6.15.15 Good Day LA, The Tonight Show, Countdown to Midnight
Jun 15, 2015 16:16:04 GMT -5
Post by evergreen on Jun 15, 2015 16:16:04 GMT -5
Review: Adam Lambert Tones Down Excess on ‘The Original High’
By JON CARAMANICAJUNE 15, 2015
ADAM LAMBERT
“The Original High”
(Warner Bros.)
excerpt:
Maybe, to succeed, Mr. Lambert had to find a way to submit to something greater. And on “The Original High,” his third full-length record, he’s managed just that. The album is executive produced by Max Martin and Shellback, the Swedish pop mercenaries with abiding love of 1980s flash and 1990s dance music verve. They have found in Mr. Lambert an ability to be vague. Perversely, that’s set him free.
“Ghost Town” is perhaps his best single to date. At the first chorus, it becomes an early-’90s club thumper, and Mr. Lambert doesn’t try to best the beat. Instead, he becomes a house diva, singing with precision and ambition but in service of the song. The strategic restraint continues on “The Original High,” and even into “Another Lonely Night,” which could have come from the “Top Gun” soundtrack. He sings with particular intensity on “Lucy,” a grand-scaled 1980s rock-style epic, but even here he lets the guitar have the loudest word.
But then, in closing, he seems to approve that: "Here, Mr. Lambert has fully committed to formula: 10 out of these 11 songs are under four minutes... there are almost no extravagances. After years of spectacle, Mr. Lambert may have been saved by modesty."
My question: Is this a "good" review - for the NY Times?
