Carol
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 |  Subject: Yahoo UK - For Your Entertainment Review  11.05.10 12:36 | |
| - Quote :
- Through English eyes, Adam Lambert may look like an '80s throwback, the USA belatedly fielding an androgynous, openly gay pop star alongside Boy George, Holly Johnson and Marc Almond. In his homeland, however, Lambert is a revolutionary. After flamboyantly romping to second place in 'American Idol', his homoerotic televisual antics provoked the religious right into such a hysterical rage that ABC controversially cancelled a high profile interview with him. That he was replaced by convicted woman-beater Chris Brown exposed the warped morality of a certain section of US society.
On this side of the Atlantic, the fuss seems oddly quaint and distant, so we can assess 'For Your Entertainment' on its own merits. Which is where it gets really interesting: for all its missteps, hectic need to please and eye-skeweringly horrible artwork (a real '80s throwback), it may be the most dynamic and intriguing record ever associated with Simon Cowell. Like his pop-revolutionary comrade Lady Gaga (who contributes one of the best songs, the sweaty martial beat of 'Fever'), Lambert has eclectic tastes and fuses his love of electronica, pure pop and hair metal into unusual and often dissonant new shapes.
Just listen to the squelching, rutting 'If I Had You', an upcoming single which may become one of the oddest US hits in years. Or try the title track, which deploys the best combination of whiplash FX, coy S&M references and pop suss since Depeche Mode's 'Master And Servant'. Neither are truly great pop songs, but they are energised and distinctive, not qualities always associated with talent show contestants.
Elsewhere, Lambert is more restrained and more effective. The Pink collaboration 'Whatya Want From Me' is built on a slender, tender guitar line, over which Lambert delivers a vocal of real aching longing, while on the spooked, wintery break-up ballad 'Broken Open', his voice trembles with the same combination of fragility and emotional power as Tom Chaplin at his best.
Ironically, the very flexibility of Lambert's voice sometimes undermines his originality. On Matt Bellamy's 'Soaked', he apes Bellamy's quivering falsetto so exactly that it merely ends up sounding like a Muse B-side. Still, it's a much more palatable collaboration than the dire 'Music Again': Lambert must be the only person alive who still finds Justin Hawkins' metal parodies amusing enough to not only employ him but imitate him. Still, even failed experiments prove an encouraging willingness to take risks, and with a little more confidence and quality control, Lambert might just become as good a pop star as he is a provocateur. http://uk.launch.yahoo.com/100510/33/222kv.html | |
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