I'm proud to announce that I haven't had an Oreo since the last post!
By the way, Kris Allen and Adam Lambert have released their albums one week from each other, so there's bound to be
loads of comparison, right?
I've given each album a first listen, and shit, I really can't decide which stands out better. If it's edgy that you want, go for Glambert, who no offense, looks really
blerrhh on the cover. Dude, are you a long-lost relative of Cher here?
Edgy yes, with thumping dance beats and electro synths zipping zapping about and his trademark guttural
squeal-yell-shout-scream-bellow-WAAAAA.... , it's really hard to NOT tell that it's Adam Lambert turning it up for our ears. But I can't stop myself from having images of La Roux popping up in my head with every song? There's a notable similarity, because their stuff generally comprises dance pop numbers with retro influences.
Then there's the Ryan Tedder-penned song, which had me going "HAH!!" at the first listen without even referring to writing credits on Wikipedia.
Tedder has
REALLY got to diversify his writing chops. I've been keeping a log of sound-alike Ryan tunes in my head since
Halo... and it's relentlessly growing, I tell you.
Back to Lamby...
What we have here is a very sexed-up, pulsing, dance record. Sort of like a male Lady Gaga playing along to Maroon 5 lyrics. It's undeniably catchy, light-hearted at some point, sexually-charged ALL THE WAY but after song 6, I found it a tad too overbearing. One thing for sure, Adam doesn't hold back. Good or not, I'll tell you after Listen #7 (average number of spins for me to get acclimated to a whole album).
Kris, on the other hand, had chosen an overenthusiastically optimistic
Live Like You're Dying as his first single (oh wait, second...
No Boundaries, remember?). It
is the first single anyway, since he unceremoniously dumped
No Boundaries from the tracklist (
No Hardfeelings DioGuardi!).
The first time I heard
Live Like You're Dying, I swore I thought it was The Script. Like,
crap The Script is tryna be Ryan Tedder, recycling the same songs again and again. Kris' delivery was so
spot-on The Script. The voice, the intonation, the rambling, the soulful squeal-ish style of reaching the high notes. It was not until I Googled 'Kris Allen' to find out that oh, it was The Script who wrote the song.
So, if you're looking to start your music career on a solid ground, pick songwriters who don't sing, or don't write the same tune over and over again.
Kris Allen's album is easier to digest, thankfully. Very boppy, earthy, laidback - that's the first impression. I'll tell you more about it when I've reached Listen #5, cuz this one's baby food, easy to swallow (easy to puke? Hopefully not). It's more relatable to me, since I'm into singer-songwriter type of music (yeahhh boriiiiiing) and I know that I'll be recommending some of the songs to my sister. In terms of first impression, Kris' definitely bags it.
For Your Entertainment sends a tiny jolt to your system, which is good for being memorable, but Kris'
Kris Allen scores for likability.
This is written based on my FIRST spin of the albums. So basically I'm writing based on the very sparse snippets of melodies and lyrics I can recollect. Unfair, but in a world of MP3 gadgets and MTV, songs are devoured separately, singled out if catchy, trashed if otherwise.
So really, it's not that unfair. Back to Bio reference book now!
