Watch: Adam Lambert's 'For Your Entertainment' Video

The Thanksgiving week Lambert onslaught isn't over yet. Here's his video, AFTER THE JUMP...

MUSIC NEWS: Lady Gaga, Adam Lambert, Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez, Angie Stone, Beyoncé, Susan Boyle, Shakira

MODERN TONIC

The editors of Modern Tonic present a weekly music update here on Towleroad. The rest of the week, they scan the pop culture landscape for movie, TV, book and Web recommendations in their daily email.

TODAY’S FEATURED NEW RELEASES:

We’ve been riding Lady Gaga’s disco shtick since the release of The Fame last year. The woman born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta has shot to the forefront of gay consciousness with a combo of cheeky post-Madonna dance grooves and a sartorial sense that makes Björk’s Oscar night Swan dress look like a gingham hand-me-down. Gaga’s follow up, The Fame Monster, features 8 new tunes sold as a single disc or packaged with The Fame. (A super deluxe Fame Monster box set  — to include a lock of her hair (!) — will be available December 15.) Highlights include the single "Bad Romance" (does Gaga have any other kind?), the Spanish-flecked "Alejandro" that’s like half Abba’s "Fernando" and half Madonna’s "La Isla Bonita," and the hi-NRG club jam "Telephone" featuring none other than Gaga’s latest BFF Beyoncé.

For once, the press was right. Christened 'Glambert' for his theatrical preening on last season's American Idol, Adam Lambert brought a sexually ambiguous charisma to a set of stellar pipes that knew how to sell chestnuts from not only Queen and Zeppelin, but Foghat and Tears for Fears. No longer ambiguous — he came out publicly following the end of the season — Lambert juices up his debut For Your Entertainment with a powerful sexual allure. He gets help from Pink with "Whataya Want from Me," one of her trademarked tracks that's tough on the outside and tender on the inside. And from the multi-tracked falsetto of opener "Music Again" to the flamboyant "Soaked," a ballad that sounds like an Arabic showtune by Muse (written by Muse’s Matt Bellamy), it's one blue-rinsed highlight after another. And we mean blue as in profane – this is one proud gay boy who’s not afraid to tell you what he wants, as we saw on the AMAs last night. "Open your mouth, open it wide," he teases on the stealthy "Strut." On the pounding title track he’s a decisive topman with one thing on his mind: "Can you handle what I'm 'bout to do? / 'cause it's about to get rough in you." Well, bring it on, baby. To quote Nirvana — here we are now, entertain us.

Is it possible to listen to Rihanna's fourth release Rated R and not think about the domestic violence incident that transpired earlier this year between her and then-boyfriend Chris Brown? Not really, though you’d be looking for that proverbial needle in the haystack to find a song that point blank addresses the issue. (The closest she comes is “Stupid in Love.”) But, boy, is she angry, which translates to lots of hard rock moves, from Slash’s guest guitar on "Rockstar" to the punk-metal opening riff of "Fire Bomb." Elsewhere, she gets breezy with Jeezy on the island-hip-hopping of “Hard” and stretches out on the mid-tempo Justin Timberlake co-written "Cold Case Love."

MUSIC NEWS:

Seventy-seven-year-old music mogul Clive Davis on the re-launching of Whitney Houston's career, American Idol artist album sales and the music business's rough transition from CD to digital.

"Fallin' on my Louboutins": Jennifer Lopez was so infuriated after she slipped and fell on her famous butt during last night's AMA performance, show producer Dick Clark Productions edited the mishap out of the later west coast airing.

A Q&A with Kris Allen, last season's American Idol winner.

Mika is still using gender-ambiguous terms in describing his dating life.

Sony has announced plans to launch the creatively-titled Sony Online Service to compete with iTunes. It's expected to sell music, films, games and books. No date is set yet.

Vote for your favorite song of the 00's.

MORE NEW RELEASES:

Angie Stone, a sistah from the old skool of R&B, releases Unexpected — 12 sexy slow-ish jams that’ll rock your rump vertically or, oh yes, horizontally.

Beyoncé gets cozy on the 2-CD/DVD I Am Yours…An Intimate Performance at Wynn Las Vegas. Her voice is deeper and stronger live, especially on some inspired medleys, including an extended set of songs from a little band named Destiny’s Child.  Also released today: a deluxe edition of I Am…Sasha Fierce, which includes the remix of "Video Phone" with Lady Gaga.

The frumpy Scottish church lady Susan Boyle releases her debut in the aftermath of her Britain’s Got Talent buzz. I Dreamed a Dream includes that star-making song, her pristine version of The Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses," and more easy listening tracks.

Shakira, Colombia's biggest export after coffee, gets the heart racing faster than caffeine on her latest English-language release, She Wolf, with help from The Neptunes and Wyclef Jean.

Also released: Britney Spears — The Singles Collection Deluxe (box set); Kraftwerk — The Catalogue (box set); Various Artists — A Very Special Christmas 7; Fever Ray — Fever Ray (Deluxe Edition); Hayley Westenra — Winter Magic; Pixies — Minotaur (box set)

MUSIC VIDEOS:

Patrick Wolf: "Damaris"
From his superb The Bachelor, this sensual, pagan clip teases the sacrilegious undertones from Wolf’s dramatic telling of Saint Paul’s conversion of Dionysius’s wife.

David Gray and Annie Lennox: "Full Steam"
Old Wobbly Head and Ms. Eurythmics are lovers on the lam in this gansta-land clip set in an industrial wasteland. Best effect? Lennox’s industrial-strength pipes — still a thing of wonder after all these years.

Charlotte Gainsbourg featuring Beck: "Heaven Can Wait"
Filled with incongruous images — a skateboard with burgers for wheels, a man with a stack of pancakes for a head — Gainsbourg and L.A. freak Beck take us on a jaunty stroll through a surreal day in suburbia.

Valley Lodge: "All of My Loving" (video NSFW)
And the award for best use of human beings as furniture goes to Valley Lodge, who, as far as we are concerned, one-upped Brüno. We especially like the bed!

MUSIC NEWS: Annie, Leona Lewis, Norah Jones, Janet Jackson, iLike, Adam Lambert

MODERN TONIC

The editors of Modern Tonic present a weekly music update here on Towleroad. The rest of the week, they scan the pop culture landscape for movie, TV, book and Web recommendations in their daily email.
 
FEATURED NEW RELEASES AND FREE DOWNLOADS:

After her successful 2004 debut Anniemal, with its elastic hit "Chewing Gum," Norwegian pop star Annie signed to Island Records in 2007. In 2008, she released the single "I Know Ur Girlfriend Hates Me" as a precursor to her follow-up Don’t Stop. But when the song failed on the charts, she left the label and took the finished record with her. A year later, Don’t Stop finally sees the light of day (in a revised version that includes three new tracks replacing three that were dropped), and it’s such a pop high that it makes the suits at Island seem like fools for letting her go. From the cheery marching band drums of opener "Hey Annie" to the Caribbean flavored New Wave of the title track, it’s a one-way trip to pop nirvana. The punchy future single "My Love Is Better" — available as a free download here in a bottom-heavy dub version — may get more chart action than "I Know UR Girlfriend Hates Me" (available on the import-only Deluxe Edition), but even if it doesn’t it’s good to have our favorite Anniemal back on the prowl.

(Bonus free download: album track "I Don’t Like Your Band," a velvet-gloved bitch-slap to shallow divas).

With Simon Cowell and Clive Davis’ combined muscle behind her, it was a foregone conclusion that 2006 X Factor winner Leona Lewis would be big. But who knew she’d be the first U.K. vocalist to chart a U.S. number one ("Bleeding Love") since 1987? Chart glory is once again in her future with her second release Echo. Opener and first single "Happy" rides its low-key "Nothing Compares 2 U" groove into a soaring chorus built for Lewis’ diva-grade pipes. And after that it’s one potential number one after the next, with highlights including "I Got You" (written by Max Martin, who penned Kelly Clarkson’s "Since U Been Gone"), the Justin Timberlake-produced "Don’t Let Me Down," and "Lost Then Found," an encore-worthy mid-tempo ballad written by Ryan Tedder and featuring his band OneRepublic, a cell-phone waving audience pleaser. Echo’s full of such moments, so if you see Lewis in concert, bring an extra cell-phone battery or two.

When Norah Jones swept the pop landscape with Come Away With Me in 2002, her jazzy simplicity was an alternative to over-the-top divas who’d never met a musical scale they didn’t like. But her popularity brought out the grumblers. Some called her ‘Snore-ah Jones’; Nellie McKay even bitch-slapped her when she titled her own debut Get Away From Me. Yet Jones persevered, and 36 million album sales later she’s releasing her fourth album, The Fall. Jones opened up her sound here, playing with new musicians and enlisting the help of some well-respected collaborators like Ryan Adams and Okkervil River’s Will Sheff. She’s still a girl with her head clearly on her shoulders, but The Fall expands her sonic palette with the alt-country Adams co-write "Light As a Feather," the rumbling juke-joint-jive of "It’s Gonna Be," and the back-porch blues of "Man of the Hour." It’s adult and it’s contemporary, but we doubt you’ll be hearing it on Lite-FM.

MUSIC NEWS:

Oprah's Music Club?: Oprah Winfrey's effect on book sales has long been apparent, but the music industry is taking note of her impact on album sales, even changing release dates to coincide with talent appearances on her show.

iDon'tLike: Facebook made an unpopular move last week by restricting features on iLike after the application was bought by MySpace. iLike is used by over 12 million people on Facebook, making it the site's #1 music app.

MySpace is close to finishing a deal to buy rival music service imeem. Looks like Murdoch's company is fighting back against Facebook's massive success.

Adam Lambert on the making of his new album, For Your Entertainment, out next week. Plus, Rolling Stone "re-imagines" his album cover.

An argument for Britney Spears' right to lip-synch in concert.

Clip from the "Endless Love" musical number on tomorrow's episode of Glee.

An insightful look at the mechanics of large-scale music business marketing by examining the work Mariah Carey is putting behind her current album.

TODAY’S NEW RELEASES:

She's not the commercial titan she once was, but Janet Jackson’s two-disc Number Ones will remind you what Ms. Jackson’s done for us not only lately but steadily since the ‘80s. The two-disc collection’s new track, "Make Me," is a glorious, and welcome, return to old-school Janet.

He’s been a Grammy-winning pop star, a bluesman, a writer for Esquire, and a celebrity boy toy. With Battle Studies, John Mayer is ready to become the new Sting — a middle-of-the-road artist with chops, hooks and good taste. You think he does yoga?

Much as we love Morrissey’s comeback work since You Are the Quarry, his B-sides are an Anglophile’s wet dream. The latest collection Swords (Deluxe Edition) includes the classic gay-love lament “Christian Dior” and a live take on Bowie’s "Drive-In Saturday."

Down-home American Idol Season 8 victor Kris Allen releases his self-titled debut — a super-catchy mainstream winner — a week before runner-up (and likely chart champ) Adam Lambert rules the world.

Also released: Justin Bieber — My World; Fall Out Boy — Believers Never Die: Greatest Hits; OneRepublic — Waking Up; Paul McCartney — Good Evening New York City (CD/DVD); Katy Perry — Katy Perry: MTV Unplugged (CD/DVD); Them Crooked Vultures — Them Crooked Vultures; David Bowie — Space Oddity (40th Anniversary Edition); Stereophonics — Keep Calm and Carry On (Import); Will Young — The Hits (import).

MUSIC VIDEOS:

Kid Sister: "Right Hand Hi"
This Chi-town rapper — with a long bob of black and blonde hair — surfs a bouncy, grimy groove in this L.A.-based clip. Her debut Ultraviolet, out today, is crammed with hi-NRG smackdowns.

Lights: "Ice"
Canadian synth-popper Valerie Poxleitner’s jaunty lost-love tune — a highlight of her debut The Listening — features a boxing match between the sprightly singer and her darker doppleganger. Who wins? In matters of the heart, it’s always a draw.

David Guetta feat. Estelle: "One Love"
French passion meets Brit cool on Guetta’s thumping dance jam featuring U.K. R&B star Estelle. The clubland compatriots cruise the night city searching for the downtrodden and lovelorn. When they find them, they flash them with a hand gesture — the sign of the heart — that infects them with the urge to hotfoot it like crazy.

Orianthi: "According to You"
She calls herself a “mess in a dress” on this raucous shredder, but Australian guitarist Orianthi is girl power incarnate, fingering that fret-board faster than Eddie Van Halen in his wildest dreams.

WATCH: Beyoncé and Lady Gaga Phone It In

Beyoncé and Lady Gaga buddy up for Beyoncé's new track "Video Phone". Beyoncé also guests on Lady Gaga's new track "Telephone", which is out on her new album The Fame Monster.

Watch the video for "Video Phone", AFTER THE JUMP...

Enrique Iglesias Hot and Sexed Up in Lost Video

Enrique Iglesias' video for Sad Eyes was apparently banned in 2000 for being too sexy, but has recently resurfaced. in the video, Enrique gets all hot and bothered over a model in a phone sex commercial (note the placement of the stripper pole), but eventually just ends up in bed alone (dreaming of his groupies).

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

MUSIC NEWS: Robbie Williams, Tori Amos, Melanie Fiona, Susan Boyle, Britney Spears, Hot Chip, Bad Lieutenant, Miike Snow, Green Day

MODERN TONIC

The editors of Modern Tonic present a weekly music update here on Towleroad. The rest of the week, they scan the pop culture landscape for movie, TV, book and Web recommendations in their daily email.

TODAY'S FEATURED NEW RELEASES AND FREE DOWNLOAD:

It’s hard to be Robbie Williams. A gigantic star all over the world, he's ignored in the U.S. (where he currently lives — in Los Angeles — with actress Ayda Field. Sorry, boys). So here comes Reality Killed the Video Star (out digitally today, on CD 11/17), his 8th studio album, and the speculation starts again: will this be Williams' rocketship to American stardom or another one-way trip to Planet Oblivion? Sure, he's got a stateside cult following, but boy band refugee Williams deserves a Justin Timberlake-size audience. The good news? Reality's the best thing Williams has done since his U.S. debut compilation, The Ego Has Landed. Produced by Trevor Horn — the former Buggles main man — Reality, a pun on Horn's "Video Killed the Radio Star," plays to Williams' strengths from start to finish. First single "Bodies" (FREE DOWNLOAD OF FRED FALKE EXTENDED REMIX HERE) layers monk-ish chanting over an Art of Noise robot groove. "Blasphemy" is a theatrical ballad that sounds like Williams' audition for the roadshow of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. And "Starstruck" confronts Robbie's lack of U.S. commercial respect head on. As longtime fans we're used to our fellow citizens' deaf spot, but the reality is we'd like it to change.

Tori Amos used to be a "Cornflake Girl" (to quote a hit title), and sometimes she’s been just a flake — From the Choirgirl Hotel anyone? But as an interpreter of others' songs she’s been damn near peerless. Her take on Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"? Inspired. Covering Eminem on Strange Little Girls? Ballsy. And now the woman who suckled a piglet at her breast in the booklet for Boys for Pele brings us a juicy Christmas morsel called Midwinter Graces. This being Amos, a straight-up holiday album won't do. She mixes obscure traditional tunes like the Victorian "Candle: Coventry Carol" with seasonally-inspired originals such as "A Silent Night with You." It’s a gift from a "Snow Angel," to quote an Amos original, that’ll sound just as delightful long after the holidays have passed.

On her debut The Bridge Melanie Fiona, the Toronto-based child of Guyanese parents, layers Motown-flavored R&B over sharp-edged lyrics that mix the bitter with the sweet in finger-snapping harmony. The results? 12 potential singles as catchy as a Raphael Saadiq retro jam with extra-added hip-hop attitude. First single "Give It to Me Right" anchors the hook from The Zombies' "Time of the Season" to a non-stop plea for slamming sex. "Bang Bang" is even more lascivious, wherein Fiona wants to "introduce ya to my Lucy" to a beat that can only be called shagalicious. And when you treat her bad, you better "Walk On By," a tune that channels Mavis Staples' earthy soul squeals in a tale of hell-hath-no-fury-like-a-woman-scorned. Perhaps that’s Fiona's way of warning you that The Bridge is one that you won’t want to burn.

MUSIC NEWS:

Susan Boyle will perform the song that changed her life ("I Dreamed a Dream") on tonight's "Dancing With the Stars." She is also scheduled to perform live on NBC's "Today" show on November 23, the day her debut album, also titled I Dreamed a Dream, is released.

Mariah Carey has announced a New Year's Eve show at Madison Square Garden. Tickets go on sale Saturday.

Britney Spears made her Australian concert debut last Friday, and (surprise!), a whirlwind media frenzy surrounded it. Aussie media has made a big deal about her partial lip-synching and how fans have stormed out of the concert because of it. Apparently, Britney is "extremely upset" over the controversy.

Hot Chip have announced a release date of February 10, 2010 for their next album, One Life Stand.

 Bad Lieutenant, the new band from Bernard Sumner, founding member of Joy Divison and New Order, releases its debut album, Never Cry Another Tear, today. They've also announced four live dates in Chicago and New York later this month. FREE DOWNLOAD OF ALBUM TRACK "DYNAMO" HERE.


Swedish Electro-pop trio Miike Snow will be touring the U.S. next spring. Two of the band's members, Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg, have written and produced songs for Britney Spears (winning a Grammy for "Toxic"), Madonna and Kylie Minogue, among others, under the name Bloodshy & Avant.

Green Day's well-reviewed musical, American Idiot, based on their 2004 album, now winding down a successful run at California's Berkeley Repertory Theater, is confirmed to open on Broadway. No date or theater has been announced yet.

Feature interview with Norah Jones, who has sold 36 million albums worldwide. Her new album, The Fall, is out next week.

MORE NEW RELEASES:

A threesome of compilations in ten years is a bit much, but since Britney Spears is high on "3" these days we’ll give her a pass, especially when The Singles Collection includes that hot track and 16 more of Spears’ single releases. (The single CD version is released today; a deluxe box set — pictured — will be released November 23).

If it’s change you want out of Washington, D.C., Obama’s not the only brother who’ll make you say 'Yes We Can.' Rapper Wale's (pr. wah-LAY) debut joint Attention Deficit — on Mark Ronson’s label — finally drops after years of well-regarded "mixtapes."

Snow Patrol's the band mainstream alternative didn't know it was waiting for. Their super-catchy arena anthems ("Hands Open," "Chasing Cars," etc.) are collected on the two-disc best-of Up to Now, as well as lesser known tunes from 1998 up through their 2003 breakthrough "Run."

Also released: Dolly Parton — Live from London (CD/DVD); Dashboard Confessional — Alter the Ending; Flyleaf — Memento Mori; Jason Mraz's Beautiful Mess — Live On Earth; Alejandro Sanz — Paraiso Express; Bon Jovi — The Circle; The Killers — Live at Royal Albert Hall (CD/DVD); Various Artists — 2012 Soundtrack; Echo & the Bunnymen — The Fountain.

MUSIC VIDEOS:

Mini Viva: "I Wish"
From the Xenomania production powerhouse comes the frothy duo of Frankee Connolly and Britt Love. “I Wish” is Euro-pop and proud, with an L.A.-set video that adds extra digital color to the land of Hollywood dreams.

Massive Attack: "United Snakes"
A sinister tune from 2006 gets a high-tech new video from Massive Attack.  Black-and-white geometric shapes morph into menacing configurations on this creepy, provocative clip with vocals from 3D.

Jamie Cullum: "Don’t Stop the Music"
The jazzy Brit makes a sexy swing of this Rihanna track, while his baby grand piano, over-stimulated by Cullum’s “jazz hands,” experiences an explosive climax of its own. From new album The Pursuit, due in February.

Pixie Lott: "Cry Me Out"
The latest U.K. thrush advises her ex to cry her out of his system in this gorgeous black-and-white homage to ‘30s Hollywood glamour, complete with an Esther Williams synchronized-swimming segment.