For Your Entertainment

by Adam Lambert

Overview

With Adam Lambert, American Idol finally got a finalist who was completely, utterly contemporary, aware of what's hip in music and culture and aware of how music is made and consumed in 2009, never seeming to try to follow fads or set trends, just embodying the time. Mercifully, he came in second to Kris Allen, for if he came in first he may have had to tame his self-styled glamazon ways. A second place finish allowed Lambert to come out of the closet and indulge in his penchant for theater on his debut, For Your Entertainment -- which isn't quite the same thing as camp, for if Adam Lambert is anything, he's earnest about his dress-up, never winking at the audience because he doesn't think there's much funny about his glitter and mascara: that's just what pop stars are supposed to do. He's learned that by listening to his stacks of Queen and Bowie records, from watching old MTV videos on YouTube, from living in a present that always competes with the ever-present past, so he takes it all at face value, mixing up arena rock guitars, new wave, disco, operatic overdubs with a constant electro pulse, glassy modern R&B, and the vague Euro strains of new millennium teen pop. All this makes For Your Entertainment very, very modern in a way few mainstream pop albums are in 2009, whether they're products of the American Idol/19 machine or not: Max Martin, Dr. Luke, Rivers Cuomo, P!nk, Lady GaGa, Linda Perry, Ryan Tedder, Muse's Matthew Bellamy, and Justin Hawkins of the Darkness all elbow each other for space here, creating cheerful genre-bending where Sweet gives way to the Scissor Sisters, and it's never, ever necessary for a listener to recognize the allusions, either the intentional or accidental. All the heavy-hitters here write to Adam's image -- GaGa wisely goes so far as to keep the object of his affection male -- and they give him some truly terrific pop tunes: Hawkins' glorious, goofy opener "Music Again," a strange dead ringer for Aldo Nova; Dr. Luke's cool strutting title track; Bellamy's shimmering smoothed-out Radiohead "Soaked"; P!nk's pained "Whataya Want from Me"; Cuomo's surging "Pick U Up," which could have fit on Raditude; Tedder's typically icy alienation "Sleepwalker"; and Lady GaGa's terrific disco "Fever." Lambert sounds larger than life on these, just like he wants to be, and if there's no sense of danger here -- whenever he dons his leather and his girlfriends put on their stripper heels, it's playacting drama club kids getting a kick out of their adopted roles -- at least there's a lot of pure pop pleasure here, more than any immediate post-Idol album has ever delivered. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	05/03/2010
Label:	Rca International
UPC:	0886976722722

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Adam Lambert   Primary Artist
Dr. Luke   Drums,Keyboards
Marc VanGool   Guitar
Paul III   Bass
Paul Crook   Guitar
Linda Perry   Guitar,Keyboards,Percussion
Dorian Crozier   Drums
Max Martin   Keyboards
Jamie Muhoberac   Organ,Piano,Keyboards
Howard Benson   Keyboards
Rivers Cuomo   Guitar
David Campbell   Conductor,String Conductor
Shellback   Bass,Drums,Guitar,Keyboards
Paul Bushnell   Bass
Claude Kelly   Vocals (Background)
Orianthi   Guitar (Electric)
Brian Ray   Guitar
Abe Laboriel, Jr.   Drums
Tim Pierce   Guitar
Phil X   Guitar
Dean Butterworth   Drums
Justin Hawkins   Guitar
Chris Chaney   Bass
Randy Flowers   Guitar
John Miceli   Drums
Greg Wells   Bass,Drums,Guitar,Keyboards
Rob Cavallo   Guitar
Ryan Tedder   Bass,Piano,Vocals (Background)

Technical Credits

Emily Wright   Vocal Editing,Engineer
Andrew Schubert   Mixing Engineer
Peter Seibert   Orchestration,Music Preparation
Erwin Gorostiza   Creative Director
Adam Lambert   Composer
Joe Libretti   Drum Technician
Sam Holland   Engineer
Ashley Newton   A&R
Marc VanGool   Guitar Technician
P!nk   Composer
Cheryl Jenets   Production Manager
Alisan Porter   Composer
Russ Waugh   Assistant Engineer
Luke Tozour   Engineer
Iain Pirie   Management
Dan Chase   Pro-Tools,Programming
Jaime Neely   Production Assistant
Henry Strange   Programming
Vanessa Silberman   Assistant
Thomas Aiezza   Assistant Engineer
Ryan Breen   Programming
Chris Concepcion   Technical Assistance
Hatch Inagaki   Engineer,String Engineer
Sutan Amrull   Make-Up
Lukasz Gottwald   Composer
Evan "Kidd" Bogart   Composer
Linda Perry   Composer,Engineer,Producer
Deborah Lurie   Choir Arrangement,Orchestral Arrangements
Dorian Crozier   Programming
Natasha Shneider   Composer
Kara DioGuardi   Composer
Max Martin   Composer,Engineer,Producer
Matthew Bellamy   Composer
Keith Armstrong   Mixing,Mixing Engineer
Mike Plotnikoff   Engineer
Jeff Bhasker   Composer,Producer
Noel Zancanella   Engineer
Tim Roberts   Mixing Assistant,Assistant
Aimee Mayo   Composer
Andrew Chavez   Pro-Tools,Drum Programming
Al Clay   Engineer
Ann Mincieli   Engineer
Brian Warwick   Engineer
Doug Tyo   Assistant
Chris Lindsey   Composer
Chris Lord-Alge   Mixing
Howard Benson   Producer,Programming
Rivers Cuomo   Composer
Aaron Walk   Assistant Engineer
Jon Nicholson   Drum Technician
Matty Green   Assistant
Ferras   Composer
Lady Gaga   Composer
Savan Kotecha   Composer
Nik Karpen   Mixing,Mixing Engineer
David Campbell   String Arrangements
Shellback   Composer,Engineer,Producer
Chris Galland   Assistant
Ghazi Hourani   Assistant Engineer
Christian Baker   Assistant
Aniela Gottwald   Assistant
Serban Ghenea   Mixing
Ted Jensen   Mastering
Greg Wells   Composer,Engineer,Producer,Programming
Claude Kelly   Composer,Vocal Producer
Oliver Leiber   Composer
Anthony Kilhoffer   Engineer
Alain Johannes   Composer
Jim Beanz   Vocal Producer
David Gamson   Composer
Rob Wells   Programming
Paul DeCarli   Digital Editing
Dr. Luke   Producer,Programming
Fabien Waltman   Programming
Justin Hawkins   Composer
Saint Warwick   Photography
Cim Mahony   Hair Stylist
Fusako Chubachi   Design,Art Direction
Steve Rea   Assistant Engineer
Brad Townsend   Mixing Engineer
Jason Farrer   Stylist
Ely Rise   Composer
Mike Fasano   Drum Technician
Kristian Lundin   Producer
James Alexander   Composer
Lars Fox   Pro-Tools
Alexander James   Composer
Richard Brown   Pro-Tools
Simon Fuller   Management
Doug McKean   Engineer,Programming
Rob Cavallo   Producer
Mark "Spike" Stent   Mixing
Ryan Tedder   Arranger,Composer,Producer,Vocal Producer