November 04, 2009

Adam Lambert Song Clips Hit The Web

By Gil Kaufman (MTV.com)

After months of hype, Glamberts finally got a chance on Tuesday (November 3) to check out Adam Lambert's debut album, For Your Entertainment. And while the American Idol runner-up's coming-out disc is still a few weeks away from its official November 23 release date, Amazon's U.K. site posted 30-second clips of all the songs on the CD, which promises to be every bit as over-the-top as the singer has promised.

And, in case there was any doubt, the clips confirm his promise that "glam is back."

The songs include the throbbing title-track first single, as well as the collaboration with American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi, "Strut," a chugging slab of glam rock with some '80s-hair-metal-worthy guitar and a mix of Lambert's falsetto and lower register. There's also the new-wave-y ballad "Whataya Want From Me," which bounces along on a bed of churning guitars and was written by Pink and radio-pop maestro Max Martin. Like "Whataya Want," the disco ball-spinning raver "If I Had You" sounds a bit like a dancefloor remix of a Kelly Clarkson outtake, slathered with Lambert's signature winking sensuality.

And, of course, there are ballads, such as the sweeping, Linda Perry-co-written "A Loaded Smile," which has Lambert pining over mechanical-sounding drums and weepy synthesizers, and "Broken Open," an icy tearjerker that plays out over chilly keyboards and a spare, haunting beat.

Lambert has plenty of space to get loose, as on the "We Will Rock You"-style thumper "Sure Fire Winners" and the hair-metal stomper "Music Again," a mystically powerful rock song that bears the heavy influence of co-writer and spandex-loving British wailer Justin Hawkins, formerly of the equally falsetto-tastic band the Darkness.

It's not hard to pick out the influence of OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder on "Sleepwalker," which falls into the singer-songwriter's growing canon of majestic/ominous-sounding ballads, such as Beyonce's "Halo." There's also no mistaking the song that Lambert was so excited to work on, the Lady Gaga collabo "Fever," a preening bit of carnival pop that allows Lambert to indulge in some vocal bump-n'-grind as he sings like a naughty, gritty-voiced carnival barker over a throbbing beat and bouncy keyboards.

The album will also feature the bonus track "Time for Miracles," the bombastic ballad from the disaster movie 2012. Other tracks include the big-screen piano ballad "Soaked," which could rightly be mistaken for a B-side from collaborators Muse, the mid-tempo rocker "Aftermath" and a yearning pop-rock song co-written with Weezer's Rivers Cuomo, "Pick U Up."