I don’t see anything wrong with comparing the two. He didn’t say he was even nearly as good as Adam vocally. I can see lots of reasons how the two are similar. (which people have already pointed out)

I’m not going to make any assumptions on Adam’s album until I hear it. Adam is not God, and just because he says he has control doesn’t mean he actually has much. Of course, I do want Adam to have a very successful album.

I do believe that Blake had less control on his first album because his first album sucked (IMO) and his second album is amazing. To be honest, I don’t really care for his pre-idol stuff, but then again, I hate Adam’s pre-idol stuff too.

Blake and Adam seem to be good friends, and I’m sure they both think each other is very talented.

The interview was good, he does say he likes ADD – it would be really stupid if he said he hated it. He had great producers like Mike Elizondo and Sam and Sluggo and he co-wrote and co-produced a lot of it. But the second album is a lot better so I’ll download from MJ’s itunes link when I get a chance.

What surprised me is that Blake was such an Adam fan. Blake never struck me as a huge fan of big voices but maybe it was Adam’s showmanship that made him a fan. In any case, I get the douche comments because Blake said some not cool stuff about Sanjaya that had peeps’ knickers in a twist and he wasn’t so kind about Kris, though later said he rocked on tour. So *shrug*

Some of these surface comparisons made me think Adam would never win AI.
People complained Blake beatboxed all the time, and that Adam screeched all the time. Both were polarizing. But I think TPTB were more on Adam’s side in S8 than ever in Blake’s corner.

Sorry for the long post. Interesting to see Blake talk about beatboxing as a gimmick. Any beatboxing site pretty much says Blake is siiick when it comes to vocal scratching, so he’s pretty self-aware. Or maybe now better with press.

Idols all tend to change their tune post contract days. I’d say a lot of it is for due cause and a lot of it is sour grapes.

Personally, I liked much of ADD, but like the second effort way better.

Adam’s voice is an advantage to him, if they use it to its potential. I’m sure Adam won’t be able to resist.

Blake has a nice voice (for me, for you), and, more importantly, he understands its limits.

If you aren’t truly excited about making a commercial pop record, then Idol is simply the wrong TV reality show.

Yep, but it’s the only tv reality show you’ve got, lol. Rockstar — short run then belly up; Get On the Bus, or whatever Missy’s was called — even shorter run then belly up. America’s Got Talent — maybe, but something other than musical talent tends to advance!

It’s tough out there for singers looking for tv exposure!

I don’t think it’s just an excuse game, I might have believed that before this 2nd album came out but seriously Heartbreak on Vinyl is quite good and Audio Day Dream… just not. There must be some explanation why the first album was so underwhelming if Blake is talented enough to put out something as good as this 2nd album is. I don’t know if it’s just Clive’s fault, but I do think Blake was likely not given as much creative/artistic control on the 1st album. I also believe that the choices a label makes as far as single releases can muzzle an album (I’m still waiting for ‘Lie’ to be released as a single for David Cook, RCA).

I have no problem believing Blake was not very well backed by the powers that be, just based off what I can hear on the two albums. It may be a bit of an excuse to blame Clive, but seriously Clive is good at what he does but he is absolutely the *wrong* guy to know how to market someone like Blake, and if he had control over the first album then Clive actually *does* legitimately deserve some of the blame.

As far as him mentioning that Adam Lambert has been compared to him, well that was in direct response to a question about Adam, and I’m also sure it’s true. I do think Blake is the closest previous Idol to the kind of thing Adam does, the comparison is a fair one. Actually listening to this record I think that while Adam has the far superior range and control of voice, I believe that Blake may have more talent (in song arrangements) and certainly has more sense of when to use the ‘less is more’ approach.

Blake’s new album is good, and he deserves to be proud of it. Just my opinion, but then again my opinion is the only one that matters… to me

The album cover was designed by Blake’s good friend, Ethan Newbury.

Thanks! I’ll look at some of Ethan’s other stuff. Huh, Blake seems to have a lot of connections with industry people.

I don’t recall that he ever bitched about being locked in a dungeon and forced to record his first album like all the Idols who want to blame Clive Davis for their falures.

Errr. I was responding to the idea that they should all be prepared to be commercially viable on pop radio or they were trying out for the wrong show. My bad.