Live Like We're Your Entertainment

Seeing as how I crapped out on the post I had promised (whether to you or just to myself, I can no longer remember) a year ago, comparing and contrasting the debut albums by 2008's "American Idol" finishers, the Davids Cook and Archuleta, I hadn't really put any thought into doing a similar post regarding this year's winner, Kris Allen, and runner-up, the nearly ubiquitous Adam Lambert. But the temptation quickly crept up and pounced on me, so here I am ... color me surprised! I was wondering what was different between last year and this year (what was the same was that my favorite contender lost the title), and it just occurred to me this afternoon: last year wasn't nearly as full of surprises, at least as far as the singers' albums are concerned. Both Cookie and Archie put out exactly the kind of albums we knew they would, and I liked them about as much as I expected to, relative to one another.

That's not to say that the same doesn't more-or-less hold true for this year's pair; Kris' album is brimming with the patently inoffensive, breezy pop and blue-eyed lite-soul that was his niche on "Idol", and Adam has brought forth a disc full of bump-and-grind, gender-bending (as much as the "Idol" overseers will allow, of course), Queen-esque electro-rock that made him the subject of the next-day water-cooler buzz and propelled him into the final round of the competition. What's surprising to me is how much I'm enjoying both albums. Six months ago, I just knew that I'd love Adam Lambert's CD immensely and that Kris Allen would be putting out an album as dull as dishwater ... and as recently as a couple of weeks ago I was still having the last laugh as I watched Adam's CD preorders continuing to outsell Kris' week after week. It serves them right, I told myself, for picking the white-bread pinup boy over the obviously talented show-stopper. Wait a minute -- how exactly did Kris manage to win this thing? Oh, never mind.

I was even questioning whether or not I was going to buy Kris Allen's album at all. But then my curiosity got the better of me and I called up some clips of the songs. Surprise of surprises, they were actually not bad ... pretty darn good, even. And there was that voice ... quite nondescript in the grand scheme of things, but it would be hard for those of us who watched "Idol" last season to hear that voice without picturing that sideways way he opened his mouth when he sang those big notes -- one of his more endearing qualities. The clincher for me was quite out-of-the-blue: a brief article in "Entertainment Weekly" in which, when asked by the author what he'd do if he encountered a bear in the woods, he said that they'd probably "end up cuddling" together. How can you hate a guy with a goofy sense of humor like that? Silly as it sounds, I decided at that point that I was going to have to buy the album that, ten days before, I was quite reluctant to.

And while listening to it soon after, I found the resentment I had unfairly built up against him, primarily just for snatching the title away from Adam (a stupid feeling, since it wasn't his fault at all, but rather that of the voters), melting away with each track. I also was reminded of all the stuff I liked about him through the course of the competition -- not to mention the mere fact that I even liked him in the first place. The first single, "Live Like We're Dying", is a dandy little anthem, and the fact that it was written by The Script sure doesn't hurt. And to my surprise (I'm using that word a lot in this post, aren't I?), there were a few other songs I liked right away: "Written All Over My Face" (I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the fact that the phrase "make it so" is in the lyrics, me being a "Star Trek" fan and all), the irresistibly peppy hand-clapper "Alright With Me", and of course his cover of Kanye West's "Heartless" which became a favorite "Idol" performance and wasn't nearly as ill-suited a choice of cover song as one might expect. There may be a few boring songs on the album, but at least there are no clumsy or ill-fitting ones ... it's arguably better to not stand out at all than to stand out for something unfortunate. All in all, this is a surprisingly enjoyable album, though it doesn't break any ground -- but then, did we ever really expect that from Kris? Last but not least is Kris' likability. The good thing about a show like "Idol" is that you can tell when someone is a down-to-earth boy-next-door type, so that by the time his album comes out, you know that his sincerity and innocence are who he is, and not some cloying pretense.

As for Adam Lambert's "For Your Entertainment" ... while I do have to say that it is my favorite of the two, it's by a far narrower margin than I ever would have thought possible even as recently as a month ago. I'd have a hard time picking a favorite track this early on; I love the opener "Music Again", the dense synth-pop-rock of "Fever" and "Sleepwalker", the sweeping semi-balladry of "Soaked", and even the comparatively tame radio-friendliness of tracks like "Whataya Want From Me" and "Aftermath". As is the case with Kris' effort, there's not a clunker on this whole album. The only gripe I have about it (besides the garish cover image -- I can almost imagine even Rufus Wainwright or Mika crying out to him to "tone it down a notch, hon!") is that ... okay, I'll just say it ... it's almost too long an album. Don't get me wrong ... whenever I see an album released here in America that has more than 11 tracks on it, I rejoice, 'cause we always seem to get short shrift on CD playing time. It's just that this was a bit of a laborious listen, just because Adam has so much going on here ... it almost seems like he tried to do too much on his debut album. As far as the vocals go, the tedium of the album might result from the fact that his voice seems a bit more restrained here than during his "Idol" appearances, and in so doing he seems to have lost a little bit of what made him so unique (though, thankfully, he keeps that shrill shriek of his to a minimum here ... something I got tired of on the show). As bizarre as it may seem, Kris Allen's voice is almost more unique than Adam Lambert's, at least in the studio.

But having said that, let me reiterate: I'm loving Adam's album more than Kris' ... and bear in mind that's coming from a guy who's been enjoying singer-songwriter-type music more than synth-rock/electro-pop for the last few years now. Could that change? Probably not ... but then I never thought I'd be the least bit uncertain about the answer to that question. Oh, and I'd thought about waiting to do this post until Allison Iraheta's album came out, but I figured this would be a long enough post just talking about these two guys, and I was right. But I'm definitely picking up her CD (can't get my hands on it until Thursday, though), and I have a good feeling about that one too.