Released from the Queen-shaped prison, Adam Lambert is given a chance to soar with electropop thrills on Adam. His latest album comes after a three-year break between releases that few will have even noticed. Lambert has made himself a comfortable career with Queen and these solo albums then feel like passion projects where he can lay down a few lines of interest for nobody but himself. That’s, at the very least, quite admirable. There’s an audience of one here and they’re in the studio. Adam comes across as rather pleasant because of that feeling spread across the album. A collection of electropop songs which feel more like fodder for the genre and a chance for Lambert to scratch his songwriting itch. Still, the occasional special event with Brian May doesn’t pay the bills, and even if it did, it’d not be the most creatively rewarding experience. Lambert will forever be tethered with Queen, but what can he do when he heads into the studio alone?
Lambert may not have known he was doing so at the time but opening track Rat City is hilarious. A hatred of rock and roll in his beloved partner has broken his heart and it appears he’s turned to the rodents, who love The Eagles. Either that or he’s saying “rock” and forgot to change the title of his opening track. Quite fun either way. A little light on lyrical quality and the instrumentals are a scattershot of electropop cliché, but good fun. Loud enough to be a presence, that’s what matters, is it not? When he pulls back on the electropop sound and we’re left with his lyricism, that’s where Adam struggles. Eat U Alive feels relatively predictable. Love as an all-consuming piece of you and it leads nowhere special. Stock articulation of what it means to be intimate and engaged with another person. We’ve heard it all before, it’s nothing special. But that production value is what’ll keep people engaged. It’s a thrill to hear those heavier instrumental tones, a striking and consistent part of Adam.
But it’s not enough to hold the album together. A few guest spots keep Adam alive though. Porcelain makes use of Lexie Liu’s exceptional vocal range. It’s those little details that differentiate the songs that’d usually be middle-of-the-road fodder. Lambert doesn’t quite launch into anything mesmerising but they’re enjoyable electropop efforts with heartfelt and honest feelings embedded deeply in there. There’s a slight, retro appeal to the likes of Sanity and Cloud 9, which thrive on the dance-pop fundamentals that Lambert appears content to keep rattling on with. It all works well enough; there’s just room for more and we should expect a little bit of a deeper meaning from Lambert. There’s moments where Lambert needs to rally. His sentimental attempts on Am I OK fall flat because of how simplistic it is. A little deeper digging into what the emotional experience is would’ve been exceptional but instead it plays with tame experiences.
You’d be forgiven for thinking you know the opening of Under the Rhythm but it turns sour relatively quick. Nothing spectacular, but nothing unfortunate either. Lambert needs a song or two here to rally for the passive, previous pieces, but it never comes. It undermines a lot of the goodwill and creatively liberated moments that come in the earliest moments. A mid-section that tanks the album is a bit of a shame given the sincerity on display. He just needs to dig a lot deeper into the consequences of his feelings. It’s one thing to be sad, but where to go from there is a massive undertaking that the best songwriters can articulate with flourishes that go beyond the drowned-out electropop sound. He has one hell of a voice, but it’s not being used for anything particularly great here.
Discover more from Cult Following
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
