Glambert: Outrageous & Contageous

Glambert Nation, get ready to squeal and rapidly clap your fingerless-gloved hands.

Our viscount of glam/pop rock has arrived online. Amazon.co.uk has leaked 30-second clips of every track on American Idol 9 runner up Adam Lambert's new album For Your Entertainment.

I'll have to hear all 15 songs in their entirety before I form an opinion about the album, but we're given a nice preview with the half-minute snippets. It reminds me (only vaguely) of music released by other American Idol alumni, as some tracks have that signature acoustic guitar accompaniment and the overplayed "if you dream it, you can do it!" message. But that truly one-of-a-kind Adam Lambert vibe is there in plenty. His worship of Lady Gaga is obvious with songs like Strut, If I Had You and the title track. His idolization of glam rock divos and showmen like David Bowie is slightly more obvious, just look at the (kind of creepy) album cover. (I'm reminded vaguely of Jem & the Holograms).

Jem and Adam Lambert are actually not too different. If you're at all familiar with the decidedly cult classic late '80s cartoon, you'll know that the theme song's lyrics include lines like: "glamour and glitter, fashion and fame," "truly, truly, truly outrageous," "the music's contageous" and "no one else is the same." Sounds very familiar...

Adam Lambert deserves heaps of credit, in my book. He brought me back to American Idol (of which I was dog tired after the fifth season) because he's so unlike every other contestant to ever grace the stage at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles. He stayed true to himself throughout the course of the show, and was never afraid to do his own (slightly sexually explicit) thing. His edgy, fierce and glamorous persona stands out in a crowd of white-bread, plaid clad crooners who come armed with acoustic guitars and oodles of sentimentality. And besides all of this, and of course most importantly, he has a fantastic voice.

Even though I despise disaster movies (I just don't see a point to watching the Statue of Liberty be swept away by a tsunami. I'm talking to you, Deep Impact), I might go see 2012 just to jam to Lambert's contribution to the soundtrack, Time For Miracles. See below, it's sure to inspire an "OMG" or two!