Snap Judgment: Adam Lambert, 'For Your Entertainment'

 The first single and title track from Adam Lambert's soon-to-be-dropped debut album couldn't be more of an announcement. "For Your Entertainment" strides into the room, snaps its fingers and declares 2010 the year of Our Gorgeously Airbrushed Overlord.

With a toy whip in his hand and a glittery gleam in his eye, Glambert croons familiar phrases about making it hot, getting rough and staying in control. Scandinavian hitmaker Dr. Luke wrote and produced the track, and it has that compressed, noisy rock 'n' roll circus sound he's created for others, including Britney, Pink and that other neo-vaudevillian troublemaker, Katy Perry.

Some Glamthusiasts may bemoan the restraint (and processing) applied to the song's vocal, but Lambert is making another move in this song, one likely to become a signature. He sings with an arched eyebrow, executing a come-on that wryly takes the pffft out of itself.

As on his blockbuster-movie power ballad "Time For Miracles," Lambert practices some pop restraint at first, only really letting go at the song's three-minute mark. "Let me entertain you 'til you scream," he wails, his voice fully entering the androgynous zone. It's a game that's led from the dance floor to the bedroom: seduction as a wicked parlor trick fully enjoyed by the master and his victim, the light fantasy of dominance and submission that's a metaphor for what happens between performer and fan.

Though Madonna and Britney have both traveled this ground before, Lambert does it in a way that's very male. The song's beat is definitely contemporary, traceable to early-2000s electropop artists like Goldfrapp (thanks to critic Barry Walters for that observation) and typical of work by the aforementioned female pop stars, who push the dance floor in ways that are distinctly reminiscent of rock.

For a male artist like Lambert, the move is a resurrection -- of glam (his often-stated goal) and its later streams, New Wave and Brit-Pop. With his way of combining camp with the humor and solidity of an All-American Boy, Lambert finally might accomplish what sometimes expat Robbie Williams and Euro favorites the Scissor Sisters haven't quite yet done: inventing an American take on comfortable male androgyny.

I should qualify my point by saying, a white American take. Little Richard, Sylvester, Prince and Michael Jackson already have proved that dance music and rock can come together in a sound that has both rough edges and a certain softness, a hard thump and a high wail. Hair metal sometimes got there too, but in that world, cartoonishness or a certain fear of losing male credibility usually took over.

In recent years, mainstream rock has cultivated a masculine frown, with only a few outliers -- Of Montreal, Scissor Sisters -- treading the ground artists like T. Rex, Roxy Music and David Bowie first mapped. "For Your Entertainment" takes that lineage into today's clubs. It's deliberately light fare, but with a big sparkly ring on a slightly calloused finger; it points in a good direction.

David Bowie - "Boys Keep Swinging"

T-Rex - "20th Century Boy"

Street Life - "Roxy Music"

Oh, and at times, it really reminds me of George Michael.

-- Ann Powers

Comments

[Barbara Schneier]

I don't usually like this type of music, but OMG this song and Adam's voice just blew me away. I cannot stop listening, and dancing to this song. Also, the lyrics are so good and so what Adam's music is going to do to us all.

"oh! do you know what you got into? can you handle what I'm bout to do? because it's about to get rough for you I'm here for your entertainment."

[M. Scott]

I hope he Adam really blows it up! This guy has huge upside!! Good luck Adam.

[celtcwrtr]

i get it, he's brilliant, (but) a big part of me would rather hear him him singing the nasty à la tim buckley's "greetings from l.a."... he's got the vocals, and "move with me," "get on top" or "make it right" ("whip me, spank me") is certainly better than any of this tripe.

[GEAH]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

[JD]

Oh please. "Comfortable male androgyny" is a bit of an oxymoron, don't you think? On the bright side, should it come to pass, than poseurs like Adam and Ann will cease to have a platform. Yawn.

[Lee]

Good for Adam. It's obvious that he's been dying to kick off his career HIS way,and he sure has! This is a fun, high-energy introduction, and the lyrics (although he apparently didn't write them) are making it clear that our Mr. L. has taken control ... and the ride he'll take us on is not for the unadventurous. I'm already signed up for the trip. (He had me months ago at "I WILL surprise you.")

[leisa]

Sickening!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ali N]

I LOVE Adam and think the song is catchy & fun. However, I am one that wants to hear some rock - hopefully there is more of that on the CD! His voice is buried a bit on this to the point that you almost don't know its him :( I want to hear his amazing vocals loud & clear! Love the single cover too....should have been his album cover! Rock on Adam, you're the best!

[Bobnoxious]

If I hear another song with a vocoder, I am going to puke. Just Britney with balls (Maybe)

[reggie]

I LOVE ThE SONG! great review, couldnt agree more, its gonna be a hit!

[Linda]

I really find myself liking this song. It is difficult to listen to it and sit still. It has a very strong underlying dance beat that makes you move along to it. Resistance is futile. I also am thoroughly pleased that he has his trademark vocals in it toward the end. Those vocals set him apart from the rest of the pack. I was hoping they wouldn't try and squash them and they didn't.

[lilyx]

"media bias" you're not doing Adam any favors with your scolding comments to the writers on every article about Adam. Lighten up for petes sake.. you're yelling at people who support and appreciate Adam!

I love the single FYE and think this article fantastically describes the awesomeness of Adam Lambert. :)

[Alex]

I can understand that you consider Adam as the American property. But I think Lambert counts on international success, isn't he? I will express opinion of the foreigner who has not so got used in the American radio format: with songs like this Adam will NOT have the international success. At least, such success that he counts. The problem is not this song don't looks like Lambert which his admirers have grown fond during "American idol". The problem is not that song was recorded in unusual for Adam genre. The problem is it's a bad song: there is no melody, this fucking writer and producer has killed all those things for we have grown fond of Adam. He has killed Adam's voice, sterilised his and has made absolutely standard uninteresting product. There is not Adam. There are only stupid electronic effects. ALL my friends and I, we're Adam's huge fans, also are unanimously disappointed by this song. Once again I will repeat, the problem isn't a genre. The deal is a bad song for advancement for the American radio. And as outside America this format is not popular, Adam can not count on international success if he will record similar hacks. I hope that it's only a single, only one bad song on album which he released to get on fucking radio. And other material on his album will be a stuff for what we wait from him. Instead of a fake "male Britney Spears". Adam is unique singer but where is his unicity now? Really it has evaporated? Are you haven't enough of similar hack which are forgotten in a minute after listening? They fill all modern scene. It will be very pity if the person with such extraordinary voice and talent turns to one more "same as all" and will be remembered only as the unique master of cover-versions.

[Callie]

Thanks, Anne, for another well-thought out and expressed review. Also, thanks for the videos you added.

I can't fault Adam on his recordings released so far. I love Time for Miracles and For Your Entertainment though they are so different. Just two sides of the immense and unique talent that is Adam Lambert.

[Aaron]

Don't hate the Vocoder, hate the artist.
Sure, the vocoder is an overused, overplayed instrument in pop music, but the same could be said of the electric guitar.

[terie]

@Alex: Begone TROLL!!! Your foreign accent is as phony as a two dollar bill!!! Nice try, though. LOL

[Max]

I canceled my pre-order.
Based on the single, the Gaga song, and the Kara song I doubt that I will enjoy this album. Sorry Adam, but I had expected to hear your gorgeous voice, not some Britney x-rated garbage.

[SCat]

Well I always loved George Michael's music so all good with me. And I just happen to LOVE this song!!!

[Krane]

Why has there been nothing in the LA Times about Melody Gardot's performance earlier this week at the Troubadour - before or after?

[Janet]

I LOVE this song. I can't wait to hear the rest. He's got some powerhouse people working on this album!

[William Arroyo]

Ms. Powers:
Before you crown A. Lambert the all-time (non-black) glamrocker, you need to hear and watch videos of Freddie Mercury, probably before your time. No one comes close.

[Janika]

Loved this article and insight connecting Adam to previous music and direction he is taking his own music. For your entertainment single is brilliant, it just makes you move and is FUN and sexy. Other songs in his record sound equally promising, like song Soaked and Sleepwalker. I like the electic feel of his album. And main thing: it sounds like fun music to enjoy.