Roger Taylor (Queen) announces new album ‘Violence Insane In A Beautiful World’ – single + video “I See You Now” out now

The renowned Queen singer, guitarist, and songwriter Roger Taylor has revealed that his upcoming album, “Violence Insane In A Beautiful World,” will be released by Columbia Records on September 18, as per Blabbermouth. “I See You Now” is the second single that comes before the LP. With the exception of Roger‘s eye-catching ruby red high-tops, a stunningly lovely black-and-white video for the song was produced by his wife Sarina Taylor and long-time partner Simon Lupton. “Violence Insane In A Beautiful World” is Roger‘s first album since his critically and popularly hailed Top 3 album “Outsider” in 2021. His solo career dates back to 1977.

It’s a love song. It’s really about my wife. We’ve been together for quite some time, and I think when you really get to know someone, at first you really don’t see everything about them, but when you really get to know someone, it’s, ‘Oh, I see you now. That’s it.

The album is not a concept one.

There is a theme, you know, it’s in the title really, what a beautiful world we live in, don’t fuck it up. There seems to be all this insanity at the moment. The violence in the world seems to be as bad as it ever was, at any point, and certainly in my lifetime. It’s just horrific, a lot of insane violence. And we do seem to be fucking up the world, plastics in the sea, you know, and all these awful wars everywhere and hatred born of different religions.

It’s a beautiful world, you know. And kindness is very important, I think, it seems to be forgotten quite a lot. So, that is basically the sort of underlying theme.

With the exception of a beautiful rendition of “Jealous Guy,” which he calls “one of the greatest, ballads ever written,” Roger wrote, produced, sang, and performed every song on “Violence Insane In A Beautiful World” himself. With assistance from long-time collaborator Joshua J. Macrae, members of his live band, and on three outstanding tracks, The Ndlovu Youth Choir from Limpopo, South Africa.

“I was really happy when I became aware of this amazing South African choir, who sing in Zulu. They’re just wonderful. They did the most incredible cover version of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, and it’s fabulous. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it. So we suddenly had the bright idea of asking them to sing on some of the tracks, which they did, and I think it’s transformed those songs. It gives them a whole new dimension. I’m really thrilled with their work on that.

A celestial coincidence occurred while Roger was completing the album’s artwork: Artemis II took distant photos of Earth while on its trip to the Moon’s dark side. According to the Queen supporters at NASA in Houston, “everyone liked it and thot it was definitely kismet.”

Well, the cover is really the story of the lead song, which is ‘A Beautiful World’, and it’s really an old idea, but in a way, it’s just written from the view of an alien in a spacecraft literally orbiting the world and thinking how beautiful it is. On close observation, he sees there’s problems, there’s infection, all the violence and horrors that occur, and then there’s a list of all the great things about the earth. It’s really rather strange because it was done before we got those wonderful pictures from Artemis II.

NASA approves! They’re very nice people. We’ve been there. Obviously. Brian knows them very well. We went whilst we were on tour in Houston. We had a fantastic tour of the whole NASA site. It’s quite something just to be sitting in the control room with all these guys and screens, and they’re actually talking to the space station, controlling it. Yeah, hell of a thing.

Tracklist:

1. A Beautiful World (feat. The Ndlovu Youth Choir)
2. Violence Insane
3. What Really Matters
4. Don’t Photograph Food
5. I See You Now
6. Chump
7. Spit In His Eye
8. Jealous Guy *
9. Come On Summer (It’s Party Time) (feat. The Ndlovu Youth Choir)
10. A Great Big Beautiful World (reprise) (feat. The Ndlovu Youth Choir)

*written by John Lennon

Upcoming shows:

• Monday, September 21, 2026 – O2 City Hall, Newcastle, United Kingdom
• Tuesday, September 22, 2026 – Usher Hall, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
• Thursday, September 24, 2026 – The Alexandra, Birmingham, United Kingdom
• Friday, September 25, 2026 – Opera House, Manchester, United Kingdom
• Monday, September 28, 2026 – Roundhouse, London, United Kingdom
• Tuesday, September 29, 2026 – Swansea Building Society Arena, Swansea, United Kingdom