9.3.14 Q+AL Takes The Stage in NZ

Thought I would bring alek's latest tumblr over. Good read


About Opinions and Adam Lambert’s Integrity

It’s just one more Queen and Adam Lambert show to go and I’m already feeling jittery and nervous. Not as much because I am going to miss it, in spite of all its spectacular success and obvious high ranking on Adam’s career and soul ladder, but because the A3 flashing sign keeps speeding up and messing with my brain waves even before the tour has ended. Not a day’s rest! It’s like a broken down alert button and there is no way for me to fix it - I have to wait for the repair man. I would turn it off if I could, and perhaps that wouldn’t have been such a Sisyphean task if the talks about Adam’s third album hadn’t already started on various social networks. Is it going to be rock? How is it going to feel after Queen? When is it coming out? What is his new label?… No surprise there - it’s a well known fact that the Internet runs on cats, porn and Adam Lambert; and since Glamberts are a very opinionated bunch, the scope of advice sharing, predictions and, quite frequently, projections, is truly frightening.

The most common advice is usually that Adam needs a nice radio-friendly hit song, simple lyrics and catchy tune, and I couldn’t agree more. There’s nothing wrong with that, and we all know Adam wants radio success. Whether that kind of approach also implies tamping down on certain vocabulary, topics, messages, genres, styles, and other stuff that is incorporated into his art by choice or by their sheer inseparability from the artist, is a huge beast of a question though. The logical answer would be: ‘Not necessarily’ – but the slightly less logical one would be different and not very easy to define. For the WWFM (Adam’s biggest hit) singer, that answer could probably be no, but for the Trespassing author, it is possibly yes. Even the perspective is questionable: should we talk about what radio would find ‘friendly’ from Adam, or what Adam himself would find radio friendly, and can it ever be the same thing. It can, of course, WWFM success has happened after all, and it will. I’d rather see it happen on Adam’s terms, and luckily, that’s the only way he can do it.

Another frequent advice I used to hear is that he should abandon pop and its highly produced, ‘computery’ sound which does not compliment his voice well, and turn more to rock. For several weeks now we have been witnessing the glorious way Queen songs fit him and the way amazing musicianship brings out the best in his voice. QAL concerts have demanded his all, but they have also shown his everything in return. It doesn’t happen often, his voice is sometimes too big for his songs, and hearing him stretch his lungs and cords to their maximum has been cathartic. But, this tour has also shown Adam’s ability to play on many fields, thanks to the pastiche of genres throughout Queen’s prolific catalogue. Not to mention Adam’s absolute aversion to being defined by genre. During his last twitter party, one of the questions was: @lambetterer: @adamlambert Will the new album be rock genre? His reply: ‘I don’t believe in genre. It’s passé.’ I don’t think he could be any clearer. He doesn’t say no to rock. He says no to genre as a way of compartmentalizing music.

One of the less obvious realizations that his touring with Queen has brought is that even though the songs fit his voice like a glove, and Queen is generally speaking a rock band, that hasn’t led to too many opinions and a-ha moments among fans trying to project that realization onto Adam’s next album. To paraphrase, it was more along the line of: ‘Queen was great, but I can’t wait to hear his own music’. In spite of finally getting to hear Adam do rock in such scope, and do it brilliantly, it still remains just one of his many possible choices and not his final destination. Nevertheless, I don’t harbor any illusions that a lot of people won’t have their opinion about directions Adam should take regarding not only relevant topics like genre, production, or songwriting, but also touring, the backing band, and his facial hair, of course. Melvin is real. The question about Melvin has inspired more discussion than the situation in Gaza, and Adam has commented on that as well. To paraphrase again, sorry: he does not like it.

Although I think his opinion on any matter should be respected, or at least taken into consideration, I see nothing spectacularly wrong if some fans voice their dreams of hearing him sing this or that type of music, or generally have an opinion different from his. Adam’s respect of his fans has manifested itself in many ways, especially during concerts, where Adam literally feeds himself off the audience’s response and creates an interactive artistic synergy. But when it comes to two things in Adam’s life, and to cut any misunderstandings in the bud here: neither of them has anything to do with respect, I feel a big fucking no coming from Adam in spades. Those two things are, less importantly, his love life, especially post Sauli, and, more importantly, his own music. We can talk until our tongues fall off, and feel like if just Adam could hear us, we would reveal all the mysteries of the music business and the secret to his own success to him, if only he would listen; the truth is, he knows all about it and he doesn’t fucking care.

That fact alone has been enough to convince me of the profound seriousness with which he takes himself as an artist. By now, there are a couple of things people should know never to expect from him – one, putting out albums like a Las Vegas slot machine hitting the jackpot, and two, catering to anyone’s desires regarding his own music. Incidentally, both of these stances are in direct contrast to what the sagging music industry has to share as advice, and Adam’s refusal has, surprisingly to many, not led to his downfall, but theirs. The more they put quantity over quality, the less they seem to earn. The more they insist on defining artists by their own standards, the less they prosper as a form of art. The more they make music for toddlers, the more they lose their biggest source of income – the adult audience who actually earns money and can afford to spend it, even large quantities of it. The question when, or if at all, they are going to snap themselves out of it and do something is still lingering in the air, and doesn’t have anything to do with Adam’s viewpoints. His beliefs are stemming from within, and they keep bringing him financial and artistic prosperity. He must be doing something right. He must be doing everything right, that is.

During his career, I don’t recall Adam ever making comments regarding music industry or trying to right its wrongs. It could be just because it’s a sane thing to do, him being a part of it; or it could be that the way he chooses to develop his career is ‘swimming against the tide’ enough. Most probably, that two letter negative word I mentioned before is reserved not only for his fans, but for the industry as well when it comes to his music. So the fans can keep discussing and wishing and sharing advice, and the industry can keep… doing its thing – and Adam, well, Adam is going to, quite simply, make his own music the way he wants to. It’s a bit of an underwhelming conclusion to this long story, an anticlimax of sorts, like it is some kind of a special achievement or some kind of a particular effort, to make his own music the way he wants to. But it is. I don’t know if it says something about Adam or the world. Both, probably. What I do know is that the way Adam does things, makes this world a slightly better place. And a lot prettier one at that:)

aleksandrakv.tumblr.com/post/96542608048/about-opinions-and-adam-lamberts-integrity