Listening to Adam Lambert’s “Time for Miracles” is kind of like watching a volcano on the brink of eruption. There’s a lot of bubbling and buildup and anticipation, all leading to the point where things finally explode in a torrent of heat and magma and glory notes. That moment arrives at the 3:30 mark, as Adam exits the bridge and tackles the chorus once more (with feeling), riffing magnificently over the melody as a tidal wave of strings swells up around him. And while the Adam-volcano parallel is an obvious one to make — after all, there’s no use denying the American Idol season 8 runner-up possesses a voice that’s its own uncontainable force of nature — the epic scope and execution of “Time for Miracles” (which hit Belgian iTunes over the weekend, and is embedded below, courtesy of YouTube, or if RCA yanks it, you can listen to it here) never seems forced or ridiculous. Maybe it’s because you expect a track that’s rumored to serve as the closing-credits anthem for the season’s big-budget disaster flick 2012 to have the sort of industrial strength to stand up on its own after two hours of hurricanes and earthquakes and fireballs and global devastation. Or maybe it’s because despite the fact that there’s a whole lot of production going on in “Time for Miracles” — I’m especially partial to the Asian-inspired instrumentation that pops up at the 1:30 mark (coming out of the first chorus) — the melody is so immediate and so simple that (if you’re really, really brave or un-self-conscious) you can sing along after only one or two listens.Oh, sure, it’s as cheesy as a grilled Velveeta sandwich, but who’d say no to that orange, melted goodness right about now? (Side note: What’s for lunch?)

What’s surprising about “Time for Miracles,” though, is its decidedly old-fashioned vibe. I’ve heard a lot of folks compare the track to Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” (from 1998′s Armageddon), and while I’d argue that comparison has more to do with disaster-flick association than musical similarity, I do get the sense that READ FULL STORY »