Adam Lambert and The Original High: Track-by-Track

If Adam Lambert can brand himself with a collarbone tattoo stating “Chasing The Original High,” then I can at least put a sign up in my car window reading “Waiting For The Original High!”

Thankfully we only have 9 days left for this to come true. And Yahoo Blogger and Adam Lambert fan Lyndsey Parker has really started my salivation process with her track-by-track rundown of every song on The Original High. After reading it, if I didn’t want the album badly enough, I want it even more now!

Read along for Lyndsey’s views and when you get the album, come back and see if you agree with her.

Love ya!
~ Carol ~

Adam Lambert’s ‘The Original High’: A Track-by-Track Guide

By Lyndsey Parker

In 2012, Adam Lambert released an excellent album that, despite its unabashedly retro groove, was ironically ahead of its time: Trespassing, a funky-fresh rollerdisco romp featuring contributions from Pharrell Williams and Chic’s Nile Rodgers. One year later, Daft Punk recruited Williams and Rodgers for a funky-fresh rollerdisco romp called “Get Lucky,” and they were all over the charts. Go figure. Sometimes, timing is everything.
But now, three years later, it seems to be Lambert’s time at last.

Sure, Lambert could have capitalized on Daft Punk’s funky success and slapped together his own album of random access memories. But, no. Instead, he has already evolved and moved on, with a new record label (Warner Bros.) and a new hypermodern sound for his sleek, sophisticated new dance-pop offering, The Original High. And true to its title, it’s his most original work yet.

It’s not like Lambert really needed a “comeback,” of course, considering that he spent his between-album/label years starring on Glee, fronting Queen on an international tour, collaborating with superstar DJ Avicii, and so on. But The Original High is indeed a triumphant return. Adam Lambert is back. It may not be the guylinered, glittery, glam-rock Adam Lambert that some people expect, but that’s OK. It’s actually more than OK.

Since his American Idol days, Lambert has always kept his audience guessing. And sure enough, The Original High is full of curveballs, depending on one’s particular brand of Lambert fandom. Those still partial to the hard rock he did when he was on Idol (come on, that was six years ago, let’s move on), as well as newly indoctrinated Glamberts who discovered him via Queen, will likely be surprised that — despite one in-studio collaboration with Queen’s Brian May — this is Lambert’s least rockist album yet. Diehard fans of the theatrical showman’s famously octave-straddling wail may admittedly miss some of his over-the-top vocal acrobatics; this album features some of Lambert’s subtlest, most nuanced performances to date. And anyone grooving on the ‘70s and ’80s influences of Trespassing and its 2009 predecessor, For Your Entertainment, will be in for a futureshock, because despite this album’s forays into ’90s-style house, The Original High is very now, very wow, and very 2015.

All that being said, fans may be surprised… but they won’t likely be disappointed. To quote a line from one of the album’s tracks, “There I Said It,” Lambert is a “grown-ass man,” and the 33-year-old has grown gracefully into his signature sound.

Here’s a track-by-track breakdown of The Original High, out June 16:

“Ghost Town” – If you own a radio, you’ve probably heard this one by now. If you haven’t, please go get a radio, stat. Then twist that FM dial and prepare to hear this hawt track on repeat between now and September. The Max Martin-produced candidate for Song of Summer 2015 isn’t just an ideal introduction to Adam’s updated sound; it’s a real pop palate-cleanser. “Ghost Town’s” unexpected and inspired mix of spaghetti-western whistling, echo-chamber vocals, acoustic guitars, and block-rockin’ beats sound like nothing on that aforementioned radio dial.

“The Original High” – After a lilting soft-rock intro reminiscent of Hall & Oates-damaged Europoppers like Phoenix and Zoot Woman, this ode to Hollywood bursts to glorious (night)life and keeps on building from there, climaxing with a crescendo of stratospheric falsettos. There’s an aching nostalgia here, as Lambert sings about his old Myspace-chronicled all-nighters (“Just make me feel the rush like first time”), but the end result is still pure euphoria. This going-out anthem is sure to be a staple on many Saturday-night playlists.

“Another Lonely Night” – The music bed of this jaunty track is misleadingly happy-go-lucky, all Sharks-vs.-Jets finger-snaps and percolating synth beats. But take a listen to the breakup lyrics, which seem to revisit that desolate ghost town in Lambert’s mind. “All I got is your ghost,” he laments. A perfect mix of happy/sad and sweet/sour, this is the coming-down track after experiencing track #2?s “Original High.” Sequencing matters, people! Don’t hit shuffle on this album.

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