Album Review – Robbie Williams
Robbie Williams – ‘Reality Killed The Video Star’
UK Release 9/11/09 (EMI)
As you press play on your copy of Robbie Williams’ eighth solo album you might wonder for a minute if they’ve accidentally pressed a copy of the new Bruce Springsteen album instead. ‘Morning Sun’ opens with a soft, melancholy harmonica riff, with the chirping of birds setting the scene for this album’s own “sunrise”. Immediately after though, the heavy piano melody and lilting violins strike up, Robbie’s familiar voice tunes in and you’re back on familiar ground.
Which is where you’ll remain for most of the album. The reaction of disinterest and disappointment that generally greeted Robbie’s last (and actually very good) album ‘Rudebox’ has clearly scared him off from doing anything too outlandish, although the ’80s Pet Shop Boys disco sound that scorched through that album still makes itself known briefly on his new release. You’ll have heard ‘Bodies’, the sparkling lead single that lost a chart battle with Alexandra Burke, – there’s nothing to match it here, although that should speak more of its arrogant, vibrant brilliance than any weaknesses of company. The other high point is ‘Difficult for Weirdos’, a song that really seems to be a Rudebox remnant. The slightly distorted vocals immediately put you in mind of Neil Tennant, and that’s before the funky, strident chorus that’s all about celebrating difference – “He is a lesbian, but that’s okay”. But during the beautiful middle-eight this track also adds in the lush orchestral sound that prevails over the album as a whole, and makes you wish that Robbie had the guts to carry this combination through a bit more consistently.
The rest of the album never hits any unpleasant notes, it just rarely raises the pulse or the emotions. Occasionally glittering synths or pulsating guitar riffs will interrupt the orchestral dominance, but this is an album basically steeped in strings and romantic piano chords. At some points the lyrics are playful, witty and surprising (see the sharpness of the “hysterical, historical” moments in new single ‘You Know Me’, aided by Robbie’s wise vocal delivery; or the mixture of odd rhymes and simple repetition in the self-conscious ‘Blasphemy’) – sometimes they’re dull and unremarkable such as on ‘Superblind’, which merely seems to recycle ideas heard in the first half of the album. Robbie’s at his best when he’s cocky and slightly outlandish, which is why you can forgive indulgences like the flourishing interlude ‘Somewhere’ or the final reprise of ‘Morning Sun’, but this last moment also speaks of the album’s failure – it’s too big and doesn’t have enough ideas to fill the space.
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David Upton
