lambspam
A tribute to Adam Lambert's season on American Idol. With pictures!
The Audition
"Is it something that I could get a shot at working on? I know that I could do it."
Adam Lambert, asking Simon to vote "yes" and send him to Hollywood
Aw, look. His hair is just dark brown and he has no makeup on. Just a t-shirt and a hoodie. He sings Rock With You. Which, huh? He does a really nice job, but Simon smells the fabulous and asks him to sing another one. Bohemian Rhapsody. Hee. You can have your Rolling Stone cover stories, is what I’m saying; he’s already two for two with the pop idols.
Simon calls him (gay) theatrical, and Kara says who cares and Randy proves that he’s the genius this season by saying, “I actually think it’s time, probably, currently, for somebody like you.” Simon plays like he’s not going to send Adam to Hollywood, but look at his huge grin (just after he says “It’s our own opinion.”). Adam promises to do his bestest and they give him four yesses.
THEN, and only then, Adam sucks up to Paula by saying the first concert he went to was hers. He kisses her hand. Randy offers his hand for Adam to kiss, but Adam shakes it and they have a “we’re smarter than everyone else in this room” little connection moment. Then he goes to kiss Kara’s hand and makes a joke about biting one of the rubies off her finger, which, rowr! My Id is in love; my Superego wants to reserve judgment. Every party needs a pooper that’s why we invited her.
This is the complete beginning part, good quality.
www.youtube.com/watch
This is fuzzy and missing the first song, but the rest is complete and it has the end part, which is the best.
www.youtube.com/watch
Hollywood Week
The producers, oy. Hollywood Week is a mess of a TV show, unless you watch a lot of Maury or something, in which case, welcome home. We get lots of Bikini Girl drama and girl-on-girl-on-gay groupfighting and precious few minutes of anyone good. Adam killed with his group, but there wasn’t much of him.
Top 36
Satisfaction
The thing people have to understand about Idol is that they’re ALL covers. So it’s all kind of hideous, just on the face of it. Covers start out as a deficit, IMO, so the challenge is making magic of them. I put them into three categories in my head: an homage, a complete reinterpretation or a riff.
This is a really fun riff on Satisfaction. The slow opening, with the beach-rock guitar trills, then the bouncy Crocodile Rock stuff for the first verse, then the fun second verse…and how his vocals dance all around the melody. He’s playing with the song. Look at him when he sings “…driving in my car…” Watch him get down with his bad self at the start of the second verse. :-) This told me a) we’re gonna have FUN with this guy, and b) he’s going to bring it, every week. The energy! The comfort onstage. And this was where I first noticed his very sexy tendency to drag his foot when he walks across the stage.
It sucks that there’s no video available with the judges’ comments for these performances. Both idolonfox.com and iTunes cut off at the end of the performance.
I have the DVDs and you’ll just have to take my word for it: the judges are pwned. Randy is a genius and they’re all catching up. (Paula was already there, but it’s hard to tell the difference between the different strata of her love, so I can’t say she loved him more than anyone else at this point.)
www.americanidol.com/videos/season_8/performances/adam_lambert_i_cant_get_no_satisfaction
Top 13: Michael Jackson Week
Black or White
Honey, no. I hate to even say this, cause I love Adam Lambert with the heat of a thousand nuns*, but this is not a great vocal. He’s not in control of his voice, he’s not making all the smart choices and he’s literally flat on some of the top notes. Yet the judges loved it, unanimously. Simon even says it’s a great vocal. I think they’re reacting to this first real burst of Adam on the big stage, which would blow anybody’s hair back. And maybe the adorable blue leather jacket a little bit. :-) This performance, his worst one, set him apart from everyone else because of the energy, the mastery, the stage presence, the sheer cute. Watch how he goes over to the edge of the stage and gets his first taste of grabby fangirl hands and then listen to the laugh still in his voice, going into the next line. Look at his little jiggy moonwalk in the middle of the song and the face that goes with it. Cute.
And, as with several of his performances, I love the meta of it. When Adam, who is famous (sadly) as much for his sexuality as his music, sings, “And I told him about equality, and it’s true: you’re either wrong or you’re right…Don’t tell me you agree with me, when I saw you kickin’ dirt in my eye…” That’s about Adam’s stuff just as much as it is about Michael’s stuff. It’s black. It’s white. It’s tough for you to get by.
*tm amycurl
www.americanidol.com/videos/season_8/performances/adam_lambert_black_and_white
Top 11: Country Week (Mentor = Randy Travis)
Ring of Fire
Bite me, I LOVE this. This was a controversial performance. In the taped mentoring session, Randy Travis’ disdain and borderline disgust for Adam, his nail polish, and his interpretation of the song would have been sickening if it weren’t so funny. It was funny because of a) who actually cares about Randy Travis, and b) Adam’s blithe acceptance of Randy’s near-panic at coming face to face with Adam. Adam is gracious and amused, and not even in a disrespectful way. When Ryan, who’s having WAY too much fun with it, points out the, um, lack of chemistry between Randy and Adam, Adam calls Randy a “gentleman.” Which is a lot like that thing where, when someone asks you about yourself, you give the qualities you wish you had rather than anything approaching people’s actual experience of you.
Second, Simon’s an asshole in this particular situation. Not because he hates the performance, which is his right to do. But because he does it with a supportive nod to Randy’s homophobic freakout about the whole thing. Plus which, Johnny Cash? Is FINE with it. So you can bite him too.
Regardless of where it lands relative to all parties’ comfort zones, it's one of Adam’s top vocal performance of the whole season. So much for “this is a singing competition.” Listen to it back; it’s pretty flawless. And it wasn’t even Adam’s arrangement, which he says in the mentor piece, so call the chick who wrote it.
Randy Jackson got it. (See?) Randy, who should be given the same weight as Simon, IMO, but isn’t. He’s much more knowledgeable about music than Simon is, frankly. They tease him about the namedropping because, apparently, he does know all those people. He knows who wrote the song and who recorded it and who covered it and who played drums on it and who got the coffee. He knew that this interpretation was a Jeff Buckley kinda joint, and he said so, so he wins.
Paula and Kara like it, Kara famously saying it leaves her “confused and happy.” Heh. The voice of straight women across the country. :-)
For me, for him? Perfect. I love it because it’s beautiful, it’s bold, it’s artistic, it has gorgeous vocals…and look at the way our boy works the camera! He dares to be a little bit of a freak, RIGHT THERE ON AMERICAN IDOL, which earns many sighs and a slow clap from me. Plus, hello, this interpretation actually captures the spirit of the lyrics. “Love is a burning thing/ and it makes a fiery ring/ Bound by a wild desire/I fell into a ring of fire/ I fell into a burning ring of fire/ I went down, down, down, and the flames got higher/ And it burns, burns, burns/ The ring of fire, the ring of fire/ The taste of love is sweet/ when hearts like ours meet/ I fell for you like a child/ Oh, and the fire went wild.” Now I ask you: rollicking country arrangement in a major key or sexy middle-eastern-influenced rock arrangement in a minor key? Exactly. No disrespect to the great Johnny Cash or his iconic version, of course. I’m just saying this is a very valid way to sing this song.
Plus, this:
The gays, they can be mean like that.
The bottom line is, if this performance had happened later in the season, it would have been nbd to anyone but Mr. Travis. If Simon had seen it after Tracks of My Tears, If I Can’t Have You, Whole Lotta Love, and Mad World, he would have understood it in the context of Adam and given it a good review.
www.americanidol.com/videos/season_8/performances/adam_lambert_ring_of_fire
Top 10: Motown Week (Mentor = Smokey Robinson)
Tracks of My Tears
Ooh, look how happy everybody is when Adam has a suit on and no makeup! No, he’s not gonna make anybody’s babies burst into puberty this week, so hey group hug! Whatever, this was equally brilliant and he deserved all the love it got.
Moreover, this performance illustrates an aspect of Adam’s brilliance, which is how he structured the season for himself. After the Sex God thing from last week, he’s the sweet, scrubbed down Elvis in a New Suit. Sitting down, with a few musicians, no “theatrics.” Over the course of the season, he alternates the crazy/fun/rock god stuff with the simple, sweet ballady stuff, and this is the best example.
Those who know me know how much I love a guy with a great falsetto, so YEAH this season is pretty orgasmic for me. He does one of my favorite things, which is he goes up there, sets out a picnic blanket, then goes HIGHER and you’re like omg. Beautiful.
And, like Ring of Fire, this interpretation captures the mood of the lyrics at least as well as the original, IMO. (Why should a song about deep, hidden pain and incessant crying be so bouncy anyway?)
www.americanidol.com/videos/season_8/performances/adam_lambert_the_tracks_of_my_tears
Top 9 iTunes Downloads Week
Play That Funky Music
Ok, this is a bit of a litmus test for me, like Satisfaction. If you don’t get that he’s playing here…then you don’t get Adam and you won’t like him. Look at his face, look at how he dances, watch him lean into lines like “yes I did” and riffs like “come on come on come on come on yeah.” And look at the face on him. It’s supposed to be fun and funny.
I think he goes up-top a few too many times in this one but by this point in the season I was well past nitpicking. And there’s a little moment I love, which is right at the end. There are three big beats by the band on “play that funky music till you…” For those three beats, Adam turns his back to the audience and marks the beats with his mic, before turning back quickly for his last few notes. I love that, because it shows a lot of comfort on stage and really smart, subtle showmanship. This is why I love those few Idol contestants who have the rock-solid vocals and can work the stage with such ease (Melinda Doolittle). You’re no more nervous for him than if he were singing in your living room for friends. (ooooh….)
www.americanidol.com/videos/season_8/performances/adam_lambert_play_that_funky_music
Top 8: The Year You Were Born Week
Mad World
I gush about how smart he is as much as I do about his voice, skills and personality. Because the choice of wardrobe, sitting alone, backlit with the big streamy white lights, on one of those great Navy-issue steel chairs…brilliant. Maybe it was somebody else who designed all that, but I don’t see it so much with the other contestants, so I say it’s Adam.
Good boy, he stays with the melody --- this is not a riffy performance, this is an homage. (Well, it’s a reinterpretation of the Tears for Fears version, but an homage to that one in Donnie Darko.) He stands up once, just at the right time (“look right through me”) and the crowd goes wild. That’s about contrast. Put them where you want them, and then tell them when to go nuts and they will oblige. I much prefer the stagecraft of this performance to his reprise of Mad World, later in the season, though that was good too.
The only problem with this performance is the very last note, poor baby. He overshoots it and it’s painfully sharp. He knows it too; I saw him all sheepish and cringey on Larry King as they replayed the end of that song. :-)
Still, this performance was good enough to earn Simon’s one standing O of the season. (Even if the Tivo malfunction heard round the world prevented me from seeing it properly until I actually got my hands on some DVDs.)
www.americanidol.com/videos/season_8/performances/adam_lambert_mad_world
This week’s results show has my favorite Idol Ford Commercial: the magic show. Adam in the white coat, all posey and cute. Guh.
Top 7: Movies Week (Mentor = Quentin Tarantino)
Born To Be Wild
This is one of my favorite outfits. I always love the leather and v-neck t-shirt combo on him, but it’s usually with boots, and the sneakers he wears here are more fun. The hair is really working too. Very very cute.
He said they came up with a big arrangement change here, but it’s not that noticeable in the performance (though it is in the studio version, where you can really hear the electronic spin they put on it). Anyway, I like this one. I actually don’t love this song, in general, so it can only be so good for me. But the vocals are amazing (if a little too gymnastic). My favorite thing about this performance is the way he works the stage. He scoots, he stalks, he thrashes in time with Ricky and the band. There’s a delightful hip-wiggly thing that happens just below the frame (damn). And he ends with the rock star slide! Yes. Say what you want about him, he leaves it all on the stage.
There are also a couple of really nice overhead shots of the drums that totally make the piece, for me. Nice job, director!
www.americanidol.com/videos/season_8/performances/adam_lambert_born_to_be_wild
Top 7: Disco Week
If I Can’t Have You
This is one delightful performance. I think, except for Change is Gonna Come, this is my favorite live performance track. It shouldn’t be, because it’s so short, but I find it perfect. Adam credits Michael Orland (? music director and pianist) for this great arrangement, and it really is brilliant. If I Can’t Have You is probably my favorite song from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, so the fact that they ditched the samba beat for a slow-burn sway and added those bars and it worked for me is a surprise. But it really, really did work.
And the performance is so beautifully simple. I mean, it’s still Adam, so he’s dressed and coiffed like some big band singer from the year 2068. But he just plants his feet, hits an absolutely iconic crooner pose on his way up to the big note, and omg what a note it is. One of those where you’re already getting the goose bumps and then he goes higher and you forget to breathe. Or maybe that’s just me. And Paula. You can’t see it on the iTunes video, which they re-cut, but in the version that aired (and idolonfox.com, the link below) you can see Paula, all blissed out as he goes up to the note and then when it’s even better than she expected she gives this tiny involuntary sob of joy. I feel ya, Paula.
The results show this week has my favorite group number: Shake Your Body Down. I’m mean, because one of my first thoughts about this dance-heavy group number was that they waited till Scott was voted off to do it. But it’s really adorable. Adam has been learning stage choreography for 17 years, and it shows. All very easy for him and cute. I still find the lip-syncing distracting, but at least the dancing (courtesy of Paula) is sweet this week. Plus, if you get a chance, check out Kris rocking the polyester shirt!
www.americanidol.com/videos/season_8/performances/adam_lambert_if_i_cant_have_you
Top 5: Rat Pack Week (Mentor = Jamie Foxx)
Feeling Good
I am not a fan of the white suit. I’m a fan of the concept of the white suit, but not its execution.
And this is another great vocal performance, but I can’t really judge it properly because the studio version of this song is absolute perfection. The studio version of this song is the answer to all the people who say, oh I don’t know, “Adam only screams” or that he’s not the best singer in the competition or whatever.
This week also has my favorite mentor bit, with Jamie Foxx (of all people), who listens to Adam do a run-through and just says, “What????” And then, as he compliments Adam’s performance, “You don’t care who I am at all, do you?” which doubles Adam over in very cute fits of laughter.
www.americanidol.com/videos/season_8/performances/adam_lambert_feeling_good
Top 4: Rock Week (Mentor = Slash)
Whole Lotta Love
Ha! Buckle up.
1. The hair!
2. The voice! He totally has that Axl Rose keening rock tone whenever he wants it.
3. The sneer!
4. “I’m gonna give you every inch of my love.” *buys ticket to alternate universe where this is possible*
5. He works this so hard! Watch him walk to the edge of the stage. Instead of bending toward the teeming fangirls, like usual, he sort of leans back from them. It’s a very pelvis-forward kind of teasy thing and I LOVE it. Then watch him with the guitarist. After the solo, he pulls his head back to the mic, but not too fast, then looks back at the guitarist like that. I’ve never wanted to play guitar before!!
6. The director! Where the hell is that guy, I have something for him. Check it out, just after “Woman, you need….” The director goes up to the big Adamtron for the shot, which is totally…guh…do you see what I’m talking about?...and then pans fast back down to Adam for the last shot. Genius.
7. His last note! He cuts out just before the band, which lets the note sort of echo in the air. Perfect.
8. THE SMILE! It’s not only me who’s noticed this, but there’s this gorgeous moment after the end of Adam’s songs where he drops the persona and smiles, usually just before the lights come up. Like, “Poof! Hi everybody, it’s just me, Adam.” This is my favorite poof smile. SADLY, you can’t see it on this version of the video, only on the iTunes version. :-(
The judges, hoo boy. Randy’s ready to give him a Grammy, Kara is ovulating right there in front of us, Paula makes bad plays on words when she’s overcome like this, and Simon says, “Nobody’s going to be able to top that.” Slash is smiling. I think.
www.americanidol.com/videos/season_8/performances/adam_lambert_whole_lotta_love
This week, they also did duets. Allison and Adam did Slow Ride:
This was cute with a capital cute. Much is made of the brother and sister thing with these two and it is really kinda perfect. They’re like big brother Rocker and his li’l sis, Rockette. Some are not a fan of the stripey pants, but I like them, and not just because they prove that vertical stripes don’t minimize every part of the body. Ahem.
www.americanidol.com/videos/season_8/performances/adam_lambert_and_allison_iraheta_slow_ride
Top 3: Judges’ Choice
One
Well this really, really needs the second verse, doesn’t it? If he had more than 90 seconds to sing the song, he could have done the slow build that this song requires and he would have killed it. As it is, it is technically great, but doesn’t pack the emotional punch he wants. Still, good. Not my favorite outfit either, but cute enough.
The studio version was pretty unsatisfying, the first time I heard it. I wanted what I hadn’t gotten in the live performance. The studio version has a whole different tone. It sort of just chugs delightfully along; it does build, but not in a straight line. You do get the big notes but not in the way you expect. The more I listen to it, the more I like it. It’s really beautiful, in its way.
Plus, the meta, as mentioned above. The bonus of Adam, reluctant role model and bearer of cultural sea-change blah blah blah of a nation, singing the same words we’ve heard a million times before. “We’re one, but we’re not the same/ We gotta carry each other, carry each other.” Aw, right?
www.americanidol.com/videos/season_8/performances/adam_lambert_one
Top 3: Contestant’s Choice
Cryin
I didn’t even much like this one the first time I heard it. It struck me as too balls-out all the way through; not enough dynamics. But now I really like it and I find the performance kind of adorable. Plus the look, omg. Really, the t-shirt, leather jacket, jeans and boots is my favorite LambLook.
I’m a geek for inside stuff, so the moment he (like we) has had enough of the crazy sound mix that makes the backup singers sound like they’re wailing banshees and whips his in-ear piece out so effortlessly that you almost don’t notice it (“between pleasure and pain…”) I sort of get a little thrill. And his ending pose is pure Adamish perfection. Man, the physical performances he gives are brilliant, have I mentioned this?
Really, the two of the best parts of watching this back are outside the performance. First is Ryan interviewing Adam before he sings. Ryan: “You’ve done Queen, you’ve done Cher…” Adam gives him this big, genuine, generous laugh. <3 Second is the judges’ critique. Kara: “How do you hit those notes and still talk the next day? I mean, who hits those notes?” Randy: “Adam Lambert does.”
www.americanidol.com/videos/season_8/performances/adam_lambert_cryin
Top 2: Reprise from the season
Mad World
Well, this is just more wonderation from the Adam playbook. He was right to choose Mad World, because it was probably the popular highlight of the season. Looking back, he didn’t get to really rock during the finale, but he did Cryin last week, so I guess this made the most sense. Vocally, I liked the first performance better (except for the last note :-), but this was still lovely.
My favorite part is actually during the judges critique, where Simon rolls his eyes a little at the stagecraft…the long coat, the long walk, the smoke…and Adam says, “Well, they said they had dry ice….” HA! Quite right. I’m Adam Fucking Lambert, people, I do not pass up dry ice when it presents itself. Get to know me!
www.americanidol.com/videos/season_8/performances/adam_lambert_mad_world_2
Top 2: Simon Fuller’s Choice
A Change Is Gonna Come
OMFG. Best thing ever. You guys, THE SILVER SUIT! WITH THE LITTLE BLUE TIE! Check out the one button unbuttoned so artfully. And the French cuffs that are a little too long and the gorgeous cufflinks. I want to touch something.
And this is just a gorgeous performance. It gives me goose bumps every single time, and believe you me I’ve listened to it a few times. When he does the big note and then slides up to the bonus (as he likes to do because he loves me) I swear my hands involuntarily do that Submit to Jesus thing like I’m in the kind of church I’ve never been to in my whole Catholic life. Even the small part of the song I wasn’t sure I liked (“I, I, I can carry on”)…now I’m fine with it, now that I know where he’s going. How about some props for the guitarist! We need to know that guy’s name, because he kills every damn thing he does.
Another thing I love about it is the way Adam stands, near the end, with his elbow tucked in and his hand sort of splayed out to the side and his mouth wide, singing his little heart out. It’s so…I don’t know, so elegant and classic and gay at the same time. <3
Plus, Meta III, the Motherload. A change is gonna come. Do you hear us California? And…nearly everybody else?
www.americanidol.com/videos/season_8/performances/adam_lambert_a_change_is_gonna_come
The judges were beside themselves. Prompting one of Ryan’s funnier ad-libs. “Paula’s doing the herky, Simon’s wearing buttons…THIS is the American Idol finale!”
Top 2: No Boundaries
Bleh. Kara I do love you a lot, but that is not a good song and no amount of Adam can make it so. And I didn’t even like the jeans. Moving on.
www.americanidol.com/videos/season_8/performances/adam_lambert_no_boundaries
Finale: Kiss Medley
(which I also can’t find except on iTunes)
AAAAAAAAAHHH! When he started to sing Beth…Ok, wait I have to back up. I have to point something out and I mean this in only a positive way. Earlier in the finale, we get the Kris presentation. First, the clip package, showing his “journey” (I do love how they flog that word). Then the lights come up and there’s…Kris! With Keith Urban. (I swear I almost said Kenny Chesney, and since all my knowledge of country singers comes from E!, you see my confusion.) They sing, “I Wanna Kiss a Girl”, which I swear I didn’t even get the funny of until I rewatched the finale on my Tivo. Anyway, it’s a great performance, these two are really well-matched, and Kris gets a lot of love from the audience. Standing O for Kris. The wow factor feels par-ish with other Idol finales to me.
So then, later after some other stuff, here’s Adam’s clip package. At the end of it, the lights come up and Adam’s there on stage. And we can see that, as soon as the clip package ends, more than half of the audience is on its feet. And they stay on their feet. While he sings “Beth,” is what I’m saying. That’s really something! The urge to sit back down is pretty powerful. And Beth is a very quiet little ballad. I don’t think that, in the history of Beth, anyone has ever stood through it. At Kiss concerts, Beth would have been the time when everyone either sat down or went to the bathroom or stood in line for the pay phone to call their mom. But the reverse camera shot, from behind Adam, shows people staying on their feet while he sings Beth. That just makes me happy.
Then, of course, because we know how this goes, Adam says, “Ladies and Gentlemen…KISS!” And some of the holdouts finally get to their feet for that.
So anyway, my point was that, when he started to sing Beth, I was thinking, “OMFG, he’s going to sing with KISS!” So I was a little bouncing up and down during his very lovely rendition of Beth. And I LOVE the sparkles under the eyes, sweetie.
Now, Adam in his six-inch platform boots next to KISS in their six-inch platform boots is a pretty cool sight, even on TV without any reference of scale. Adam’s about 6’1” and the other guys seem pretty tall too, so it’s a really fun visual. Plus, together...kind of hilarious. Adam looks like the sweet little princeling the Knights in Satan’s Service found abandoned in the forest and dragged down to hell to be their freakishly good-looking apprentice.
The performance is pretty fun too. Adam just has that great rock-adaptable voice that cuts through all the musical bombast you can throw at it. He sounds wonderful. And I loved the whole Stanley breaking the guitar theatric at the end, with Adam yelling “one more time!” like he was on tour with them or something.
Finale: We Are the Champions
So you know the song, so when you hear Kris sing the first part of the verse, you know that means Adam gets the second part of the verse, cause who’s Freddie Mercury and who’s not? Anyway I loved how that fact, alone, sent tingles of anticipation up my spine and how utterly cool Kris seemed to be with it, adorably throwing it to Adam each time to bring the verse home. (Those two together, I swear. Buckets of sparkly hearts.) After their first verse, out on the catwalk, there’s a funny moment where they finish the verse and Adam makes a motion like, “here we go!” and they head to the stage to meet up with Queen.
It’s Brian May! Wow! Smiling at the guys and playing the guitar. My second favorite moment is when Adam puts his hand on Brian May’s shoulder as he sings, cause that’s who he is on stage. He’s singing with Queen, so he’s fucking singing with Queen, you know? The favorite moment being when Adam and Kris spontaneously grab each other’s hands and pull in for the half-hug as they sing.
www.youtube.com/watch
(This is not great quality. Why can’t I find this on idolonfox.com?)
And then, the results. This shiny black suit with the brooch! I think I want to strip it off him slowly, do bad things to him, then borrow that outfit. Before he wakes up. From the drugs, what? In the post-game interviews, he just shone with gorgeous.
Adam and Kris. I refuse to Kradam them, but jesus god, the cute.
I’m sorry, what? You want more?
Gay shmay, I’m crawling in there.
He has lip freckles. I can’t even talk right now.
No really I wanna be this pretty.
Are we done with him?
!!!