Adam Lambert’s “For Your Entertainment” was arguably one of the most highly anticipated albums of the year, but has it really lived up to its standards?
Lambert featured in last year’s series of American Idol; normally I would pay no heed to whatever comes out of Simon Cowell’s well-greased pop machine but, as early as the audition stages, Adam seemed like a clear winner due to his unique voice and polished presence.
Throughout the series it looked as if he was to be the sure fire winner but as the shows started to draw to an end Kris Allen, the small town boy next door, began to appear as a threat to Adam’s top spot with his safe performances. On the spectacular final performance night Adam came on and introduced Kiss who ascended from the ceiling and performed about six songs with Adam. Despite the amazing performance he gave with Kiss Adam still came in at second place along with another scandal about the idol voting system.
Since American Idol Adam has gone on to release his debut album “For your entertainment”, established without the monster publicity push of Cowell. The album features contributions from P!nk , Lady Ga Ga, Matt Bellamy of Muse and producers with names like My Chemical Romance, Green Day and Paramore under their belts. But on the flipside, some songs have been produced by Greg Wells who’s worked with names like One republic, Hanson, Mika, The Veronicas and Natasha Bedingfield, contradiction? I think so!
For me, “For your Entertainment” is a real split album, there are some gems and some over produced, nonsensical, rubbish thanks to the help of Ga Ga and Greg Wells. On the other hand the rest of the songs have qualities of Muse and even Queen standards. Such a varied album makes me think that Adam hasn’t quite decided his style yet and what interests me is the fact that Adam has co-written some of the best tracks on the record, they are better delivered and have more passion than any of the synth- pop computer work that is spoon fed to him.
Track Listing
01) “Music Again”- I ‘m not sure about this track the opening intro gives off a sound of Black Eyed Peas- “ Boom Boom Pow” but that is soon compromised by that distinguishing Darkness sound, which is a given as this track is written by Justin Hawkins, front man to the novelty band itself.
02) “For your entertainment” -I’m not keen on the track, it’s too poppy and overly produced. It reminds me of something but I’m not sure whether it’s Britney or Rhianna. He uses his voice to full potential once or twice but the rest is pretty mediocre.
03) “Whataya want from me”- Written by P!nk, there are certain streaks of her influences showing in this track. It’s one of the better tracks on the album, it feels more Adam. There’s more skill shown in this one, it’s more of what I want to hear from Adam. It’s less synth-pop and more guitar orientated.
04) “Strut”- Written by Kara Dioguardi and Greg Wells. It’s not a very strong track, again computer orientated and not the most meaningful song on the album. After listening to it for the second time I had switched off completely, totally uninterested.
05) “Soaked”-I Love this track as it reeks of Muse as it was written by Mathew Bellamy for Muse originally. With a great Rocky feel this is Adams sound that I believe he’s searching for. After listening to strut and for your entertainment it’s a breath of fresh air. One of Adams highlights of American Idol was when he did the Muse version of “Feeling Good.”
06) “Sure Fire Winners”- after having listened to Soaked four times in a row I was disappointed to hear the synth sound back to haunt me. Whey! I hear a guitar solo, there’s a great little rocky bit and then it’s spoiled by the synth hook coming back in before the chorus.
07) “Loaded Smile”- Good but it became a bit boring, though I’d rather listen to an album of this than the pop sounds of FYE and Strut. It’s quite Ambient there’s not much to say for this.
08) “If I had you”-Just no, the same as FYE, Strut and SFW, Too Cascada for me, no thanks.
09) “Pick U Up”- Not too bad but it hasn’t got much about it again quite poppy and slightly musicalish.
10) “Fever”- Lady Gaga Love games, not too bad for Gaga still quite produced but I didn’t mind listening to it but it’s definitely background noise.
11) “Sleepwalker”- Adam co-wrote the song and it’s quite One Republic. Definitely not overly produced with a slower tempo and shows more talent. Still not the most compelling but I think he has more feeling toward the song as with most artists.
12) “Aftermath”- Rather Goo Goo dolls, more rocky and ballad-like. This is one of my preferred songs on the album, it’s also written by Adam.
13) “Broken Up”- It’s Slower quite calming but I got bored after a while. It doesn’t change much and is too long for it to not change at all.
14) Time for miracles- I’d heard this song before as it was released as a song for the movie “2012”. I like this song it’s quite rocky and lets Adam, passionately show his true brilliance.