Adam Lambert's new song suffers the American Idol curse

I heard Adam was going to work with Lady Gaga's producers on his album. On American Idol, this guy was the king of reinvention. Even when he wasn't re-creating something, his stylistic choices, vocal arrangements, and in-the-moment performances made him more memorable than Kris What's-His-Name. Remember when he blew your socks off with the KISS performance?


(Pardon the quality, but it's the best I could find. Somebody needs to tell the 12-year-olds who upload American Idol videos to stop recording them from a video camera.)

Well, unfortunately, none of that glitzy style has transcended into his solo work. I present to you the mess that is his first single, "Time for Miracles."



The arrangements are predictable, the theme is unoriginal, the lyrics are just one cliche after another, and the whole song is blase. Even Adam seems bored when he sings it. There needed to at least be more moments for him to belt out his signature screams.

Lambert isn't a songwriter; he's a song makeover artist.

Witness: vintage Adam Lambert in "Crazy" -- and it means something when I say he sounds good on it, because I'm a huge Gnarls Barkley fan



and: "Ring of Fire" -- not his original concept for the rearrangement, but still something new


Here's my point. Adam Lambert needs to be given a distinctively jarring track. Then, let him take the reins on vocal post-production. Have some creative writers pen lyrics that mean something -- or maybe even don't mean anything, but leave listeners scratching their heads wondering what they could mean -- and Lambert's inspiration will follow. If you give him the dry, lifelessly generic songs that could be David Cook's or Daughtry's latest radio-friendly dud, he won't do much to the song. Hopefully, his other songs will be Lady Gaga-influenced poppers with funky synth beats and clever hooks, and he can fill in the gaps with his Freddie Mercury voice. Now is no time to be humble; if he doesn't take some risks, he'll fall under the American Idol curse until he's just another once-been.