music reviewThe Queen substitute singer who gives Duran Duran and Lana del Rey hits a makeover: It sounds like the plot of a horror movie, but Adam Lambert knows High Drama to fully customize the eclectic collection of covers.
Singer Adam Lambert (41) has been on tour with Brian May and Roger Taylor since 2011 as a stand-in for the late Freddie Mercury. Also a bad idea in advance, but anyone who has seen Lambert perform knows that he is not a participant in the Soundmixshow, but that he tackles Queen’s catalog in his own way.
On High Drama he does the same. songs like Do You Really Want to Hurt Me (Culture Club) and Sex on Fire (Kings of Leon) at first glance really have nothing in common, but Lambert manages to make the songs follow each other as if Boy George and Caleb Followill had been in the same class.
He succeeds by – the essence of a good cover – turning the songs completely inside out and providing them with his own – sometimes nice and kitschy – signature. Because Lambert is a vocal all-rounder, he never goes off track.
Highlight is his version of I’m a Man by the forgotten glam rock group Jobriath from 1973. Lambert makes the song glow as if it was written yesterday.
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