Adam Lambert’s “Fever” – Did Lady Gaga Do It Better?

Becky Bain | November 17, 2009 2:39 pm

Adam Lambert’s extra-spacy album For Your Entertainment premiered today on his MySpace page, so you don’t have to wait til its release date next week to find out how outrageously orgasmic it turned out. (Answer: Very.)

We’re digging most of the album, though we could have lived without Lambert trying so hard to showcase his stylistic range (Idol‘s over! You did fine! Move on.) The track Linda Perry co-wrote with Lambert, “A Loaded Smile,” is solid on its own, but we’re going to take a leap and assume the other ballads will be remixed for optimal club-friendliness.

But the most intriguing song on the album is the Lady Gaga contribution “Fever,” which has been seriously hyped since well before anyone even heard a note. Did Glambert do Gaga proud? Compare Adam’s version to Gaga’s original demo after the jump:

Adam Lambert “Fever”

We can picture ourselves, say, painting a house or training for a marathon in a montage from an 80s movie while listening to this song, can’t you? “Fever” definitely has hints of Gaga (the talk-singing during the verses, the theatrical vocal flourishes, the heavy synths) but it really reminds us just as much of something off a Scissor Sisters album, with the disco-ball-ready production and and Jake Shears-style sass.

According to an interview Gaga did with KISS 106.1, she handed the track over to Adam when his people “asked me to write for him. I was actually like, ‘Geez, I got this record that I wrote a while ago.’ It’s, like, a total hit, smash record, but for some reason, like, I couldn’t get it right with me doing it, and I said, ‘Gosh, it would be perfect for him.’ ”

Do you guys agree? Here’s Ms. Gaga’s version of “Fever” for comparison’s sake:

Lady Gaga’s demo of “Fever”

Sounds pretty much the same as Ad’s, though he obviously had a chance to deepen the bass and add some polish. But Lady G was right, it’s a pretty damn good fit for Adam’s voice.

So why isn’t Glambert touring with Gaga? His audience certainly overlaps with Gaga’s more than Kanye’s. Could well be that Adam’s already too big to be somebody’s opening act. That’s what happens when you’re an androgynous space alien with a voice made of liquid mercury.