This could be the best album no-one hears this year. Adam Lambert, American Idol runner-up who landed the number one position as frontman of Queen, has gone back to his formative 90s inspirations for this rock-solid record. But, as his main reference point is Nine Inch Nails, this is no techno or indie nostalgia affair; rather, Lambert and his two producers have created the perfect industrial-pop-metal backdrop for his top-drawer vocals.
Of Adam’s 12 songs, all of which come in under four minutes, opener Rat City and closer Do Ya See Me Now are probably the most jawdroppingly good. Elsewhere, Cloud 9 sounds the most chart-threatening, with solid gold hooks and Weeknd-style lifts and drops.
Lambert is an artist who deserves to be hugely successful in his own right. You get the feeling, though, that this is another collection which will appeal to his hardcore fanbase but not take him into the stratospheric heights of chart dominance.
