Album Review: Adam Lambert – ADAM
3 min read
Adam Lambert has spent much of his career showing he’s far more than simply the runner-up from American Idol. Between fronting Queen (big shoes to fill btw) on worldwide tours and steadily building his own solo catalogue, he’s become a distinctive voice in modern pop – never afraid to blur the lines between glam rock, electronic music, and theatrical pop. ADAM, released through his own label, More Is More LLC, feels like a deliberate statement of identity. His sixth studio album is not only self-titled, but, with Lambert describing it as an exploration of the complicated space between hope and melancholy – deeply personal, drawing on his experiences from moving to NYC.. and all in capital letters too! Time to find out whether stripping everything back to simply “Adam” creates his best record yet, or whether some mysteries are better left behind the stage persona. Let’s dive in!
Kicking off with an Isaac Dunbar collab, RAT CITY sets the stall out – synth & electric band heavy instrumentation, with a hooky chorus and a nice bridge, but for me the depth on the synth-music is a bit shallow. NECKLACE follows, and musically is the same electro-band (also lacking in depth), with a slightly up tempo feel to the verse but the chorus reverts to the same speed as the previous track, which unfortunately makes it feel a bit samey, while single release EAT U ALIVE feels like it’s had more time spent on the instrumentation element, and PORCELAIN (with Lexie Liu), which opens with auto tune and the same matrix-esque heavy dark techno beat, though this one has a better tempo, and the bridge toward the end with Lexie Liu is well placed.
SANITY has similar musical arrangement, but the chorus is the first time we get to hear Adam’s powerful vocals during the chorus, and the pre-chorus is well placed, whereas single CLOUD 9starts slow and builds more of a drum and Bass beat to it, which I love (probably my favourite track on the album), but again you can hear the increase in score quality for the single release, while I also love AM I OK is the first non-electro track – a slow track which really shows off Adams vocals, and UNDER THE RHYTHM is another release where it’s just produced to a higher standard, with quite a poppy dance feel to it. RAGE also has a good poppy beat to it, with a slightly darker side to it, with REAL LUV returning to the basic track composition, though with a lighter feel than the tracks in the first half of the album. Penultimate track DON’T STOP DRIVING feels more analogue, and more of a rock track with a solid driving beat to it, and we wrap up with DO YA SEE ME NOW, another one of the stronger tracks with good use of synths, and is a solid, clubby style pop track.
I think many fans will love ADAM, but it’s not my bag. By the time we’d gotten to track seven I had checked out, with the same matrix club scene-style synths played at slightly different tempos, even though the last six tracks (and, to be fair, singles releases) felt like they were not just slapped together with the same setup played in slightly different orders. He is clearly a great vocalist, though I feel by and large this was seldom brought to attention on the album, with synth vocaliser overused for such a powerful voice. Not for me, sadly.
