Linda Ladden
4evrmomof4Important to VOTE VOTE .@adamlambert fans!! Last Song Standing- Avril Lavigne V Adam Lambert « Q104 Cleveland
cbsloc.al/1Jbe6H4 This is only a one time vote (once per elimination round), so it takes no time at all. I am sure the Avril fans are voting hard, because she is in round 4 and one step away from becoming a permanent add, but I want to hear Adam Lambert instead, so they are out of luck.
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I have not yet had a chance to do some flailing, because I was constantly behind, both in reading and listening and just also needed to get some coherent thoughts together first. Actually, I am just going to start somewhere, and see how it goes. This song has so many layers or better so many avenues you can go down in your thought process that it is difficult to pick just one. So here we go:
As everyone, I was utterly surprised on my first time listen. Adam told us, we would be surprised, but I was not expecting anything quite like what we got. The word 'bonkers' all of a sudden made a lot of sense. It's not only that mix of different styles that are meshed together in this single, but also HOW they are meshed together. It's like Adam and MM's team purposely underplayed their hand. Adam has never underplayed a hand, ever! But he did on this, I think. And well done too, imo.
You realize that this song is going to build, but every time you think 'here we go ' .... - no, we don't, not yet. We go and do another round. Let it build a bit more. Like the most wonderful foreplay in the world. It takes it's time, and so does this song.
By the time we get to the bridge, we are almost at the end of the song, and Adam has hardly pulled out any stops at all. His voice is beautiful of course, but he is singing his lament in a very measured way, letting the beat and the production drag him along, like the bustle of the city or the nature of your business drags you along, on a day where you feel blue.
The hand is also magically underplayed in other parts. The song's elements are stuck together, the edges are not smoothed out, i.e. between the acoustic section and the drum beat. We know, the drum beat is electronic, but elements have been built-in, to make it sound less mechanical. Adam's vocals are left raw in certain places. It's not like we don't know that Adam can sing perfect quints in his sleep, if he needs to. He wants to make it sound raw and to me, who obviously is very familiar with his voice, him doing that adds to the jarring sound of his lament. But the very first time, I was caught off guard. Surely did not see that coming, not from Adam. But that is so great about what he does, his technical ability is at the service to the content of what he wants to sing about. On the other hand, his lyrics are crystal clear, because he does have something to say. That is one of the things he toyed with on TSP, slurring his lyrics, kind of like all the other pop singers in the business. Here he does not, he dares to stand out. What he says is important.
Which brings us to the lyrics. So we have the searching soul that has become disillusioned with whatever the world has to offer, both personally (i.e. love, disaffected friends) or professionally (Hollywood sold out, everyone's spread) or surroundings (city of rust, city of vampires), and searching for transcendent answers has not worked out either (saints lock up their gates)...and so his heart is a ghost town. That is a terrible place to be in, if you really think about it. I don't think I have ever reached a point in my life, where I was disillusioned with everything at the same time. So, if you are at such a point, what makes you get up in the morning? He says, he has a voice inside his head that keeps him singing and that moves him along to the beat, he is being driven by that voice inside, and so he resigns himself to searching for trust in a place that he knows cannot fulfill that. Haunting and macabre, like the skeletons that keep on dancing, because they were woken and cannot go back to sleep. Ghosts in a town.
The beat goes on and so he sings and dances, as he has to...and while he is doing so, Adam gives us the drum-roll, that announces the bigger things to come. The album. And what better thing can a lead single be for an upcoming album, than the best foreplay ever.
By the way, because someone asked yesterday, I think vampires could symbolize nightlife, like the club kids of the city. Maybe?
And Elvis is dead, everyone's spread? My first reaction was...during Elvis' days, rock meant one thing, today rock is spread out into these many genres and sub-genres and everyone lives in their little corner...spread out.
...just some ideas...clearly everyone will hear something different and Adam has asked for interpretations, so I am hoping that as we go along, others will tell us theirs.