Adam Lambert - One Voice
"Slow Ride" Video
As I sit here, penning my way through the next in a series of articles about Adam Lambert, I'm suddenly drawn to that which captured my attention at the beginning of all this. So I stopped.
And I listened.
For just a moment, I dismissed the hair, the smile, the body, the style, the leather, the lace, the glambulge, and the face.....and went back to basics. To the voice....the one voice that reverberated through the sound stage of American Idol and caught the ear of unsuspecting viewers who quickly realized that they were witnessing history. They were witnessing Adam Lambert.
Pure, pitch-perfect, powerful.
Although much has been written about his sexual charisma and unprecedented mass appeal, what really defines him is the instrument he uses to take us up and down the scale of harmonious oral vibration. So it comes as no surprise that he has a few people vibrating.
Another story, another time.
On the current American Idol Tour, Adam Lambert's pipes are caressing audiences' underbelly while making their hair stand on end - simultaneously. An impressive maneuver, in itself. Few artists can invoke spontaneous combustion in five notes or less, yet Lambert seems to manage it in one by using his second most famous organ.
To say that he can carry a tune may be the understatement of the year. It's been a long time since we've had the privilege of bearing witness to raw talent like this. Whether he's taking us on a Slow Ride to nowhere or dragging us to hell and back with gritty, insistent vocals on Whole Lotta Love, he arouses a multitude of emotions, one vocal chord at a time.
A good singer breathes from the diaphragm, but a great singer breathes from the soul. There's an ethereal sound that comes from the latter, and Lambert has managed to harness it. He can dial into that enigmatic space where light meets sound and flip the switch at will, taking the listener, willing or not, right along with him to exhilarating highs and haunting lows.
That is the voice of talent.
Now for the other ingredients. As if conducting a musical symphony, Lambert commands his body to join his voice in perfect synchronicity, and boldly goes where no man has gone before....not this masterfully, anyway. Do you feel something vibrating?
Should we tell him what he's done? Perhaps not. I suspect he knows anyway. But just to be on the safe side, Shhhhh............
Voices carry.
