That TOH snippet is amazing. I knew right away, when I heard it, that it would not go over well with some of our vocal enthusiasts, was not quite expecting knives, lol, but I can understand this, if I look at it singularly from that vocal perspective. He sure has come a long way from Brigadoon.
But....this song clearly is written to have mass appeal, and the style of singing fits in with the rest of male singers out there. If Adam would now constantly do only that, then I would see that as a waste of all his other talents. But I have no reason to believe that this is happening. What I see is someone who starts speaking to today's pop listeners in THEIR language, and who then allows them to explore other worlds from there. I see Adam branching out on this album and showing us a much larger multitude of vocal colors, while at the same time, sonically overall presenting something cohesive, or at least that is my impression based on the few bits and pieces I now know about.
This is a 10 course meal, not one big stew. We tasted the first appetizer (GT), and it gave us hints of what is to come, but I expect every one of the facets of GT to be explored further. I expect there to be some voice set against acoustic guitar or other instruments, with the voice comfortably residing in its sweet spot. I expect there to be some clever dance beats, because that is what GT has for me, a dance beat that is just unusual, and may I say, especially in the beginning, off enough, to throw the listener for a loop. That is fun. Was not expecting that. Beats-drops are done on many songs, but rarely have I felt a drop quite like this one. Feels like a ride.
I expect the house sound to be picked up somewhere else, expanded upon, maybe. I expect more drums, I expect more vocal expansion, beyond what GT delivers, and I expect other surprises, because that is what GT is to a very large degree: A surprise.
In comes TOH, talking about surprises. We have no idea right now, how it builds, but of course, it must. You cannot sing a song called TOH and not musically bring it around in some way, create some kind of full circle, or loop or spiral. It will be there. I have no idea whether Adam will give us the pleasure of singing the same chorus in different voices, i.e., his most normal voice (as in that radio snippet), a high head voice sample and a falsetto sample, or whether he spreads all these techniques out across different songs, but I am pretty sure that we will get plenty of head voice somewhere to make everyone happy.
My point is, yes Adam has a beautiful head voice, and those that are paying attention, know that. The issue is, not enough people are paying attention yet to Adam Lambert. Once you have the attention of them, you can guide them further, make them explore.
Many people have no clue about head voice and falsetto and what that all means. We are talking about all this on this forum since six years, so people here know, but even then, it is still deceiving. People yesterday heard that falsetto snippet and responded: 'oh he sings to high'....
Do you realize that he sings higher that that in his head voice at pretty much every concert he ever does? Yup.
While most males will use their falsetto to reach notes that are higher than what they can reach with head voice, not so for Adam. Adam's head voice extends further than his falsetto, if I interpret his falsetto range correctly based on just that snippet.
Here is a link to an online piano, if you want to follow along, it has the keys written on the top:
www.play-piano.org/play_online_piano_piano.htmlDuring TOH (NYBox - snippet), he sings up to D5.
In headvoice, Adam sings E5, F5, comfortably night after night, and if you go higher to F5#, G5, G5#, while they get rarer and rarer, as you go up, any one of them has been heard in live performances over the last few years.
A D5, in head voice, is for Adam just par for the course, in straight line, he can sing it in his sleep, as a jump up to D5, he initially had to work it out, to know that he is hitting that jump correctly each time. Train his voice to land on exactly the right note, just like an ice skater learns to land on a thin blade of metal right after doing a tripple axel. But he does it, beautifully, and consistently, because he is Adam Lambert.
Here is one example of such a D5 (3:33), others can be found in WWTLF and other songs..
The reason, that many think that the falsetto is higher, is because it sounds squeezed, sounds frail, sounds ghost like, actually. People can related more. When he sings the D5 in head voice, it is a far more unique and amazing feat, but it is off the radar of people perceptions outside the operatic/ classical singer community.
The TOH song sounds like it is written for mass appeal, beat and tempo wise, stylistically, and now you get this voice that all of a sudden sounds like what others on the radio sing. If he can present 2-3 tracks that make people interested in buying his album, then he can introduce these new listeners further to whatever he wants to show them, vocally or otherwise, but first he's got to get them.
By the way, falsetto is harder to control, I think you totally see that in that performance. It's like walking on tip-toes, you tend to wobble more, be less steady, cannot take big and forceful steps, but I don't think, there is anything wrong with exploring it, because it is on trend and you want to reach that audience.
But I am looking forward to hearing how it is all integrated into the whole song and what else is there. Cannot wait to hear this album, and hope, hope, hope it sells like it deserves to do.
