, his solo work has frequently engaged with politics, current affairs and social commentary. Across previous albums he has addressed war, authoritarianism, media influence and environmental concerns, themes that again surface throughout the new collection.
The artwork for Violence Insane In A Beautiful World emerged from a concept Taylor developed before NASA’s Artemis II mission released new images of Earth photographed from deep space. Taylor said the cover reflects the perspective of an observer looking at Earth from orbit, seeing both its beauty and its flaws.
“The cover is really the story of the lead song, which is A Beautiful World,” he explained. “It’s written from the view of an alien in a spacecraft literally orbiting the world and thinking how beautiful it is.”
The coincidence between the artwork and the Artemis imagery drew attention from NASA staff familiar with Queen. Taylor and Queen guitarist Brian May have maintained links with the scientific community for many years, particularly through May’s long-standing interest and academic work in astronomy.
Violence Insane In A Beautiful World follows Outsider, which reached No. 3 in the UK album chart in 2021 and became Taylor’s highest-charting solo album. The release also arrives during another active period for Queen, with Taylor and May recently overseeing an expanded collector’s edition of the band’s 1974 album Queen II, featuring a new 2026 mix and previously unreleased material.
Few musicians have maintained parallel careers with the longevity of Taylor. Since co-founding Smile with Brian May in the late 1960s and subsequently helping form Queen alongside Freddie Mercury and John Deacon, he has contributed some of the group’s best-known songs, including Radio Ga Ga, A Kind Of Magic and These Are The Days Of Our Lives. Alongside Queen’s estimated global sales of more than 300 million records, Taylor has also built an extensive solo catalogue stretching from Fun In Space in 1981 to the forthcoming release.
Looking ahead, Taylor will take the new music to audiences on a six-date UK tour beginning in Newcastle on September 21. The touring band will include Spike Edney, Tyler Warren, Tina Keys, Neil Fairclough and Christian Mendoza. The run concludes at London’s Roundhouse, a venue Taylor previously played as a guest with Foo Fighters in 2011. For a musician whose career now spans more than half a century, the new album represents another chapter in a body of work that continues to balance personal reflection with broader observations about the state of the world.
Violence Insane In A Beautiful World Tracklisting
A Beautiful World (Feat. The Ndlovu Youth Choir)
Violence Insane
What Really Matters
Don’t Photograph Food
I See You Now
Chump
Spit In His Eye
Jealous Guy
Come On Summer (It’s Party Time) (Feat. The Ndlovu Youth Choir)
A Great Big Beautiful World (Reprise) (Feat. The Ndlovu Youth Choir)
Dates:
21 September 2026, Newcastle, O2 City Hall
22 September 2026, Edinburgh, Usher Hall
24 September 2026, Birmingham, The Alexandra
25 September 2026, Manchester, Opera House
28 September 2026, London, Roundhouse
29 September 2026, Swansea, Building Society Arena
Ticketing details: Fans who pre-order Violence Insane In A Beautiful World will receive priority access to tour tickets.
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