ROBBIE WILLIAMS: Britpop (Colombia)
Verdict: Let him entertain you
When Robbie Williams hits the road to play four low-key concerts next month, he plans to perform his latest songs alongside every track from his debut 1997 solo album, Life Thru A Lens. The message is clear: our greatest showman is looking back, in order to move on. And it’s a technique he also employs on his 13th studio album – a typically madcap trolley-dash through pop’s past.
Originally due out last October, Britpop was pushed back to February, to avoid a clash with Taylor Swift’s Life Of A Showgirl, and then brought forward, to today.
Despite all the changes, it reveals Williams at his most effervescent on a string of songs built around loud guitars, big choruses and notable guests (‘my heroes’). There’s even room for the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.
Robbie and Britpop are unlikely bedfellows. When Oasis, Blur and Supergrass were emerging, he was still singing with boy-band Take That. By the time of Life Thru A Lens, and its singles Angels and Let Me Entertain You, Britpop was fading. You could argue Angels sounded its final death knell.
Yet Williams is unapologetic, calling this ‘the album I wanted to write and release after I left Take That in 1995’.
Robbie Williams for his new album Britpop. Some might think Britpop wears its influences too readily, or that Williams is 30 years too late with his homage. But despite two rap-orientated missteps, he stamps his playful but knowing personality on an infectious comeback
Among the guests are Supergrass’s Gaz Coombes, while the album artwork features the red tracksuit and bleached-blond hair Williams sported when he famously partied with Oasis at Glastonbury soon after leaving Take That. Chris Martin and Tony Iommi put in appearances; and there’s also a mention of former Smiths frontman Morrissey.
Black Sabbath guitarist Iommi sets the mood on opening track Rocket, which feels like an update of Let Me Entertain You. Spies is an arena-ready ballad, while Pretty Face sounds like a love letter to Williams’s wife, Ayda Field.
Elsewhere, he sings of celebrity, religion, Artificial Intelligence and social media. But his favourite topic, as always, is himself. ‘My life is… one of dreams, chaos and audacity,’ he informs us on the Oasis-like singalong All My Life.
Robbie addresses his past problems with addiction on It’s OK Until The Drugs Stop Working. ‘It’s all fun until the ashtray’s full… it’s all good until the birds start chirping,’ he warns, with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra
supplying a backdrop that is a throwback to his 1998 album I’ve Been Expecting You.
Human is a dreamy ballad about a future governed by robots, with Chris Martin on guitar and Joy Huerta (of Jesse & Joy) on additional vocals. And then there’s
Morrissey – a number co-written with his former Take That bandmate Gary Barlow. ‘I like the singer, he’s a little eccentric… I’m a little like you, but a lot less worthy.’
Some might think Britpop wears its influences too readily, or that Williams is 30 years too late with his homage. But despite two rap-orientated missteps (Bite Your Tongue and You), he stamps his playful but knowing personality on an infectious comeback.
A record-breaking 16th chart-topping album (including his 2024 film soundtrack) surely beckons.
Robbie Williams’s Long 90’s tour starts at Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow, February 4 (robbiewilliams.com).
Best of the new releases…
Courtney Marie Andrews new album Valentine
The Cribs new LP Selling a Vibe
COURTNEY MARIE ANDREWS: Valentine (Thirty Tigers)
The singer from Arizona describes her ninth album as ‘a record in pursuit of love’, and she duly delivers a set of bittersweet country-rock songs illuminated by her honeyed voice and – on Everyone Wants To Feel Like You Do – crunchy power chords.
Keeper ponders the questions one might ask of a new lover and Little Picture Of A Butterfly addresses her own wariness. A perfect primer for her upcoming tour.
THE CRIBS: Selling A Vibe (PIAS)
Their first LP in six years sees the elder statesmen of 2000s indie-rock bruised but unbowed.
The band of brothers – Gary, Ryan and Ross Jarman – keep faith with the buzzsaw guitars and tight harmonies of old, while new producer Patrick Wimberly, once of Chairlift, adds polish and a modern sheen.
On Brothers Won’t Break, they sing of their fraternal bond; they should have made it the title track.
