Adam Lambert

picture from newsday

I don't watch much TV. The TV I do watch, ask my husband, generally puts me right to sleep on the couch. However, I happened to catch Adam Lambert and his moody and moving version of Mad World on American Idol this past spring. It had a real Michael Mann feel to it that drew me right in. I was completely mesmerized by his performance. I'm not sure what it is about him. On the one hand, he seems like a a genuine guy-next-door nice guy (look beyond the clothes and makeup), yet there is an unpredictable, almost dark side to him (unrelated to his ambiguous sexuality or maybe not?). Some people have actually suggested that he is the reincarnation of Elvis with his swagger and Oh-my-God-he-looks-like-Elvis lip snarl. What's funny is that my husband and I both made that comment to one another as we watched him sing one night. My ever down-to-earth husband said, "That guy has been practicing that look in the mirror!". But what captures me, I think, is how some of his songs really move something in me. I don't like all of his songs. In fact, I don't even listen to music very much in my very busy life. But I can't get some of Adam Lambert's songs out of my head. Check out "Is Anybody Listening" from his performance in Ten Commandments. Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvwcJUhIa0U&feature=player_embedded or try http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvwcJUhIa0U. I do think he has to learn how to control his range (and I don't know anything about music!). But, for me, letting loose for the sake of it and because he can (as I felt he did sometimes on American Idol), borders on irritating to my ears. But when he controls his voice and expresses his own, real emotion while singing, and uses those high notes in just the right spots while restraining his voice in other places......something in me responds. In the end he didn't win American Idol based on the teen vote (which makes sense with the eye liner, nail polish and edginess he brings), but who really cares about that? I await his first album.