Trespassing Album Track #3. Shady

Adam Lambert "Shady" Summerthing 6 24 12 010



Published on Jun 24, 2012 by daydreaminmylif

The Sound Bath: Adam Lambert’s Trespassing: the vocal review

Posted on July 12, 2012 by soundbath




Shady is another of my personal favourites and impossible to keep from dancing to.

Shady features Sam Sparro and legendary guitarist, Nile Rogers, who helped to create this super-funky back beat and rhythmic bass, typical of funk music. And because the song has such an overwhelmingly sexy beat, the vocal line could so easily have been peripheral. But of course, that could never happen with a powerful and flexible vocal instrument like Adam’s.

Vocally, it reminds of Prince at his funkiest, but this is a uniquely Adam Lambert funk experience.

Adam does something very different in this song: he doesn’t give us the end consonants to words, especially at the ends of phrases. He usually pronounces each consonant with such precision that it comes as a bit of a shock at first, but we can still hear very clearly what he’s singing, because his diction remains faultless on the beginning and middle consonants, clearly demonstrating that this is a chosen stylistic element he wanted to employ in this song. And like all good story-tellers, by doing this, he immediately prepares his audience to expect something different from this song – that he’s feeling “shady.” He’s also still singing a through-line, with the overall effect that his voice mirrors exactly the rhythm of the song – a master-stroke indeed!

For the first time we hear voices other than only Adam’s, and the effect creates a new and interesting vocal texture and colour, muddying Adam’s usually pure vocals and displaying a kind of ‘shady-ness’ – rather clever, I thought.

Those familiar with Adam’s style of singing, will be accustomed to the unique way in which he uses his breath and breathing as part of the interpretation of songs, and although he uses short explosive out-breaths in the previous two songs, here he employs a full-on pant to great effect, perfectly indicative of “feeling so shady lately.” The way in which he uses his voice at the ends of the word “latey,” further emphasises the ‘shady-ness’ and leaves his audience in no doubt as to what he’s feeling.

Apart from his own fantastic harmonies, here he also introduces us to ‘asides’ as he ‘comments’ on the lyrics – I particularly love the “yeah” after “gonna go and get me a shot“ – it’s so emphatic! And the “Oh!” between “gonna knock it back forget all my blues” and “yeah that really hits the spot” – it’s dramatic and unexpected, but still stunningly musical and once aware of it, difficult to imagine the song without it.

This is what Adam tweeted about Shady: “feeling loose now, gonna get my swerve on. Feeling nasty.”


Read more: soundbath.wordpress.com/2012/07/12/adam-lamberts-trespassing-the-vocal-review/

Adam Lambert - HD - Shady (Get Yo Ass Up) - Fantasy Springs - Indio, CA


Published on Jul 22, 2012 by TALCvids

Shady - WinStar - 2012-07-27.MOV


Published on Jul 29, 2012 by DancyGeorgia