2012-05 Promo Interviews and Performances

Angelina ‏ @starlight8al
Adam Lambert's Three Gems
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Adam Lambert’s Three Gems
Posted on May 8, 2012
soundbath.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/adam-lamberts-three-gems/

The Sound Bath programmes are recorded ’live’ – meaning not in a studio. Therefore, you will experience some ambient noises and ‘echoey’ quality to the recordings. Please be so kind as to ignore those and instead, enjoy the content of the programme. Please also remember that it is illegal to download music from here. It’s better to support the artists by buying their music in stores or on Amazon or iTunes. That way we ensure that they’ll be able to continue to make music for us in the future.

For those who have become enamoured with the exquisite voice of Grammy nominated recording artist, Adam Lambert, 2011 will probably be remembered as the year in which only three vocal highlights from him, enchanted the world.


more..

MR WASP | TUESDAY, 8 MAY 2012 MR WASP
Adam Lambert - 'Trespassing' | Album Review
www.myportiswaspsays.com/2012/05/adam-lambert-trespassing-album-review.html

Adam Lambert returns this year (next week to be semi-specific) with his sophomore record Trespassing, and trespass he does wasps in the most joyfully cocky of ways over the 15 tracks that make up what might just be the best album you'll hear all year! A bold statement for sure, but Adam is the only boy I can think of right now in pop who is given equal access to the sickest of producers and songwriters working today as dominating ladies in pop like Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Ke$ha and Kelly Clarkson, but apart from the latter none of these poptarts however hard they try quite manage to rise above their expensive productions like this boy does. I can appreciate a well produced track, and I can forgive an auto-tuned voice to within an inch of an artists life (it happens all to often these days after all) but give me an exceptionally produced beat and ferocious lyrics that however insane place second to a voice like Adam Lambert's and I go all kinds of CUCKOO! You could strip each track away on Trespassing, leaving nothing but bone and cartilage, and Adam Lambert's pipes will still sell that sh*t like it's a prime cut of beef!

With this record Adam Lambert is trespassing on your favourite tarts territory, and they should be very worried - this boy might just start a trend!

I don't want to spoil that first listen of Trespassing for you by dissecting each track (it's all just words and hot air anyways) but I do have some favourites that I would like to share with you:

Cuckoo – Sounds like a peacock strolling down the street spitting on people. This has ‘single’ written all over it with sharp-tongued verses and a crazy uber-anthemic chorus that will have all you Glamberts jumping up and down until someone comes along and straps a straight-jacket on you!

Trespassing - Sounds like a number one. An amazing Queen slash fuck you vibe going on here. It is For Your Entertainment 2.0.

Outlaws of Love - Sounds like a love letter, tastes likes a bitter pill. Think Christina Aguilera's 'Beautiful', but more beautiful and all kinds of sad. A welcome quiet on the record.

Pop That Lock - Sounds like another number one. The peacock has gone out clubbin on a Friday night, he's throwing drinks in patrons faces, facing off on the dance floor with an ex and starting something with said ex's new boy toy in the queue for the toilets.

Runnin - You just wait until Adam starts screaming 'Runnin Runnin Runnin' on this one, seriously, just wait!

Take Back - Sounds like a great Kelly Clarkson song but with Adam pulling some overtime on the track because even Kelly was like "Shit, I couldn't possibly hit those high notes."

If there is any justice in the harshly competitive world of pop (Seriously, it's worse than Cheerleading) then Trespassing should do for Adam Lambert what 'Teenage Dream' did for Katy Perry the past couple of years, which is to grant him countless Billboard Hot 100 number ones, a magazine cover a month and a crown to wear out as the new Prince Of Pop – and why the hell not?! The potential for a smash hit is clear to the ear in every other track on Trespassing (unheard of these days when it is becoming more and more fashionable to spend your budget on three or four tracks and fill the rest of your record with, well, fillers), and at the end of the day, however sick the production on an Adam Lambert record, you know the boy isn’t going to disappoint you when you see him live in concert, his voice is why you tune in! However big the instrumental, it will always play second fiddle to his pipes. My only criticism, and it’s a small one, is the packaging for the record. I don’t like that album cover one bit. I think it is lazy and uninspiring. Pop is about the whole package after all and when you produce such a great collection of tunes as Adam has with Trespassing then you have to do yourself a favour and get a photographer or artist on the blower who will produce something iconic. A great song deserves an even greater visual accompaniment and this cover falls short of tickling my fancy. Still, if that is my only criticism of Trespassing then Adam shouldn’t have a problem shifting more than a few million copies of his sophomore effort. If you liked Adam's debut, For Your Entertainment, then you’re going to just die over this follow-up wasps, I wouldn't lie to you.

Please promise me though that you will inform a family member or friend before you press play on this gift from the gods on 15th May so that in the instance they come across your unconscious body cocked on the floor they will know NOT to call the police in the first instance but instead blast some 'Cuckoo' from the speakers. It’ll bring you back to life in no time! Safety first wasps. Happy trespassing...

5. Kickin In

5. Kickin In

popdust.com/2012/05/08/adam-lambert-trespassing-kickin-in-new-leak-review/

Posted by Andrew Unterberger on 05/08/2012 at 4:33 PM Reviews

The Popdust Files: Adam Lambert, Kickin In, Track-By-Track Reviews, Trespassing

Laser synths, rapid-fire “c’mon!” drops, octave-split self-harmonizing, and tons of cowbell…and that’s just the first half-minute or so of “Kickin’ In,” Adam Lambert’s best Michael Jackson tribute since he shredded on “Black or White” during his American Idol days. Of course, this is subject matter that MJ never would have dreamed of, a tale of drug use of some sort (“She wants to be up there / In the air when the clouds live”) that sounds like it’s having too much fun to possibly be considered cautionary. Adam’s partaking in something himself, though whether it’s drugs or sex is a little unclear (“She wants to introduce me / to her friend Daddy / What is she tryin’ to do to me?”) It doesn’t really matter what artist or listener are on when it gets to the rising, intoxicating chorus, though: “Can you feel it kickin’ in?”

It’s also another return to form for producer Pharrell, who hasn’t approximated Off the Wall-era Quincy Jones this well since his work on Justin Timberlake’s Justified. It’s one of his densest production tracks in ages, and it commands dancefloor participation in a way we weren’t sure Pharrell was capable of (or even interested in) anymore. Between this and the album’s title track, if Trespassing doesn’t help start a second-wave Neptunes renaissance (assuming Chad Hugo is still hanging around somewhere), it’ll be a low down dirty shame.

5. Kickin In

6. Naked Love

6. Naked Love

popdust.com/2012/05/08/adam-lambert-trespassing-naked-love-new-review/

Posted by Katherine St Asaph on 05/08/2012 at 4:53 PM Reviews

The Popdust Files: Adam Lambert, Naked Love, Track-By-Track Reviews, Trespassing

If you’ve been paying any attention to the charts lately–or listening to pop radio, basically the same–you’ll notice “Naked Love” sounds a lot like what’s topping them. Specifically, it’s a sweet midtempo love song that’s not too far removed from what you’d hear from the likes of say, The Wanted. Those kids might not be quite so free with the nudity metaphors but its glazed-slick melodies, zippy percussion staccato oh-oh-ohs are all ways the boy-banders charmed America, and they’re pop tricks that work regardless of age.

But then again, age really isn’t an issue; “Naked Love” isn’t really about nudity at all. “Take it off” is as raunchy as these lyrics get–in MPAA terms, this would just count as brief nudity; you might say the track’s got strategically placed towels and sheets. This is on purpose, though; what Adam’s really asking to be disrobed is his partner’s inhibitions. That’s an established songwriting trope-The Good Natured and Dev are just a few folks who’ve asked their partners in the past year to take off their defenses. But the only person likely to have heard all three of those songs is a pop blogger. Besides, “Naked Love” asks so sweetly. Why not relent and get to know it some?

6. Naked Love

7. Pop That Lock

7. Pop That Lock

popdust.com/2012/05/08/adam-lambert-trespassing-pop-that-lock-new-leak-review/

Posted by Andrew Unterberger on 05/08/2012 at 4:57 PM Reviews

The Popdust Files: Adam Lambert, Pop That Lock, Track-By-Track Reviews, Trespassing

No, it’s not actually a Lambert song about breakdancing—although the best part of it by far is the instrumental breakdown section, one of the funkier moments on an album that certainly is not lacking in hips. Otherwise, the “Pop That Lock” in the title is referring to generally unwinding and letting go of inhibitions—”If you got the key, then baby, pop that lock.” It also doubles as a potential runway song, since Adam gets more mileage out of the exhortation “Werrrrk!” than anyone since RuPaul.

The verses are a little boring—they follow the same rhythm and monotone pattern as the Pussycat Dolls’ “I Hate This Part,” for whatever reason—and the general chorus is a little lame for that sentiment. (Also, are we supposed to know who “Banshee boys and dancey girls” are? Is that all of us? Dunno if we’re comfortable with that.) Still, the aforementioned electro-funk breakdown keeps the song from throwaway status. Sashay, Shanté.

7. Pop That Lock

8. Better Than I Know Myself

8. Better Than I Know Myself

popdust.com/2012/05/08/adam-lamberts-trespassing-reviewed-better-than-i-know-myself/

Posted by Katherine St Asaph on 05/08/2012 at 5:16 PM Reviews

The Popdust Files: Better Than I Know Myself, Track-By-Track Reviews, Trespassing

The more of Trespassing we hear, the more bizarre “Better Than I Know Myself” seems as a single, especially the first single. The track faltered on the charts, and it’s not hard to see why. It’s another track Adam Lambert has no credited involvement in (Dr. Luke and Cirkut, here as in “Never Close Our Eyes“, are the biggest names), and you can’t listen to it without wondering who it was meant for. P!nk, perhaps, or Katy Perry; high note in the chorus aside–Adam easily sings it, but others might not–this could be “Please Don’t Leave Me” slowed down, or a ballad left off Teenage Dream. It probably wouldn’t be the best ballad left off the album, even. The pace is more ponderous than graceful, and for every vulnerable line “I get kind of dark / let it go too far / I can be obnoxious at times” are two that say nothing. Those lyrics lead to “try and see my heart,” and the very first line, “cold as ice,” is a textbook cliche.

Seriously, why was this a single? No explanation makes sense. If it’s a ballad Adam wants, “Naked Love” is close enough and much better, and something uptempo is both a better idea in general and something Trespassing is full of. Let’s put it this way: we imagine Adam knows himself as a musician and knows that he’s better than this. Here, he’s not himself.

8. Better Than I Know Myself

Adam Lambert’s ‘Trespassing’: It’s That Deep
By Lyndsey Parker | Reality Rocks – May 8 2012
music.yahoo.com/blogs/reality-rocks/adam-lambert-trespassing-deep-221149324.html

I admit that I've developed a bit of reputation as a Glambert, which means probably anything Adam Lambert-related with my byline slapped across it is taken with a grain of salt as chunky as one of Adam's old rhinestone bindis. "Of course she digs Adam Lambert's new album," some skeptics must think. "Lyndsey Parker saying she loves Trespassing is like Oscar The Grouch saying he is a fan of trash, or like Winnie The Pooh giving a jar of honey a five-star review." But seriously, people--listen to me when I say that Trespassing is one of the best pop albums you will hear in 2012.
Or, if you don't believe me, then just listen to the album yourself. I'll wait...

www.myplaydirect.com/adam-lambert/trespassing-box-set/details/26791996

See? I was RIGHT!
On Trespassing, Adam has undoubtedly found his true (multi-octave) voice, gleefully and recklessly abandoning the throwback "rock god" posturing that typified many of his "Idol" performances and several of his first album's guitar-driven, Matt Bellamy- and Justin Hawkins-penned tracks. This, surprisingly, is not a bad thing, despite what a convincingly worship-worthy rock god Adam can certainly be when the mood strikes him. (Rock fans, fear not: The album's three bonus tracks, "Take Back," "Nirvana," and "Runnin'," hit the old techno-rock sweet spot, with the latter almost sounding like an '80s action-movie anthem that'd play in the background while Rocky trains for his Cold War boxing battle with Dolph Lundgren. If that make any sense...)

Anyway, this doesn't mean the album doesn't rock in its own wonderfully Daft Punky way. Trespassing is a full realization of the new Lambert signature sound: a rare strain of electropop that manages to be both mindlessly hedonistic and sublimely sophisticated at the same time. This is hypermodern-but-retro, glossy-but-not-too-glossy superpop, and it is a sound that really fits Adam like a custom-made Skingraft leather jacket. (He co-wrote 12 of the disc's 15 tracks.) If this album doesn't earn Adam some genuine critical raves, then I am sorry, but too many biased critics are rolling their eyes at the "'American Idol' runner-up" listing on his résumé, and not actually listening to his damn album.

Trespassing IS that deep, to loosely borrow a familiar Adam catchphrase: It's a split-personality'd record, almost a concept album, exploring the two sides of one of current pop culture's most polarizing and fascinating figures. It's all very side A/side B (how fitting, then, that Trespassing is coming out on vinyl), with the first half frontloaded with funky-fresh partystarters and "side B" comprising a comedown soundtrack for the bleary morning after. I admit I'm partial to "side A"--after all, I can't resist a Hi-NRG rollerdisco jam, and literally the first SEVEN remix-ready Trespassing tracks have me digging in my childhood closet for my old quad skates, the ones with the rainbow-print shoelaces and glitter custom pom-poms and Pegasus wings velcro'd to the sides. (Seriously, Adam needs to host his official record release party HERE.) But both halves of Trespassing still come together as a whole, somehow more cohesively than Adam's genre-hopping first effort, For Your Entertainment, ever did.

"Side A" of Trespassing kicks off with a true statement of intent, the Pharrell Williams-co-penned title track, in which Adam boldly announces, "Wait till ya get a load of me." (He ain't kiddin'.) Adam's recent reunion with his old "Idol" duet partners Queen is an obvious touchstone here, with "Trespassing's" bowel-rumbling disco bassline, canned handclaps, and gang-chanty intro bringing to mind Queen's "Another One Bites The Dust" and "We Will Rock You"--but other supercool drill-team staples come to mind, like Toni Basil's "Mickey," Frankie Smith's "Double Dutch Bus," Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation," and even the Go! Team, the Ting Tings, and Sleigh Bells. And there's a heavy-breathing breakdown in the middle that features some of the sexiest panting since Donna Summer's "Love To Love You Baby," or at least since Madonna's "Burning Up," Kinky's "Más," or the Faint's "Posed To Death." And that's just THE FIRST TRACK.

From that point on, it's a Mr. Lambert's Wild Ride through klubland. The Bonnie McKee co-write "Cuckoo" is the sound of Kylie Minogue, Sylvester, and La Roux chugging a case of Red Bull and getting in a time machine, setting the dial to 1992, and heading to a rave. "Shady" is the song that the Scissor Sisters wish they'd written (Sam "Black & Gold" Sparro actually holds the co-writing honors here), a dynamite disco floorfiller featuring wocka-wocka '70s-porn-soundtrack guitar from none other than Chic's Nile Rodgers (who's worked with the fabulously glam likes of David Bowie, Madonna, Duran Duran, and Grace Jones). The house-music epic "Never Close Our Eyes" (co-written by two other Midas-Touched hitmakers, Bruno Mars and Dr. Luke) probably has David Guetta cancelling all future recording sessions with the proposed guest allstars for his next album, and deciding to hire Adam to sing on every track instead.

And it gets better (no pun intended). There's "Kickin' In," my favorite Trespassing cut as of this writing (my favorite does change hour to hour, listen to listen), a Michael Jackson-esque thriller that couldn't utilize the cowbell any better if Christopher Walken himself were involved. "Naked Love" is basically the sound of pure joy, a put-your-hands-in-the-air Love Parade anthem (courtesy of Benny Blanco) that reminds me a bit of You Can Dance-era Madonna and makes me forget all my troubles for precisely three minutes and 23 seconds. And "Pop That Lock" is just such a jammmm, I keep imagining "America's Best Dance Crew" routines, particularly ones by Fanny Pak, being choreographed to mastermixes of it.

"Side B" is admittedly a quieter and less immediate affair, almost sounding like a separate companion EP and certainly not promising the sexyfuntimes of the album's first half. But these sultry, blue-eyelinered-soul tracks provide the superior showcase for what made Adam Lambert a superstar in the first place: that voice. Interestingly, it's the ballad here that was the album's first single, "Better Than I Know Myself," that fits in least with the disc, almost seeming as tacked-on as "Time For Miracles" did on FYE. That doesn't mean it's not a great song, but it's too similar to Adam's 2009 hit, "Whataya Want From Me," and Adam has obviously evolved since then. Compared to other fierce new tracks like "Kickin' In" and "Pop That Lock," "BTIKM" almost seems tame. And we all know, Adam is not tame.

Other ballads on "side B," however, are some real next-level stuff. "Broken English," also featuring writing by Sam Sparro, is a dreamy, languid, slow-building slow-burner that brings to mind later-period Scritti Politti and the hypnotic, slinky instrumentation of Adam's iconic "Ring Of Fire" performance from back in the day. "Underneath" is a haunting ballad that exposes Adam at his most stripped and vulnerable. "Chokehold" is reminiscent of Duran Duran's sexy adult-pop classic "Come Undone," except with vocals about 13 octaves rangier than Simon Le Bon's. And then there's the exquisitely sad, dust-in-the-windy "Outlaws Of Love," a gay marriage anthem that may be Adam's boldest musical move yet, as he faces the media's constant probing into his lovelife and addresses it on his own terms, in his own voice.

And that's an important point to make here. While an artist's sexuality should never be the centerpiece of his or her career, Adam, as pretty much the only openly gay mainstream pop star out there, has never been able to escape that tag--and sadly, he probably never will. That's just the way the world works. And a path through the world of rock 'n' roll would have been an especially uphill one for him to take. But in the dance world, homosexuality is usually a non-issue, and it is often even celebrated and embraced. So I optimistically expect that Adam will be welcomed into the EDM community with open, glowstick-waving arms, particularly with an album as awesome as this one firmly establishing his crossover cred. And then hopefully, the rest of the world--i.e., music fans of all persuasions--will free their minds, and their behinds, and the rest will follow.