Roger Taylor announces seventh solo album Violence Insane In A Beautiful World — with a Zulu choir and a Lennon cover
Queen drummer and songwriter Roger Taylor has announced his seventh solo album. “Violence Insane In A Beautiful World” is due September 18, 2026 via Columbia Records, five years after the critically acclaimed “Outsider” (2021), which reached the UK top 3. The announcement is accompanied by the lead single “Come On Summer (It’s Party Time)”, featuring The Ndlovu Youth Choir — the South African youth choir from Limpopo who first went viral for their Zulu-language cover of “Bohemian Rhapsody”.
Though not a concept album, the record has a clear unifying theme: the tension between the world’s beauty and the violence threatening to consume it. “The violence in the world seems to be as bad as it ever was, at any point in my lifetime. Plastics in the sea, awful wars everywhere, hatred born of different religions. And yet — it’s a beautiful world. Kindness is very important; it seems to be forgotten quite a lot, » Taylor explained. Alongside his own compositions, the album includes a cover of John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy”, which he describes as “one of the greatest ballads ever written”.
The Ndlovu Youth Choir appear on three tracks. “I couldn’t believe it when I saw their cover of “Bohemian Rhapsody”. It’s just wonderful. We asked them to sing on some of the tracks and I think it’s transformed those songs — it gives them a whole new dimension, » Taylor said. The album cover carries its own remarkable footnote: it was completed before Artemis II photographed Earth from the dark side of the Moon, and the visual coincidence was so striking that the NASA team in Houston reportedly called it “kismet”.
The full tracklist runs: “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) and “A Great Big Beautiful World” (reprise, feat. The Ndlovu Youth Choir). To support the album, Taylor will tour the UK in September: Newcastle (Sep 21), Edinburgh (Sep 22), Birmingham (Sep 24), Manchester (Sep 25), London Roundhouse (Sep 28) and Swansea (Sep 29). Fans who pre-order the album will receive exclusive first access to tickets.
