![]() ![]() "Strong" - Oasis-style hook-filled cruisy rock song ![]() "No Regrets" - pretty but bitter Europop collaboration with Neil Tennant maybe even a hint of shoe-gazer, or am I mad? Highlights for me, from an album with very few weak tracks: If you don't like it then it's just plain annoying. what we Australians might call "taking the p**s". He merges a famous ego with self-deprecating charm and wit. But shining through everything is his personality. There are big stupid sing-along choruses everywhere that are irresistible if you are in the mood. The influences are obvious but varied: Oasis, Elton John, Pet Shop Boys, James Bond(!). Robbie is no virtuoso singer, but he is versatile, with a voice somewhere between classic Elton John and Liam Gallagher, with the odd Axl Rose flourish here and there. Following ancient tradition, this introductory American release combines songs from the first two British albums, but the result is quite wonderful. Of course, none of this success would interest us much if his records were rubbish, and that's why I would like to take a brief look at Robbie Williams' solo US debut, "The Ego Has Landed". When tickets went on sale for his 2006 world tour, he sold a record 1.6 million tickets in a single day. To cut a long story short, his total record sales now exceed forty million, and he has done quite well for himself. After a couple of false starts he hooked up with writer/producer Guy Chambers and surprised everyone by releasing one the 90s' great debuts "Life Thru a Lens", following it a couple of years later with "I've Been Expecting You". In 1995, tired of being endlessly packaged and manipulated, Robbie left to pursue a solo career. He was, to use the perfect British expression, a real "lad". Williams was not Take That's main singer or songwriter, nor was he incredibly good-looking or a flash dancer, but he did have a huge personality and rock'n'roll ambitions that set him apart from the rest of the band. At the age of sixteen he was a member of the massively popular but awful boy band Take That, who dominated the UK charts in the early 90s, and who released at least one genuine schmaltz classic "Back for Good". He may be virtually unknown in the United States, but throughout much of the world, Robbie Williams is a true megastar. ![]()
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