As my friend (and Critical Condition reader) Jeff C. pointed out in an e-mail he sent me yesterday, the cover of Adam Lambert’s album For Your Entertainment is all kinds of andro-glam. Remember earlier this year, when we were discussing whether or not he was actually gay? How silly!
You know what else is silly? The bullshit “controversy” that’s supposedly erupting about the cover. Lambert has taken his case to Twitter, defending his right to be “deliberately campy,” and apparently, there’s some kind of “concern” that the cover of For Your Entertainment will alienate people.
But for an artist like Lambert, isn’t it better to be alienating? I would much rather see him surf a glittery wave than try to present himself as, I don’t know, Bon Jovi or Michael Buble. This cover image makes it seem like he’s staying true to the persona he crafted on American Idol, and that persona was refreshing largely because it wasn’t blandly inoffensive. Yes, it went a little overboard, and yes this cover is a little overboard, but in both cases, Lambert is giving us personality. There are plenty of vaguely cute boys making vaguely good music right now. There are not nearly enough gender-bending homos who can shriek on pitch. Not in the United States, at least.
The cover makes me much more hopeful that For Your Entertainment will be good, or at least interesting. After listening to “Time For Miracles,” Lambert’s single from the 2012 soundtrack, I feared he was going to slide into the generic swamp that swallows so many pop stars who try to please everyone.
And speaking of personality, Rihanna’s new album cover (for Rated R) continues to sell her as a hard-ass 70s rocker, much like her new single “Russian Roulette.” There’s a little Grace Jones in this image, and a little new wave. Interestingly, there’s absolutely none of the bling diva who was on cover of Rihanna’s last album.
Between Lambert and Rihanna, it seems like we might be going back in time… to the days when New York was gritty and murderish, Barbra Streisand had a tiny little Afro, and hard-edged ladies and feminine boys were all the culture needed to survive.
That’s cool by me. What do you think?
7 responses so far ↓
1 Roommate Joe // Oct 29, 2009 at 11:45 am
Is this an actual “controversy”? Really? It’s not just thinking the album cover looks like bad photoshopping?
2 JennyM // Oct 29, 2009 at 12:15 pm
I can’t imagine it having that much of an actual effect on the album sales, especially in this day of iTunes, etc., but then again, I’m not in marketing and have nothing with which to support that assumption.
So really if I’m “offended” at all it’s purely as matter of my sense of good design having been offended and nothing to do with Adam Lambert or the music. My question is, is it *supposed* to look like bad photoshopping? Because that’s the impression I get, and I can kind of see that being a design decision, but if you’re constantly having to say, “no, no, it’s *on purpose*” then it seems there aren’t enough people in on the joke to make it a successful design decision. I think it’s not quite over the top *enough*.
3 Collin H // Oct 29, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Both of these artists aren’t my area of expertise, but I do have two thoughts:
1) Lambert’s cover is totally channeling long dormant 80′s Boy George radness, and it’s about time that someone stepped up to the plate.
2) Rhianna looks completely awesome on that album cover. You’re right about the Grace Jones, but I also see a little Joan Jett. There needs to be more women who can kick your ass in today’s music.
4 Mark Blankenship // Oct 29, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Collin… Joan Jett. Yes. I couldn’t put my finger on who else that cover made me think about, but that’s totally who it was.
5 Jeff C // Oct 29, 2009 at 2:40 pm
“There are not nearly enough gender-bending homos who can shriek on pitch. ”
Sentence of the week. To me, the weakest part of Lambert’s album cover is the typeface used for his name. If he had used the “For Your Entertainment” font for his name, it would’ve worked better.
The Rihanna cover is sweet. Gritty indeed.
I’m still waiting for a new band to create a “name-icon” like Metallica, Def Leppard, etc. used to have.
Enjoyed hearing your thoughts.
6 Uli // Oct 29, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Let’s leave aside all the so-called controversy etc – all I see is a new (old) Hand On Face trend starting.
7 Seth Christenfeld // Oct 31, 2009 at 1:11 am
When did Adam Lambert turn into Pink?
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