Monday, February 25, 2013

"A Sharply Polished (and Sharply Dressed) Buy"

Reviewed Item: Trespassing (Album) by Adam Lambert
Reviewer: Randy

This album is fantastic. I have only recently become a fan of Adam Lambert-- a bit late to the party, I must sadly admit-- but wow. I can definitely say that this is Adam at his finest. Every track just screams Adam, even the three that aren't written by him are very well tailored to how his songs sound.

I'm not claiming to be a music expert by any means (for the record, I can barely distinguish genres) but as an artist myself, I know when something needs critique. This album is not one of those somethings. Trespassing does a far better job of portraying Adam's range than For Your Entertainment does-- and this is because it doesn't try to pack as many changes in pitch into one song as it possibly can. Don't get me wrong, I love For Your Entertainment and the titular song is one of my favourites from the album, but there is something altogether more pleasant about this album. It shows growth in his style.

One thing I would like to note is how the songs sound when compared to each other. I saw another review that gave it one-star because the songs are too similar to each other, and this is far from the case. The songs are COHESIVE, not slightly altered duplicates of each other. A good album SHOULD have songs that can all be linked together, not songs that are all over the place. And yes, you can tell they are all from the same album, but they by no means sound alike. This has to be the one album I own that flows so easily and so beautifully from high-energy dance songs to slow, passionate and emotional songs.

Underneath literally made me cry the first time I listened to it because all of the emotion in it when I had been dancing (and nearly crashing the car; no one said I made good decisions) only a couple of tracks earlier to the energetic and addictive Kickin' In. Trespassing, Cuckoo, and Shady are all powerful songs that will get stuck in your head and you'll find yourself grooving to even when you're not listening to them. Never Close Our Eyes is more light-hearted and less fierce, and gives you a moment to just dance with a big grin on your face instead of trying out your seductive dance moves, which I can admittedly not do as well as Mr. Lambert. Kickin' In is like an electric shock in the best kind of way. It ties with Cuckoo for my favourite song with an edge on this album. The three bonus tracks, Runnin', Take Back, and Nirvana are spectacular and definitely worth the money. I didn't mention quite a few of the songs on this album-- not because they're not memorable by any means-- but I could ramble on about the songs on this album for ages, when there is one more point I want to touch on while I have time.

I'm going to focus on something that probably not a lot of other reviewers have: the artwork. As an artist myself, aesthetics are something I am very picky about. I will be honest when I say that I really do not like the cover of For Your Entertainment, seeing as many of the other shots were so much stronger. The Deluxe Edition cover is more desirable in terms of aesthetics. Adam's gorgeous on the regular cover of For Your Entertainment, but it's not that strong. Trespassing is a whole nother story. This album first came on my radar when I dropped by Barnes & Noble in search of an elusive TV series. I went to pay, and as it happened, they had a rack of CDs and such out for GLBT Pride, and I was immediately magnetized by the Trespassing artwork. This was the regular CD's artwork, which is beautifully composed, but it was a picture that stuck in my mind. The cover of the Deluxe Edition is just as, if not more, magnetizing. This likely mostly has to do with Adam's seductive stare, but the contrast used in the photo is just right and makes it hard to pull your eyes from. The logo is pleasant, and this entire album has made me fall in love with the yellow and black colour scheme.

The CD itself has a great grey and black version of the black and yellow caution stripes, and tones down the vibrant inside of the case. The lyric pamphlet/inner insert is extremely well designed. It's pleasant to look at, the lyrics are in a kicking font that's creative but still easy to read, and the photos are stunning and wonderfully represent the songs that are put on each page. The wardrobe department went all out and went fierce on the outfits for this album, and the photographers did a wonderful job too. I find myself paging through the insert everytime I pull this CD out.

I could not be more happy with this CD, it has become an instant favourite of mine and officially hooked me on Adam Lambert.

No comments:

Post a Comment