No need to be in any panic mode at all. I thought that the writing was on the wall since a while.
a) Adam delaying his album, and it was quite apparent or at least seemed to me apparent that this was his choice. He was not going to do the same thing that he did during TOH, which was ignoring the managerial change, and hope for a different result the second time around. This time, he was holding all the cards and decided to go into a holding pattern until the dust at WBR had settled.
b) Adam clearly filling the wait time with lots of QAL activity, thereby helping that Queen cooperation in its most essential years.
c) Adam clearly pivoting towards being visually and in his public persona more directly associated with the LGBT causes, rather than less, indicating that any previous attempts to target a more mass market by 'toning it down' was not happening. Adam was going to be himself, and he was going to let the chips fall where they may. We are going to get a more edgy Adam again, I would guess.
d) Adam's regular attention to Demi, NJ, and PhilyMack, and eventually the managerial change on his part.
The only thing that did not quite fit with that, was that the Idol performance that was suspected, did not come about. My guess, is that the final negotiations with WB happened rather recently, and he did not want to influence the outcome by preempting which way the chips had fallen. But that is just a guess on my part.e) Adam recently was also quite expressive about how major labels struggled to know what to do with him visually lyrically and from a market placement standpoint, and while most statements were interpreted as being RCA related, he did not say 'my previous label', something he would have done, if he wanted to separate WB from RCA, he just talked about the suits in general.
f) Streaming will be very important in this next phase + whatever PhilMack can do. Adam will always be fine though. He is financially free to do the music he wants to do, does not have to follow current trends, and he mentioned quite a few times, that this was influential for the last few albums, and that he is going away from that.
I think the writing was on the wall, and I am not surprised at all. Now what will come instead is going to be a big question. Because his rather vague or all-over-the-map indications on where his new album was going, were not giving me too much to work with yet.
Right now, I am going focused on this let of the Queen tour, and take that the rest will come about eventually.