TERRA @alternaterra 8mHere’s my Idolatry 2009 playlist if you wanted to catch up on those videos again www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB4D7A95A5814C21B …Caution: If you haven't seen these before - beware - Slezack was NOT on Adams train for most of the season, so watching these might be very, very annoying 
Re: Michael Slezak, he criticized Adam for "over-singing" early in the competition. But starting at Top 10 week, when Adam sang "Tracks of My Tears" he began to be more positive about Adam and was a fan by the end. However, Slezak's favorite contestant that season was Allison, so he reserved his highest praise for her; he also liked Kris quite a lot. So he definitely wasn't a Glambert, but he did have a lot of respect for Adam.
Since American Idol, Slezak's comments about Adam have typically been very positive. For example, earlier this season he was writing the TVLine.com recaps of Glee, and he praised Adam's performances (he memorably called Adam a "tornado of charisma" in his recap of Adam's first Glee appearance). Yes, Michael was definitely Alison, Kris, Adam -- in that order -- but he was very respectful of Adam. But he has been very positive about Adam in the past 2 or 3 years.
And the fact is, Adam 2014 is >>>>>> Adam 2009.
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This is related to something I have been thinking a bit about as I wonder what A3 will be. Adam's evolution. In order to appreciate his evolution, I had to look at what he is doing not that we was not doing in 2009.
This morning I drove into work and listened to WWFM from Acoustic Live. The vocal perfection of that recording is so far beyond where he was on Idol. And then I reflected on the Adam Lambert I heard/say in Biloxi, and the Adam Lambert I heard/saw in Las Vegas with Queen.
Idol Adam was great, Acoustic Live has at least one perfect vocal performance on it, Biloxi and Vegas were an artist who knows who he is and who has learned how to use the awesome gift he has.
In 2009, Adam was the best performer and vocalist who ever walked onto the Idol stage. He still is. I am biased but this is a fact.
By 2010, Adam sang the perfect WWFM that is on Acoustic Live. Yes, there were other great vocal performances, and even one almost perfect recording from Idol ("Feeling Good" Studio). But that WWFM was a live performance during a radio promo -- a routine event for Adam.
In September 2013, at iHR, Adam was commanding, powerful and vocally at a higher level than I have ever seen or heard him. He made the impossible look easy. And he sang in a more spare manner than back in 2009 -- not a lot of extra vocal embellishments.
In December 2013, I hear Adam sing blues -- there was air in the vocal -- spaces to make the note he sang mean more. Something that is very hard for a vocalist who does not come from a blues tradition to do. (It is one of the biggest objections I have to most British blues but something that Adele and Lorde also do.)
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Yesterday, I rewatched some of the early Idol Adam performances. I can see how some excellent performances, like Satisfaction and B&W, had a bit "too much Liza" in them for people who prefer contemporary pop-rock. I have learned that some Adam fans like this singing style, but it is certainly not universally loved -- and is not part of anything that would even be on the radio in 2009 (or now or ever). In "Satisfaction" at around 2:16:
youtu.be/EWIJIQ61IegThere was not a spec of it in "Tracks of My Tears", it reappeared a bit in "PTFMWB" the following week. And from then on, he really moved away from it. And even a theatrical performance "Feeling Good" is thoughtful and controlled, albeit with a "10 minute" long, 360 degree live note in it. (At least it feel like the world stops for 10 minutes for that spin.) He had a small relapse to Lizaville when he performed "Cryin'" in the Top 3 (around 2:00 on this video). But Idol f'ed up the soundmix on that and the back-up singers are off key and the band was aweful and...the only good thing you can't hear (Adam)!
*** check out the t-shirt he is wearing! ***
youtu.be/q2wx_CV8S6YOne oddity is he avoided "Lizaness" completely when he performed "Believe" which is possibly the gayest song even written.
youtu.be/7pdrfqJ4NL0****
Adam doesn't sing like anyone else. And I think it took his a while to learn how to use some of what he can do vocally in contemporary pop-rock without any vocal fore-fathers. At least none I can think of.
There are the great, big-voiced male rock frontman front the late 1960's through the mid-1980's (Plant, Perry, Mercury, etc.) but their style is appropriate for classic rock and metal.
Most of the contemporary male pop-rock vocalists are indie style (Adam Levine, John Mayer) or rooted in R&B (JT, Bruno Mars, Usher, Drake, Tiao Cruz, etc.) or Boys (Bieber, OD).
Adam really had to find his own way -- and that is really hard to do. I know he has found it in live performances, I expect to hear it on A3.
. Sensually . Tic-tac-toe ....
