Adam Lambert is poised to drop one of the most anticipated post-"Idol" debuts ever. With promises of glam-rock-meets-modern-studio-trickery, Lambert's still-untitled CD could be a unique tour de force that mashes old with new. And the music industry seems generally stoked about it.

It's curious, then, that Lambert's camp has decided to release "Time for Miracles" — an unabashedly old school soundtrack power ballad — as his first foray into the real (non-"Idol") world. Will the casual listener be confused when the PR campaign has been "modern alien invasion rock" but the first thing they hear is "Aerosmith Part II: Still Not Missing a Thing"?

"Time for Miracles," which comes from the "2012" soundtrack, finally leaked this past weekend. (Thanks, iTunes Netherlands, Italy and Belgium!) And the full track almost plays like a parody of late-20th century end credit scrawls. Take a little Aerosmith, a heaping helping of Jon Bon Jovi's "Young Guns II" album and the soaring glory notes from Celine Dion's ode to a sinking ship and you've pretty much got "Time for Miracles."

Lambert croons about having an "achin' heart" and lovesick insomnia before hoping for a miracle to bring his lover back home. Lyrically, there's nothing too groundbreaking. And while his emotionally dead-on vocals elevate the otherwise straightforward content into a majestic beast of a ballad, it doesn't silence Lambert's critics who suggest his arena rock wail might be more at home on the rock charts 25 years ago, when Warrant and Cinderella ruled the school.

Don't get me wrong, "Idol" fans. I think "Time for Miracles" is awesomely (and appropriately) over the top. I appreciate the build-up, which allows for Adam to showcase both sides of his meaty vocal chops: tenderly quiet and ear-drum-bashing-octave-jumping-fist-pumping loud.

But considering Lambert and his record label, 19 Recordings/RCA, have been vocal about "Time for Miracles" being a side project that doesn't reflect the tone of his major label debut, isn't it odd that they'd allow this non-album throwback track be the first taste the world gets of their new performer?

What do you think? Will "Time for Miracles" give the general (i.e. non-Idoloonie) music-buying public an unfair first impression of a new artist? Or was it a smart move to market Adam to adult contemporary charts before unleashing his glam-meets-Gaga modern rock? Sound off below!

The Newsroom is clearing out for the weekend, and if you're like us, you're either headed to a screening of "Where the Wild Things Are," dinner at your favorite Mexican restaurant or drinks at the local tavern. But before you let yourself get mesmerized by Spike Jonze or order another quesadilla, check out everything you might have missed this week in the Newsroom. There were plenty of birthdays, big interviews and bucks hunted — something for everybody!

» There are still a few more days before "Michael Jackson's This Is It" opens, but the new song "This Is It" has already been unleashed. Though Paul Anka had some qualms, it seems like the public approved.

» The wrestling and music worlds lost a crossover icon this week, as Captain Lou Albano passed away. He'll be remembered for his great promos, his nose for television and his strange group of friends, including Hulk Hogan and Andy Warhol.

» I apologized to Miley Cyrus for driving her away from Twitter, but it didn't change her mind. Bummer.

» The soundtrack to "New Moon" is out in stores right now, so be sure to stay caught up with some great videos from the artists on the album.

» Jim Cantiello weighed in on Adam Lambert's new song "Time for Miracles," calling the "American Idol" runner-up's voice "brizzonculent" (whatever that means).
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Every day a multitude of stars wanders through the halls of MTV News to talk about their latest projects and goof around with our intrepid correspondents. But sometimes we catch stars elsewhere, and that's why we put together Spotted!, a daily compendium of stars in the wild.

Adam Lambert has got to be the most popular second-place finisher in history. Despite losing last season's "American Idol" contest to Kris Allen, he has already managed to make the cover of Rolling Stone and provide a song for one of the most hotly-anticipated movies of the year (whose video will premiere in front of one of the other biggest movies of the year). And of course, he's already getting his share of paparazzi following him around (though Governor Schwarzenegger is making that more difficult). Yesterday while in Los Angeles, Lambert stole a kiss from boyfriend Drake LaBry while in the front seat of a car. It's good that Lambert has found time to sneak in his personal life, as the run-up to his debut album (which hits stores November 24) has been incredibly hectic. In addition to finishing the album, he'll also have to prepare for his performance at the American Music Awards in November.

In other sightings yesterday, Chris Brown hit the tarmac at LAX and Faith Hill and Taylor Swift teamed up for a benefit concert at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. Click here for these photos as well as the entire "Spotted!" archive, which contains over 350 candid shots of Britney Spears, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, the Jonas Brothers, the cast of "New Moon" and Tokio Hotel!

There has been a deafening buzz surrounding Adam Lambert's "Time for Miracles" ever since Queen guitarist Brian May wrote a gushing blog post about it over the summer. Impatient "Idol"-heads (myself included) began to theorize that the song — recorded for the upcoming disaster epic "2012" — must be the most amazing track ever committed to tape, considering it turned an elderly rock legend into a squeeing fangirl. (Welcome to the dark side, Brian May, but until you've drunk-tweeted one or several "Idol" contestants, you are no match for my "Idol" obsession.)

On Friday afternoon, Amazon posted a 30-second snippet of the song which included the end of a Bon Jovi-esque verse and the beginning of a soaring chorus with a hook to end all hooks. "Baby you know that/ Maybe it's time for miracles/ 'Cause I ain't giving up on us." (FYI: The chorus has been on repeat in my head for almost 72 hours, refusing to budge.)

Predictably, moments after the Amazon link spread, the internet exploded not only with overwhelming fan reaction but also quick, informal reviews of the song. Richard Rushfield (former Los Angeles Times "Idol" guru) proclaimed on Twitter, "Yet did I never breathe its pure serene Till I heard [Lambert] speak out loud and bold." EW's Michael Slezak said it puts the "edible in incredible," while Yahoo Music's Lyndsey Parker warned fans, "Prepare to have your face blown off, '2012'-style."

Just when "Miracle" mania couldn't get any greater, AOL posted an 86-second "Adam Lambert Music Teaser" featurette late Friday, which added fuel to an already-raging fire. Read more...

The giant grandfather clock in the MTV Newsroom will sound its final bells at any moment, which means it's time to remedy that terrible short-term memory and take a look back at the week that was here on the Newsroom blog. As the calendar switched from September to October and the fall weather began to descend, Kanye West remained in the headlines, Madonna ate pizza and zombies were everywhere. Want to have an instant nostalgia trip? Just keep reading.

» The "Fame Kills" tour — starring Kanye West and Lady Gaga — got put on the back burner, but that won't stop Gaga from doing her own shows.

» Madonna and David Letterman had a civil interview and then sat down for a slice.

» Jennifer Hudson celebrated the anniversary of "The Wizard of Oz" with a stirring rendition of "Over the Rainbow" live in Central Park.

» Adam Lambert has already sold a ton of albums, even though the record in question has no title or single. But that's okay, because he's driving people to donate to public schools.

» Before she got sick and had to cancel a bunch of Paramore shows, Hayley Williams wore a tank top on "The Tonight Show" that looked awfully familiar to us.
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Adam Lambert's album won't be available in stores until November 24, but you can already pre-order the record on Amazon. It currently sits at the top of the Amazon sales charts, which is not necessarily unusual for a pre-order (especially one as high-profile as an "American Idol" runner-up), but it's a slightly more amazing feat for two reasons.

First, most of the details about Lambert's album is pretty much unknown. There is no title, no single and no complete track listing yet. We do know there are a handful of producers working on the album, including Rob Cavallo, Ryan Tedder, Dr. Luke and Claude Kelly) and that the song Lambert cut for the soundtrack to the upcoming film "2012" totally blew away Queen guitarist Brian May. The buzz around Lambert is truly huge if he's able to sell an album that doesn't yet exist, and the only guarantee is that his name will appear in the sleeve.

The other thing that makes Lambert's Amazon chart dominance amazing is that he has topped a number of high-profile artists, many of whom just released new music this week. Lambert's album stands above new records from Barbara Streisand, Madonna and Mariah Carey (as well as the Beatles). Those are artists with massive followings and plenty of buzz, but clearly Lambert's fans are speaking louder. They're so desperate to hear the album that they're will to buy something that doesn't yet exist.

Dominance on the Amazon sales chart doesn't necessarily mean that the album will be massive, but clearly the anticipation for Lambert's album is massive and will only get bigger between now and the day his record drops.

By James Dinh

Adam Lambert has some crazy fans. How crazy? A topless woman rushed at him on stage earlier this year. But beyond those hardcores lie the semi-crazy fans, those are the ones who grouped together in dedication for their favorite "American Idol" runner-up to raise $229,000 for public schools across the country.

DonorsChoose.org, an online charity organization, announced today the winner of a contest launched by the singer where he urged fans to help out for the greater cause. The competition pitted online Lambert communities against each other in a grueling battle to see who could raise the most donations. The winners will be rewarded for their efforts with a special chat session with the idol.

Over the span of four weeks, 1,956 fans fulfilled requests left by teachers at the charity's website in efforts to gather donations and supplies for music and art-based projects. The ongoing donations were tracked by a "Lambert Leaderboard" at the charity's website. Adam frequently checked in on the status of the challenge, and by the time the dust settled, a LiveJournal community called ONTD_AI took the top spot, raising a total of $82,700.

"I am unbelievably moved by the generosity and resolve of my fans, who have donated beyond what I could have ever expected to help students around the country," said the singer.

Besides helping students remain active in music and art programs across the country, fans will be able to celebrate again when Adam releases his debut album on November 24.

There's never been a contestant quite like Adam Lambert on "American Idol." Actually, forget "Idol" — there's never been a major-label artist quite like Adam Lambert. So it's understandable that "Idol" — and music — fans are clamoring for any and all tidbits they hear about his still-untitled 19 Recordings/RCA debut, which hits stores on November 24. On "Idol," Lambert proved that he could rock just as loud as Axl Rose and deliver vocals as tender as Jeff Buckley, while on the "American Idols Live!" tour, the "rock gawd" turned David Bowie's "Fame" into a playful, sexual romp.

With all that creativity busting out of the seams (of his stylish trenchcoats), the album could go in a million different directions. No wonder we're all dying to know what it will actually sound like. The suspense is killing me!

Thankfully, Lambert has been dropping a few hints on Twitter this past week, so let's investigate.
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The '90s were a great time to be in a band, especially in the post-grunge era. Since it took the rock world so long to figure out what to do with itself following the death of Kurt Cobain, just about anybody could get song on the radio with a slightly crunchy guitar riff and an earnest chorus. That's not to say that everything was hacky; in fact, some of the stuff that came from that era was great. One of those great things? Better Than Ezra, who first broke big with the single "Good," which owned modern rock radio in the summer of 1995. The band's videos also dominated MTV, especially "In the Blood" and "Desperately Wanting," that latter of which came from the group's 1996 record Friction, Baby.

Though Better Than Ezra remain an active band (they dropped their seventh album, Paper Empire, back in May), frontman Kevin Griffin has joined a surprisingly long line of hitmakers from the '90s who have parlayed their success into writing tunes for high-profile pop stars. Griffin has worked with a number stars, including Meat Loaf and Howie Day, as well as a number of stars from "American Idol," including David Archuleta, David Cook and Jason Castro and is currently working on tunes for both Kris Allen and Adam Lambert. He joins the club that includes Linda Perry (formerly of 4 Non Blondes, now a major songwriter for Christina Aguilera, Pink and Gwen Stefani) and Butch Walker (frontman of the Marvelous 3 who has worked with Avril Lavigne and Katy Perry).

Better Than Ezra were (and still remain) folk heroes in their hometown of New Orleans, and on Friction, Baby they dropped a tribute to the Big Easy with the single "King of New Orleans."

This morning, Adam Lambert tweeted that his eagerly anticipated debut album would be out on November 24. The album — which includes production work from Lady Gaga producer RedOne and Green Day sonic mastermind Rob Cavallo — creates an interesting four-way battle between four former "Idol" contestants, as Carrie Underwood, Kris Allen and Jason Castro will all be putting out records on the same day. Allen of course won this past season's competition, while Underwood has arguably been the most successful "American Idol" victor. And Castro was the laid-back, dreadlocked charmer who shrugged and smirked his way through the show's seventh season. Each album should satisfy a different demographic, but it should be an interesting referendum on which "Idol" has the most staying power.

But which one will people actually buy? We hit the street to ask fans in Times Square which album they would go for first.

The hilariously unscientific results are in, and it's Carrie Underwood by a mile. The country star took home 61 percent of the vote, with many people endorsing the quality of her voice and her crossover status. Lambert came took second place with 23 percent, with many people choosing his style as the thing that would push him over the top. Allen and Castro brought up the rear with eight percent each. There really should be a lot more interest in Allen's album, as he is the most recent winner, but the success of Underwood is a good sign.