Review Summary: He's got the voice... but "For Your Entertainment" is more the work of a well-connected production team that the result of an artist way of lookins at the world.
Ok, we have some things to make clear here, just for the beggining. Yeah, the cover reproduced right there is very probably the most horrible a pop artist created on our decade, who knows ever in music history. And yeah again, show-stealer on American Idol's 8th season, Adam Lambert is openly gay. It happens that, neither one of these things erases incredible vocal talent of this 28-years-old man, influenced by David Bowie and Queen to create a pop-glam that ressonates strongly to the public since Lady Gaga opened the doors for this "new" style on the major records.
Undeniable that, without her success, he would probably never get the opportunity to be exaggerated, performatic and acrobatic as he showed us on the presentation of the single "For Your Entertainment", which borrows the name for his freshman album, on this year's AMA. The album, by the way, counts with very special guests on the composition of solid, convincing songs, but rarely spectacular.
It happens that, besides the voice, there's too little of Adam in this album. His name is credited on the creation of 4 out of 14 songs in the album, and almost every song signed by other famous performers end up with their personality, not Adam's. "Music Again" (signed by Justin Hawkins) only need a little more of Lambert's skilled falsetto to sound like a song by The Darkness. "Whataya Want From Me" takes the confessional, personal and acoustic-rocker trademark of P!nk (and it's probably one of the best songs in the album), and even "Pick U Up", that Rivers Cuomo composed alongside Lambert, sounds like if Weezer changed its lead singer and tried to adopt a pop-like instrumental.
Lambert only shows us his personality on aggressive, exciting "Strut" and on melodic "Sleepwalker", another brilliant composition by Ryan Tedder, lead-man for One Republic and the man behind almost all the hits by Beyonce, Kelly Clarkson and Rihanna, alongside another popstars.
Not by any chance, by the way, one of the best songs in the album is "Fever", which takes the signature of GaGa her own. Her approval, it seems, he already got. To conquer mine, on the other hand, he will need to show more os his own and less of his production team. But he's definitely on the right way. And, for sure, it's worth to listen to what he says.
