Sorry guys, timeline is different:
Of course, EMA was not directly linked to album, nobody said it was. It was just an opportunity that arose in October of 2011, and at that time a lot of other parts were not moving as expected, and Adam knew that and was a little more willing to look around. Both the RCA magmt shake-up, as well as Adam's delay of the album happened earlier, prior to the EMAs.
For those who are not familiar with the general process, albums typically have two major phases to them, the first one is the album creation, with A&R involved.
Then there is an meeting where the album gets officially reviewed by the label, and if accepted, it is then put into phase two, which is roll-out and promotion. If it does not get accepted, then further steps are taken, depending on what the concerns are and typically that can lead to delays.
There are totally different teams working on these two phases, and for Adam, once management changed at RCA and problems arose, given that he was executive producer, he had no clout with the promo-team, when they did not naturally appreciate what he had put together.
Here is the timeline and some mile markers that we do have:
Dec. 2010: Barry Weiss leaves RCA, next half year, no clear leadership
Jan. 2011: Adam confirms that he has begun writing and that he thinks a single will come out late summer.
May 2011:
RCA confirms that Adam is recording and that a BTS video is being made over the course of two days. (this whole RCA info started with tweet by Alex Castino from Jokerstyle Productions on May 5) and snowballed from there, til we got the RCA confirmation a few days later).
That Adam was recording seemed natural, everyone assumed the timeline to be as planned.
i.e. in June 2011, Q3 had the same info as best anyone could tell, I arbitrarily grabbed this from 6/18/11, but any day would work:
Late Summer 2011 New single released
October-November 2011 Adam's second album released
Adam continues to talk about the album being very personal.
June 2011: Adam's falling out with Monte, but Monte will play the concert in Canada, end of July.
July 7, 2011:
Allisan Porter gets to hear the album, we do not know whether it is complete, but obviously she hears a good selection of tracks. Infamous tweet about what she heard: 'You guys are going to poop yourself...'
July 14, 2011 we get a release of a Japanese interview that was conducted in June. Info:
Highlights:
- Adam will probably come to Japan next year
- He has been working on his second album for three months now
- He has already recorded 25 songs or so
- The album will probably be completed in October (or around that time) Q3 note: Finish in October = November release.
- The second album will be more "personal" (not just about himself but about everyone)
- All the tracks of the second album will be the songs he wrote (he'll write all the songs)
7.29.11 Adam performs at the St. Agathe en Feux Festival in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, QC, festival concert.
We get to hear OOL for the first time.
August 2011: It becomes increasingly apparent that the expected promotional phase has not started or is not proceeding. Our guessed dates begin to slide, at first we assume it will just be a month. Single in Sept, album in Dec.
8/24/2011: Peter Edge becomes CEO and brings his team along.
Adam keeps busy and in public eye with BTM one hour special, project runway, mentorship stint at Majors and Minors, Burning Man, and other stuff
He is in Miami recording new material. As we know, this music will become essential to album. Clearly new recording is going on.
September 2011:
Fashion week: Adam says he will stop talking about album, talks about being executive producer, but is otherwise less clear. He does confirm though that there is a change in direction on how the album sounds.
But we have no idea how big this change is. In the end OOL is to become a lonely representative of the 'more personal' sound of the new album.
(I wish I could one day get to hear those other 24 songs that we never got to hear)October 2011:
Sam Sparro contacts Nile Rogers regarding 'Shady'.
MTV Talk@Playground with Adam and SKINGRAFT'S Johnny Cota.
'BFM' (Beg for Mercy) album comes out of nowhere (would have been riding the original promo cycle, if that timeline had held), BFM is eventually leading to lawsuits that drag into 2012.
With Monte fallout, BFM lawsuit, album still in progress after a re-direction, this overall must have been a pretty hard time for Adam. Into this time, now comes the offer to do the EMAs. Adam has nothing pressing going on and accepts.
November 2011:
11/6/11: EMA performance - Infamous 106 page thread on Atop
Other things happening too: Major and Minors airs, Aaron Ricklin from OUT100 somewhat reconciles with Adam. Adam is his generous self, but since then, Adam is back on OUT100 lists and reports.
Adam does media listening round in UK. Multiple people get to hear 6 tracks and are enthusiastic about what they hear. But it is also clear that there is some concern about picking the right single.
Here is a sample:
JAMES INGHAM: Edits the showbiz column on the UK's Daily Star Sunday.
JAMESINREHAB JAMES INGHAM: What I've heard from the album so far it's really strong... #adamlambert no decision made on first single.
JAMESINREHAB JAMES INGHAM: Sorry guys but can't give any details of @adamlambert album or songs. All top secret. Expect single early next year & album march time.
JAMESINREHAB JAMES INGHAM: Adam can't decide what the 1st single should be. Hav 3 possibilities. I gave him my 'expert' opinion. #adamlambert
JAMESINREHAB JAMES INGHAM: Have got down to 16 tracks but album is expected to have 12. He's worked with a couple of 'unexpected' producers. #adamlambert
@jamesinrehab: Just listening to @adamlambert new album..... All uptempo apart from 2 ballads & 1 midtempo. Some old skool funk!
JAMESINREHAB JAMES INGHAM: Sorry @adamlambert fans but that's all I can really say at this point. Pretty sure none of you will be disappointed with it tho #adamlambert
JAMESINREHAB JAMES INGHAM: What I can tell you is a lot of @adamlambert questions you want answering will be revealed in a Rolling Stones interview... #adamlambert
The Rolling Stone tweeted was deleted -- but not before Ninjas grabbed it! Shhhhhh!December 2011:
12/20/2011 - BTIKM released as first single. Album can be pre-ordered, but still no Album release date set, but it is supposed to be before 3/31/2012.
Eventually, the date will be Mid-March (3/20/2012 for US), same day as One Direction release date, and then all the stuff with NCOE happens, and the album gets moved to May, when it finally does come out.
This is the TSP - album timeline.
The EMA's offer arrived at one of the major lows in that long stretch of delays and other challenges.
.....but....
