Adam Lambert – Down the Rabbit Hole Indeed

If you have never heard of Adam Lambert, call a crane-operator to lift that rock you’ve been living under and check out the American Idol phenom’s ‘Glam Nation Live’ CD/DVD…Stat! This live performance set is a phenomenal combination of rock theater, pop grandeur and glam-bam-thank-Adam vocal art. Visually going from something like ‘Blade Runner’ to Elvis just seems like all in a day’s work for Lambert, but the vocals have a very different lineage.

There are a handful of singers who could match the late Freddie Mercury’s super-powered vocals, and Lambert has to be among them. His note-perfect, sky-high performances on AI a few years ago were brought to my attention and after seeing them on YouTube, I immediately became a fan. Apparently Queen did too, because they tapped Lambert for some truly memorable guest spots. Somewhere between rock god and Broadway powerhouse, Lambert’s style seamlessly blends bravado and beauty in a way that’s almost hard to hear at first listen. It’s just too perfect sometimes, but the soul is there, and that’s the thing that puts Lambert’s vocals and style over-the-top.

But this album is great because it shows how smokin’, dead-on, super-human Lambert is as a vocalist and performer. Check out the monster ‘Down the Rabbit Hole’ or the soaring ‘Whattaya Want From Me’ for a sampling of Adam’s phenomenal singing. For a guy who performs with so much sci-fi vaudville swagger and bravado, Lambert comes off as incredibly warm, personable and fun…he’s just having fun at a level most of us never imagined. The multiple angles offered by the DVD are a fun glimpse into the onstage world Lambert creates, but at times, they can almost be a little distracting and overwhelming.

Clearly taking Freddie Mercury’s theatrics into the stratosphere and creating something all his own, Lambert backs it all up with some killer songwriting and vocals most of us still can’t wrap our minds around. Frankly, if this kind of technically advanced singing was all that Adam Lambert had going, he would be boring. Just too perfect. But there’s a real soul and substance to what this gifted ‘Glambert’ puts out there on stage. He truly connects with both the material and the audience all at once, and that is what makes every singer truly successful, whether they can actually sing or not (and while there are a bunch who can’t, this is actually their scecret). Adam Lambert’s ‘Glam Nation Live’ is an absolute must-own!