Posted October 24, 200915 yr This is a seperate thread for the reviews, other stuff to go in the album thread. :D Some of the best bits so far from the main reviewers ^_^ ""Robbie Williams has returned to what he knows best… delivering a glorious pop album that wears its influences on its sleeves." - Music Week “Mainstream pop with twists of lyrical wit, irony and imagination - classy piece of work, mature, reflexive and substantial” – The Telegraph “the flow of the record is excellent when heard as a whole - his finest album since I’ve Been Expecting You. The ego has landed, again, but he's a lot more endearing this time around” BBC “Engagingly mature return from Stoke’s favourite son” – Uncut Magazine “it's fantastic: a brilliant reminder of how his songs can combine wit, strangeness and accessibility” - 4 stars - The Guardian "a bit like tuning in to a classic hits radio station" - Sunday Telegraph "A Panoramic soundscape" - The Times "The signs are that the now-married singer has regained his waning zest. Though less experimental than Rudebox, it's more accomplished and generous-spirited." - The Independent “his best since 2002's Escapology - a No1 hit. Simple as that” The Sun 'The album bulges with fantastic melodies' 4/5, The Guardian CD of the Week, Observer "the most engaging album Williams has produced in years" In The News 'Robbie Williams makes his much-heralded return to form' InStyle Magazine 'The king of charisma returns' Album of the Month, Marie Claire 'Robbie's excelled himself and we're thrilled to have him back and better than ever' 5 stars, Heat "Welcome Back - Five Stars!" OK Magazine ROBBIE ROARS BACK WITH REALITY KILLED THE VIDEO STAR http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46472000/jpg/_46472364_album_packshot_web.jpg Robbie Williams's audacious new album Reality Killed the Video Star reveals a new maturity. The Telegraph By Neil McCormick There’s a moment in Robbie Williams’s comeback single when you wonder how much desire remains in the 35-year-old superstar for the kind of world-conquering fame and fortune that he has treated as a blessing and a curse. Released on October 12, Bodies (EMI Virgin) represents an audacious return for the biggest British pop star of the post-Britpop era. The production by legendary Eighties studio wizard Trevor Horn is big and bold, with a weird electronic bass, anthemic, string-laden chorus, chanting monks and gospel choir in the mix, while Williams fires off a witty, abrasive lyric about self-serving belief, full of heat-seeking slogans such as “all we ever wanted was to look good naked”. And then, right at the end, Robbie and the massed voices start belting out, “Jesus didn’t die for you” like a bad-news choir. I have a vision of American radio programmers contemplating how that message might go down with listeners. I suspect plans to conquer the US market will have to remain on hold a while longer. Bodies has the air of an attention grabber, rather than a sure-fire hit. It’s a long way from Williams’s cheerleading plea to Let Me Entertain You. Even Williams has admitted to doubts, telling DJ Chris Moyles he was “a bit scared” about its reception and admitting: “I’m at a turning point in my career. This next record decides my path. There’s been a few great records here and there, along the way, but it’s all in the past.” So the big question is: does Robbie Williams still matter? Two years is a long time in pop, and a lot has changed since Williams’s last single, She’s Madonna, failed even to dent the top 20 in March 2007. It was taken from his eccentric but poorly selling Rudebox album. Since then, EMI itself has practically gone into meltdown, with the record industry as a whole suffering a catastrophic loss of sales; plus, a new generation of younger, flamboyant performers, such as Lily Allen and Mika, have claimed our attention. As Williams returned to rehab for addiction to prescription pills, grew a grey-flecked tramp’s beard, and pursued an obsession with UFOs, his former band, Take That, surged in popularity, leading to constant speculation about whether he might rejoin them. But that raised a parallel question: would they even have him? Despite being spotted this week leaving a New York studio where Take That are recording, the truth is that the former band mates have long since rekindled their friendship, and Williams was in town for Mark Owen’s stag night. But, while all involved have indicated a reunion is under consideration, there remains obvious caution about how such a big beast used to a free forum for solo artistic expression could fit back into the demands of group democracy. As Take That’s Gary Barlow, tellingly said in April: “We’re a happy band right now.” Besides, there is the serious business afoot of relaunching Williams’s solo career. Since falling out with songwriting partner and producer, Guy Chambers, during 2002s Escapology, Williams has flitted between collaborators, as if uncertain of his own musical direction. For his new album, Reality Killed the Video Star (out next month), he has opted for the proven skills of Trevor Horn, the man behind groundbreaking hits for Frankie Goes to Hollywood, ABC, Grace Jones and Seal (among others). The title recalls Horn’s classic 1979 hit with Buggles – Video Killed the Radio Star. The provocative implication is that Simon Cowell’s reality-TV formats may have done for Williams own brand of entertainment. “After a few years of turbo-fame, the strain gets to anyone, but Robbie was ready to get back into it,” says Horn. Yet there is a telling couplet on the album’s epic, Beatle-esque opening track, Morning Sun: “Message to the troubadour – the world don’t love you any more.” Ambivalence and anxiety pervade the lyrics. “You always wanted more to life/But now you’ve lost your appetite,” he sings, while the production swells with Sgt Pepper horns and I Am the Walrus chants. Songs like this only work if we believe the singer is worth listening to. Williams’s psychological complexity, the balancing act he operates between over confidence and self-doubt, has been a key element of his everyman appeal, and here he shows the sensitivity, bravery, wit and maturity to really express himself rather than playing to the gallery. The result is an album that may not be packed with novelty hits, but feels like a classy piece of work, more mature, reflexive and substantial. Williams is growing up, but so are his fans. I’d warrant that his audience’s relationship with him is about to move on to a whole new level. Get ready for Robbie – the adult years. Edited November 12, 200915 yr by Scotty
October 24, 200915 yr Author The Ego has landed, again, but he’s a lot more endearing this time around. http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/92q4 BBC Review Reality Killed the Video Star marks Robbie Williams’ overdue return to the pop world, exuding a coolness and consistency absent on 2006’s Rudebox. It finds him working alongside producer Trevor Horn, whose catalogue of hits is substantial enough to turn even a sometime egocentric like Williams green with envy. And the pairing largely works well, with Reality… featuring a wealth of strong, single-worthy tracks. The first song to be released as a single, Bodies, isn’t the most immediate number on this 13-track affair, but acts as a valuable bridge between the swagger-and-strut front of Rudebox and the introverted, understated highlights to be found here. A strange brew of string flourishes, rumbling low end, oriental undertones and even an Enigma-style break into Gregorian territory, Bodies is superb on radio, sitting between so many sound-alike offerings, but seems a little bloated here. Nevertheless, it’s very much that wonderful cliché: a return to form. Last Days of Disco is a track that clicks on the very first listen – reminiscent of Eurhythmics and featuring the inevitable line “don’t call it a comeback”, it’s a far better tribute to the synth sounds of the 1980s than anything from the hot-right-now La Roux. This is partly down to Horn’s involvement – he produced much of his best-loved fare during the decade, and worked with the similarly styled Pet Shop Boys in 2006 – but Williams’ half-whispered vocals suit the icy beats superbly. It’s not as recognisably Robbie as Bodies, but there’s no doubt it’s a far superior song. Deceptacon – unlikely to ever be confused with the Le Tigre song of the same name given its slow-motion build and luscious orchestral peak – Blasphemy and Superblind are skilfully arranged tracks which find Williams in his comfort zone vocally, the music around him instead given license to soar. And it’s this balance between the star of the show and the necessary material he’s at the centre of that makes Reality… his finest album since I’ve Been Expecting You. It’s got its share of hits in waiting, but the flow of the record is excellent when heard as a whole.It’s not without its faults – Williams’ lyricism still leaves much to be desired, especially on Won’t Do That – but Reality… is a record its makers can be very proud of indeed. The ego has landed, again, but he’s a lot more endearing this time around.
October 24, 200915 yr Author Return to form for Robbie Williams http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46472000/jpg/_46472364_album_packshot_web.jpg The album features a song co-written with Williams's ex-producer Guy Chambers By Liam Allen Entertainment reporter, BBC News Robbie Williams says his new album Reality Killed The Video Star marks a "turning point" in his career. Out on 9 November, it is his first record since 2006's poorly received electro experiment Rudebox - which nonetheless reached number one around the world. The new record is an eclectic collection of songs which wears its influences on its sleeve. Here is a track-by-track guide to the Trevor Horn-produced album. 1. MORNING SUN The simple piano chords and lush strings that herald the return of Robbie immediately begin the job of wooing back the audience alienated by Rudebox. Morning Sun starts out as an update of an Elton John ballad before late-period Beatles cellos propel the song forward, and it quickly becomes a full-on Sgt Pepper-style rock out - musically and lyrically - complete with full orchestra and choir. The lyrics were rewritten to pay tribute to Michael Jackson following his death. A strong opening statement of intent. Key lyric: "The morning brings the mystery, the evening makes it history, tell me how do you rate the morning sun?" 2. BODIES The album's first single, Bodies, has been described by the singer's PR machine as an "apocalyptic conspiracy-laden" song. The epic Trevor Horn production certainly backs that statement up, and brings the familiar Williams sound firmly into 2009. A false chorus of "bodies in the Bodhi Tree, bodies making chemistry" is replaced by the real thing - "all we've ever wanted, is to look good naked" - which slams in from nowhere. The Gregorian chant-style elements narrowly manage to avoid sounding like muzak purveyors Enigma, while Horn brings back 1980s orchestral stabs to glorious effect. Key lyric: "And if Jesus really died for me, then Jesus really tried for me." 3. YOU KNOW ME If the older members of his across-the-board fanbase were tempted back by Morning Sun, this nod to 1950s doo-wop will have them boogie-ing alongside their grandchildren at one of the inevitable Williams tour dates. The out-and-out retro kitsch of this nostalgic tale of lost love - complete with Stand By Me-style strings - is unlike anything he has recorded before. This song couldn't be further removed from the rapping and electro experimentation of Rudebox. Key lyric: "Since you went away, my heart breaks every day, you don't know 'cos you're not there." 4. BLASPHEMY Warm strings and piano again set the tone for this song, the melody and instrumentation of which could have come straight from a West End musical. Lyrically, Williams tries very hard and, by and large, pulls it off: "What's so great about the Great Depression. Was it a blast for you because it's blasphemy." Blasphemy sounds like a natural sibling to I Will Talk And Hollywood Will Listen - an underrated gem written by Williams and former writing partner Guy Chambers for 2001's Swing When You're Winning. No coincidence, then, that Blasphemy was also co-written by Chambers. Key lyric: "Our deaf and dumb dinners, there's gravy in the mud." 5. DO YOU MIND? Robbie does Mick Jagger. Throwaway filler. Key lyric: "Do, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh you mind? If I, I-I, I, I, I-I, I touch you." 6. LAST DAYS OF DISCO Last Days of Disco, with its Eurythmics synths and 808 snare drum, would have sat more comfortably on Rudebox than Reality Killed The Video Star and thus fails to move "Brand Williams" forward. Self-confessed Pet Shop Boys fanatic Williams is clearly pleased as punch at working with their one-time collaborator Horn. As the track progresses, the veteran producer sprinkles his magic dust on it. He just about succeeds in making it sound like a passable Pet Shop Boys B-side. Key lyric: "Don't call it a comeback, look what I invented here, I thought it was easy, they took it away from us, the last days of disco." 7. SOMEWHERE A one minute orchestral aside which, again, would work well as a musical theatre recitative. Key lyric: "You take your chance in life, go out and find a wife, don't get stuck in the state I'm in." 8. DECEPTACON The opening filtered piano chords of Deceptacon break out into shimmering space-age harmonies and get the album right back on track. Lyrically, there are again shades of the Beatles' imagery, while a Bowie Space Oddity influence can also be heard: "From all of us there to all of you, to all over here, we wish you all of the best, all of the year, she said 'well he's never been quite right'." A real grower. Key lyric: "And all over Britain, we wait for permission to form another queue." 9. STARSTRUCK Since recording this track, Williams has admitted to being a huge fan of Big Brother, but that doesn't stop him taking a pop at "today's fame epidemic" through the medium of catchy mid-paced pop, underpinned by a gently throbbing bassline. In the chorus, both the arrangement and Williams's vocal come over all George Michael - in a good way. The song, which is reminiscent of Rudebox's standout track Lovelight, could well be a single. Key lyric: "Ready steady go, everybody famous, everyone you know, why'd it take you ages?" 10. DIFFICULT FOR WEIRDOS Williams is a self-confessed Pet Shop Boys fanatic A song about not fitting in, Difficult For Weirdos is another track on which Williams' influences can clearly be heard. Its initial synth strings are eerily reminiscent of Depeche Mode's Enjoy The Silence. Not for the first time in his career, Williams does a Neil Tennant impression while a vocoder effect adds to the robotic feel of the track. The French horn-led orchestral breakdown is Trevor Horn's finest moment on the album and harks back to his work on Tennant and Chris Lowe's Left To My Own Devices. This time, the producer's magic dust makes Difficult For Weirdos sound, in parts, like a Pet Shop Boys A-side. Key lyric: "Psycho-evolution your pollution, makes it difficult for weirdos, just another humanoid reaction to the voices in this town." 11. SUPERBLIND Superblind, co-written by Williams's tour bassist Fil Eisler, begins with a programmed drum beat, strummy acoustic guitar and some laidback electronic piano before a "proper" drum fill signals the arrival of the melodic chorus. The crashing guitars and descending string lines are reminiscent of the likes of Millennium and the instrumental break on Angels. Unlike the other tracks on the album, however, Williams fails to rein in his much-maligned propensity for sounding self obsessed. Key lyric: "I can't help thinking about me, put a thought in for me, I'm the genius behind me, maybe I shouldn't have said it. Here's to the next century, what will they think when they think about me?" 12. WON'T DO THAT TO YOU Williams says this brass-led feelgood song with its Motown-style chorus is his "very first love song". Presumably written about his current girlfriend Ayda Field, it is bursting with vitality - and the energetic repetition of the title in the chorus has radio play written all over it. It's the happiest-sounding Williams song since 2003's number one single Something Beautiful which, coincidentally, is sonically similar to Won't Do That To You. Lyrics such as "I don't mind when the boys look at you, if I were them I'd be doing it too" are even forgivable in the context of throwaway pop that really works. Key lyric: "I won't do that to you, won't do that to yo-u, do that to you, I wouldn't do that to you." 13. MORNING SUN (REPRISE) Proceedings are brought to a close by a brief restatement of the opening track. In summary, Reality Killed The Video Star begins with some of Williams's strongest songs for years, falters halfway through before reigniting with a handful of standout tracks, including Starstruck and Won't Do That To You.
October 24, 200915 yr Author http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showb...-for-years.html Robbies come back to reality The Sun GARY BARLOW rates it. JAMES CORDEN loved it. Even PHIL "The Power" TAYLOR said it was a cracker. And I reckon ROBBIE WILLIAMS's eighth album, Reality Killed The Video Star, is his best since 2002's Escapology. I've had a listen to the ex-TAKE THAT star's latest effort and it's a No1 hit. Simple as that. It's just what his army of loyal fans have been waiting three long years for. Some interesting themes crop up on the 51-minute, 13-track release, out on November 9. There's the obligatory girlfriend track about AYDA FIELD, the woman responsible for sorting his life out. There's another which definitely isn't about her, with some cheeky wrist-related lyrics - and he's not talking about tossing pancakes. I got my hands on a Press copy of Rob's new CD which he released under the pseudonym Luke Moody to defy internet pirates. It probably won't attract a legion of new followers - the album, with Rob posing on a motorbike on the sleeve, is hardly modern. But legendary knobs and dials man TREVOR HORN has steered Rob back on course. Hats off to him for returning to a winning formula. It's genuinely something for fans to get excited about. And like his old Take That muckers, the songs will sound even better live with a stadium audience singing it back to him. Rob is currently hanging out with his old bandmates in New York. He flew in from LA to surprise MARK OWEN for his stag do. He was also seen hanging out in the studio with the lads because he was invited to hear the first mix of their upcoming live album. Here's my track-by-track review of Rob's CD. 1. MORNING SUN: Has the feel of a Carpenters/Burt Bacharach ballad. Lyrics about astronauts and space crop up. One of the top three songs on the album. 2. BODIES: I rate this first single. This could be an Ian Brown track. The best song here. 3. YOU KNOW ME: The second single. Has to be the song on the album about Ayda Field. Only criticism - backing vocals sound like Sir Paul McCartney's Frog Chorus. 4. BLASPHEMY: Big string arrangement. Rob's vocal is impressive, even though it's one of the weaker songs. 5. DO YOU MIND: My least favourite song. A bit of a filler. 6. LAST DAYS OF DISCO: Has a Pet Shop Boys, electro sound to it. Trevor Horn stamped all over it. 7. SOMEWHERE: A 60-second string arrangement with good vocal. 8. DECEPTACON: Hints about missing UK, with lyric "goodbye to Deceptacons" - his word for LA parasites. Great tune. 9. STARSTRUCK: Could be another ode to LA life. Great lyrics. "Everybody's famous", "Knock one off the wrist". Ahem. 10. DIFFICULT FOR WEIRDOS: Electro-tinkering and effects on Rob's voice. Pet Shop Boys-esque again. 11. SUPERBLIND: Classic cocky Robbie, contemplating his future. "I'm the genius behind me. What will they think, when they think about me?" Top. 12. WON'T DO THAT& 13. MORNING SUN REPRISE: Rob introduces brass for the final fanfare. A rousing, upbeat finish.
October 24, 200915 yr Scotty ...For a minute there I thought I had fallen into a time warp....new thread great idea
October 27, 200915 yr Author Uncut magazine's review of RKTVS:thanks to Carolyn on TRWS 3 stars (out of 5) Engagingly mature return from Stoke’s favourite son. Returning from a three-year break with a comeback single (“Bodies”) concerned with Christ, Buddha and getting laid on leylines suggests that Robbie Williams might be happy to cede the position of housewives’ favourite to his old band while he pursues his own private crack-up. But for a large part on Reality... (a nod to producer Trevor Horn), Robbie is neither the craven populist of old, nor the latter-day weird-beard, but rather a poised adult-pop sophisticate who, on tracks like “Blasphemy” and “Somewhere”, would quite like to position himself between Rufus Wainwright and the Pet Shop Boys. Though a gift for deadpan couplets (notably rhyming “great adventure” and “senile dementia”) alone can’t quite elevate him to their league, this album offers signs that, if he wants to, Robbie might escape the neurosis of celebrity and mature into a genuinely witty songwriter. Stephen Trousse
October 27, 200915 yr Author A nice review, but a pretty lazy one. I mean he didnt even mention any of the songs :lol: 3 is good for Uncut though, although Rudebox got 4 if I recall
October 27, 200915 yr A nice review, but a pretty lazy one. I mean he didnt even mention any of the songs :lol: 3 is good for Uncut though, although Rudebox got 4 if I recall I agree it is actually good for Uncut but Rudebox would have definately been more Uncuts style...they are very much into 'high risk & low sales'...in other words the ' unusual' hence why they liked Rudebox....... :P
October 31, 200915 yr :rolleyes: ROBBIE WILLIAMS NEW ALBUM...REALITY KILLED THE VIDEO STAR REVIEW Jude Rogers , October 29th, 2009 http://i38.tinypic.com/246mk1w.jpg What do Morrissey and "the fat dancer from Take That" have in common? Well, quite a lot, according to Jude Rogers. Let her explain as she disects Reality Killed The Radio Star . . . OK, Quietus brethren, gloves off. Reality Killed The Video Star proves that you should all love Robbie Williams. You know, Robbie Williams – aka Blobby, The Blob, That Cocky Twat Who Fell Through A Door On The X Factor, Serves Him Right, Hahaha. Yes, you should. For even though this writer harbours obsessions for Kraftwerk, Joy Division, Joanna Newsom and the lesser works of Robert Wyatt's bumhole, she has also has space in her heart for the fat dancer from Take That. And in this track-by-track review, I will tell you why. But firstly, my theory: Robbie Williams is the mainstream pop Morrissey. Some of the similarities are cosmetic. There's that greying quiff, the solid torso, the Northern shoulders for starters. Then there's the longing for attention, the need to clasp the hands of the sweaty front row. Then there are the wry asides live (Robbie in the Roundhouse last week: "My auntie's looking down on me...she's not dead, she's just really condescending"; Morrissey in the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday, a day after leaving hospital, "The North Will Rise Again!"), and the self-awareness and self-flagellation that whip their songs into shape. Then there's their beloved Manchester – ah, so much to answer for – creeping into songs from 'Suffer Little Children' to 'Munich Air Disaster 1958', from 'Knutsford City Limits' [Oh dear God, not another Cheshire versus Manchester versus Lancashire debate, Ed] to 'Burslem Normals'. Both men escaped from England to the bright sun of LA, and they have the glittering shadow of a big band behind them – OK, Take That aren't The Smiths, that's for sure, but give 'Back For Good' some credit for being their 'There Is A Light That Never Goes Out'. And yes, these two little $h!ts are proper f***ers at times. But they're also lovable showmen, trying to do something lovelorn and interesting and romantic with pop, and I love them for it. [incidentally, for an instant hit of this RobMoz crossover, try his 2005 solo hit, 'Tripping' ("First they ignore you/ Then laugh at you, then hate you"). And then watch his Morrissey-aping hearing aid act on Top Of The Pops in 2000, or weep at the knowledge that the two of them nearly created the Britney/Madonna duet at the 2005 Brits. I am.) And now Stoke-on-Trent's Robert Peter gives us his latest album, produced by the masterful Trevor Horn – the title is a nods to his big hit with Buggles. Question is, is it Robbie's glorious Viva Hate, or his deathly Kill Uncle? Read on... MORNING SUN Birds tweet, and a harmonica sighs, giving the album a sweet, folky start. But hark! Incoming soaring strings and a keening piano show us that Robbie isn't going down the eccentric route again, as he did on 2006's wilfully experimental, but occasionally brilliant Rudebox. "A message to the troubadour/The world don't love you any more", Robbie sings, the chutzpah no longer there, the sadness creeping in, in a vocal that shows what his voice really can do. Other nice lyrics shimmer here, too – "how many stars would you give to the moon?", Robbie asks his critics, before telling us what it's like to be"stuck inside the rainbow years". Even a middle-eight that nods towards the trippy oompah of 'I Am The Walrus' can't change a mood that is both grand but melancholy, epic but reflective. BODIES You might have heard this one, pop-pickers. It's the new, sparkling single that Bob sang on the X-Factor, and although some muppets deemed his performance disastrous, it was actually far from awful – a welcome hit of weirdness in a show where the only signs of personality are always stripped out (goodbye wonky-haired, brilliantly odd Rachel Adedeji, hello straightened-haired, pretty-frocked Rachel Adedeji) or made into a farce (hello, John and Edward). With lyrics about entropy, bodhi trees, and a chorus that is Morrissey to the marrow – "God save me rejection from my reflection, I want perfection", he sings, as if he's channelling 'Let Me Kiss You''s "open your eyes, and you see someone that you physically despise" – it also finishes with a group of gospel singers hollering that "Jesus didn't die for us". Eat that, Cowell! This is what pop is for. YOU KNOW ME "If a man can be his own fantasy, then to only breed in captivity is pointless/I’ve been doing what I like, when I like, how I like, it’s joyless." Nonsensical and brilliant. Can more pop songs start with lines like that, please? I don't mind if it's to a furiously catchy, waltzy Motown beat either, or if includes lines about missing your ex and getting pissed on $h!t booze ("I’m doing fine and the sun often shines/What are you thinking?/I bruised up my mind with this Thunderbird wine/Baby I’m drinking"). Cheers! BLASPHEMY OK, a duff moment – this one's slushier than a purple-raspberry ice drink that will turn your p*** blue. Blame Guy Chambers, who wrote with Williams for his first three records, that all sold roughly seven trillion copies. This is a song from those early days, and although it's better than a poke in the eye with a glass shard, then "blast for you/blasphemy" pun in the chorus labours more than an elephant in her fourth trimester. More interesting stuff would come later, in the Stephen Duffy years – 2005's Intensive Care being Robbie's best record so far. DO YOU MIND Hmm, another wobbly one. This puts Status Quo, Slade and a gallon of glam-rock in a bottle, shakes it up, and make an interesting, if rather peculiar, froth. Mildly diverting, admittedly, but might give you indigestion after prolonged consumption, like most of Morrissey's plodding Boz Boorer moments. Extra points for the line "Bring some wine and some Sensodyne", mind you. THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO But hoorah! KLAXON FOR THE ROBBIE-HATERS This one's for you, my darlings. A properly fantastic electro-pop epic that screams of the Pet Shop Boys and gives us a glorious reminder of Trevor Horn's pop-producing genius. Minimal, menacing, and lit up with mirrorballs, its chorus is also superbly sinister. "Don't call it a comeback", Robbie whispers, in a voice that still has a measure of sweetness, "Look what I invented here". SOMEWHERE A weird track, but another great moment – a subtle, orchestral miniature introduced by plucked and bowed strings, and wordless vocal harmonies. Find your place to "lay your heavy head down", Robbie tells us, softly, and "take your chance in life/Go out and find a wife". It's like a recitative from a peculiar, melancholy musical, the kind that Antony Hegarty would kill with ponderousness, but Robbie brings alive with control and subtlety. About a minute long, too. Odd, but good. DECEPTACON "Microwave yourself today/Save you for a rainy day/Hello Deceptacon/This will not be going away". Another peculiar set of lyrics, floating on waves of reverb, sad strings and icy keyboards – rather fitting for a song about a deceptacon, a creature whose surface charm hides ugliness underneath. It's an unshowy meditation the shallowness of fame, with a fantastic, mournful outro ("who are you? who are you? And what are you to me? What can I do for you?"). Two prime Mozisms here, too: the peculiarly moving lyric, "all over Britain, we wait for permission to form another queue", and the wonderful departing gambit, "Send my best to all concerned/I know I've been a gracious host". STARSTRUCK Goldfrapp's Felt Mountain, the Ipcress File Soundtrack and the shadow of Broadcast fall over the first ten seconds of this song about our obsession with celebrity, and you can't say that for the latest Westlife chart-topper. This soon gets a little too perky for its own good, admittedly, but it's far from Steps: The Greatest And Most f***ing Irritating Hits. "Knock one off the wrist", he sighs, devilishly, while he's "living in hysterica for everyone's betterment". Listen, grannies and goths: he's both bonkers and brilliant. DIFFICULT FOR WEIRDOS Synths! Swirly noises! Lyrics about "futurists in the bistro", boys getting their eyes "made up at the bus stop", and "psycho evolution"! Far less try-hard than it sounds, with a fantastically catchy tune that turns your head into happy mush. WON'T DO THAT Blaring horns and Elton John piano riffs bring the album to the close, with this being Robbie's last stadium-busting stand. It's an immediate track, certainly, but less interesting than his earlier songs. Nevertheless, its message is valiant, proud and direct, an oath to his girlfriend of three years, Ayda Field, that "I won't do that to you". He's not the jealous guy any more, either – "another sign that we're doing it right" – and as it sparkles through the speakers, you feel another Robbie is naturally emerging: someone shaking off the showiness, and letting his vulnerability become an unglossy reality, rather than a needy pose. MORNING SUN (REPRISE) We end where we began, that harmonica wailing just that little longer, with an instrumental outro only leaving our boy one last line to sing: "the evening is a mystery/the morning makes it history/Who I am to rate the morning sun?" The Ego that landed ten years ago has now withered away, and we find not a Maladjusted character, nor a Ringleader Of The Tormentors, but someone who has made pop's very own Vauxhall and I, full of melancholy and maturity. It makes him, at last, a genuinely charming man. Source...www.thequeitus.com Edited November 1, 200915 yr by staralliance
November 1, 200915 yr Robbie Williams ‘Reality Killed The Video Star’ Review October 28th, 2009 by Geraint http://i38.tinypic.com/246mk1w.jpg One never knows quite what to expect from a new Robbie Williams record. Will it be hyper, introspective, p*** taking, serious? His last album, 2006’s electro-tinged ‘Rudebox’, managed to be all four and baffled many a critic along the way. Stung by the mixed reaction to what was actually a rather fine record, Robbie promptly buggered off to LA, where he grew a beard and chased aliens for a few years. Meanwhile, his former group Take That went from one staggering success to another, seemingly stronger than ever without a Robbie-shaped albatross around their necks. Is it any wonder he kept his head down for a while? But Robbie’s over-the-pond sojourn resulted in more than just a pronounced interest in UFOs – he found love and calmed down. The result is ‘Reality Killed The Video Star’, an album that is seemingly impossible to describe without resorting to clichés such as ‘mature’ and – oh no – middle of the road. But despite initial appearances, ‘Reality Killed The Video Star’ does not see Robbie playing it safe. For a start, it contains precisely zero obvious singles. Sure, opening track ‘Morning Sun’ has more than a whiff of the ‘big Oasis ballad’ about it; ‘Deceptacon’ is Bowie-meets-Barlow, and ‘Bodies’ was a number two hit – not that it counts, seeing as it was propelled to number two on public goodwill and a ropey X Factor performance – but after that it’s slim pickings as far as the charts are concerned. ‘Bodies’ is something of a red herring, anyway. Yes, there are one or two more tracks containing blips and beeps (see the Pet Shop Boys-influenced ‘Last Days of Disco’ and ‘Difficult For Weirdos’) but for the most part this an album that frequently recalls the languid and pastoral sound of Tracey Thorn’s ‘Out of the Woods’, Air’s ‘Moon Safari’ or Lambchop’s ‘Nixon’. Basically, Robbie’s back from the wilderness and he’s brought a chuffing massive string section with him. It’s grown-up Britpop with shimmering production. Barely a second passes without producer Trevor Horn draping it delicately with sweeping violins, and the overall effect is nothing short of lovely. Lyrically the record seems to be concerned with love and recovery, but in terms of arrangements ‘Reality Killed The Video Star’ would be an ideal soundtrack to a lazy afternoon in the English countryside. You just have to remember that this is a Robbie record, so the lyrics are full of confession and therapy–speak. “Bruised out of my mind on Thunderbird wine, baby I’ve been drinking,” he croons on ‘You Know Me’. “No singles, just fillers – sometimes I wish I could, but I can’t behave,” he admits on ‘Blasphemy’. Should you be worried about the constant mid-tempo numbers and lack of pop smashes? Well no – not if you like your albums to actually sound like albums, as opposed to mish-mashes of wildly diverging genres (hi, ‘Rudebox’.) ‘Reality…’ delivers on this level, at least; with the exception of ‘Do You Mind’, which sounds like a Jet b-side, everything else forms a satisfyingly cohesive whole. One minor criticism is that the later tracks come dangerously close to passing by in one big orchestral swoon, but you’ll be so relaxed by then you won’t even mind. Just don’t operate any heavy machinery while listening. It’s nice to have you back, Robbie – and it’s a 7/10 from WAPS. ‘Reality Killed The Video Star’ is released on November 9th. Source...www.wearepopslags.com Edited November 1, 200915 yr by staralliance
November 1, 200915 yr Album Assessment: Robbie Williams - Reality Killed The Video Star http://i38.tinypic.com/246mk1w.jpg There was a time when Robbie Williams could do no wrong. I lapped up every single release and raved about them to anyone who would listen. Then just as I started my blog back in 2006, Robbie released Rudebox and my initial knee jerk reaction didn't fairly represent how devoted I was to his music. Rudebox was an experimental album and took me a while to appreciate it fully. Then of course Robbie took a break, Take That came back and the way music was marketed completely changed. So how does Robbie fair on his first album in 3 years? Pretty darn well... What 'Reality' does incredibly well is manage to blend the sound of Robbie the Multi Million Album Seller almost seamlessly with Robbie The Experimental Music Man. It's commercial but not at the expense of innovation, wit and charm baked directly into each song. There's a consistency throughout the collection of songs that must partially be credited to Trevor Horn as producer. Strings are omnipresent throughout and there's enough diversity to stop it being repetitive or dull. Opening (and closing) track Morning Sun cleverly begins with just a piano to showcase Robbie's distinctive vocal before building up to a huge mid-tempo ballad that sounds ever so filmatic in it's production - like it could almost soundtrack the opening moments to some lush opulent heartbreaking movie. This leads instantly into the first two singles from the album - Bodies is well known by now. It's been pointed out that this song is every Robbie single to date packed into four minutes of music. This isn't an unfair argument, but it doesn't detract from my love of this song. It's more of an attention grabber than a brilliant first single and in that respect it certainly did it's job. You Know Me is pegged as Robbie's bash for the Christmas Number One slot. It's a doo-wop 60s influenced ballad and is quite lovely (at the BBC Electric Proms he merged the song with Unchained Melody quite wonderfully) and is a big important romantic ballad along the lines of Misunderstood and Advertising Space. Much like those two songs, I suspect that it will unfairly peak at number eight. Lovely piano twiddling at the end and a swoony outro make this a big winner with me... Blasphemy is a gentle little ballad that initially reminds me of She's The One. I'm loving the placing of Robbie next to the piano at strategic points throughout the album - it lends an air of intimacy to balance out the big orchestral moments. Some clever lyrics ("No singles, just fillers") help Robbie lay himself raw for the listener and it's quite a nice experience. Was it a blast for you, because it's blasphemy, he sings about the ruined relationship. Exquisite. And then, blimey it's all change for Do You Mind - a song that is both frisky and flirty, while channelling influences of Marc Bolan and T-Rex. It's his brashest rockiest song since Old Before I Die and demands to be sung loudly (and inebriated) while stumbling out of pubs during this upcoming holiday season. It's a song to strut to and exudes cockiness and confidence - two things Robbie has always managed to pull off without alienating the general public (see Danyl Johnson). Experimental/Rudebox Robbie returns for the sheer amazingosity of Last Days Of Disco. Not only is it a sleek and loving tribute to the synth sounds of the 80s (done in a way that La Roux has never managed to pull off with such effortless ease), but Robbie's seductive vocal matches the muted beats perfectly. Don't call it a comeback, he purrs amidst a swirling orgasm of strings and it's hard not to fall in love with him all over again. And of course this being Trevor Horn, the middle 8 is vaguely reminiscent of Frankie Goes To Hollywood and conveys a slightly menacing air. Another genius moment. Somewhere is a mini-track that bridges the first half of the album with the second. It's harsh strings and manages to pack more into 1 minute and 2 seconds than most pop stars cram into an entire album. It's almost theatrical - like a brief interlude by a narrator in a musical. "Someone, somewhere is loving you" he insists before the exiting stage left... Deceptacon (not the Le Tigre song) is vaguely pyschedelic in it's delivery and one can only imagine what it would look like if delivered through that girl who sees music in Heroes! It's entirely pleasant but not an instant favourite of mine - though I suspect that the more I hear it the more I will like it. Starstruck, however, is a different kettle of fish (whatever that means). It's his big George Michael tribute moment - like the dirty love child of Amazing and Fast Love. It's an elegantly produced uptempo moment, with just enough hint of weird production values to keep it exciting. I'm not sure what the British public would make of this if it were released as a single, but I can't help but hope it is - imagine the remixes and who wouldn't love to see Mr W do a proper dance routine to match the music? This song has such potential to be massive. Love love love. Difficult For Weirdos is another stand out moment on the album - both complex and accessible, it's a massive 80s tribute that sounds not only like it could be a Robbie Williams single but equally at home coming out of the mouths of the Pet Shop Boys. It's a massive tune and benefits from a sophisticated arrangement. Superblind finds Robbie back doing what he does best - stunning heartfelt ballads where the music soars with his voice rather than overpowering him (as it would with a lesser performer). Perhaps the song that would most suit William Young on the entire album. And then it is sadly all over as Won't Do That closes out the album in a rowdy singalong moment that frankly leaves you begging for more. Perhaps the inclusion of Morning Sun (reprise) at the very end is designed to bring your experience full circle and send you back to the beginning to listen again. It works - I've been obsessed with the album for 24 hours and can't help but feel I'll be obsessed for a long time yet. If this is a comeback, it's certainly a triumphant one... Potential singles: Bodies; You Know Me; Last Days of Disco; Starstruck; Blasphemy 8 comments: Larry Flick said... Spot-on review of Robbie's CD It's so gorgeous. The strings are such a lovely surprise. Last Days is genius, but I'm also loving Blasphemy and Starstruck. I just cranked up Difficult For Weirdos. Loving for it! I worry that people won't get this, though. It's a bit sophisticated... 28 October 2009 07:16 Yuÿi said... I've been listening to Robbie all day today. The Electric Proms album and RKTVS. Agree with all your recommended singles. And I prefer the remixes to the single ("Bodies"). 28 October 2009 19:19 Aaron said... Awesome! Can't wait to give it a listen. I quite like Lovelight, so I'm glad he's mixed a bit of that sound in by the looks! Great review too! I can't wait to give it a listen, and I'm looking forward to the new reviews! 28 October 2009 22:46 J.Mensah said... Yay! I'm glad you like this. The only cuts I've heard are "Bodies" and "You Know Me." Nice review =] Would you say that it's better than Rudebox? Oh, and how did you hear the whole thing it comes out in 10 days? 29 October 2009 01:55 ww_adh said... Ooh! This sounds great. I'm really looking forward to it. I listened to the 30 second samples of all the songs and my first impression was that it reminded me a bit of George Michael and didn't sound as "rock" as his previous albums. 29 October 2009 03:12 Paul said... Larry - the strings really add a certain something to the album don't they? I think there is enough diversity within the album to win people over to it as a cohesive project overall. Or I hope so. It's bound to be a big seller anyway... Yuri - i think he did a stellar job at the Electric Proms. The Fred Falke remix of Bodies is ace, and I love the blend into the Righteous Brothers at the end of You Know Me. Aaron - I think you will probably favour Starstruck as that is the most Lovelight, but probably love Last Days of Disco as well! I hope you do a review! J - sssh don't tell. It's widely available to listen to online, though i have my order in for the cd too!! I'd say it's more cohesive than rudebox and definitely more commercial, but takes less risks. I like it a lot. ADH - the Morning Sun song and Starstruck are definitely the most George songs on there! Did you hear George is doing a Christmas single btw? His second year in a row! Ace! 29 October 2009 03:37 Poster Girl said... This is an album I need to live with for a bit to know what I think, but I don't think that's true in a bad way. "You Know Me" is nice, but there are some other songs I'd be more excited about as singles (though there are some great songs that will probably never be singles and I'm totally fine with that--they wouldn't work in that capacity). Lovely review. 29 October 2009 09:37 Paul said... PG - I think that happens sometimes with albums. I think I played this far too often in a short amount of time Glad you like the review and looking forward to hearing what you think of the album "when the dust settles" as it were 29 October 2009 23:42 Source...http://myfizzypop.blogspot.com/2009/10/album-assessment-robbie-williams.html « Last Edit: Today at 10:48am by tessat12 » Edited November 1, 200915 yr by staralliance
November 5, 200915 yr Author A great 4 star review from the Guardian. Nice to see some actual efford being put into a review Robbie Williams: Reality Killed the Video Star Robbie Williams's latest album bulges with fantastic melodies and undemanding pop references – but it's also consumed with angst and self-doubt **** (4 out of 5 stars) Alexis Petridis guardian.co.uk The Guardian In 1967, the Beatles were planning a new film. In search of a suitable script, they approached Joe Orton. He handed in a dark, lavishly camp farce called Up Against It, the plot of which variously required the Fab Four to become embroiled in a plan to assassinate the prime minister, cross-dress, be caught in flagrante and commit murder. Alas, the Beatles rejected Up Against It, Paul McCartney having smartly spotted that both the script and its author were "a bit gay". "We didn't do it because it was gay," he explained. "We weren't gay. Brian Epstein was gay. He and the gay crowd could appreciate it. It wasn't that we were anti-gay," he added. "It's just that we, the Beatles, weren't gay." Having established fairly thoroughly that they weren't gay, the Beatles went on to make Yellow Submarine instead: not bad, but, no insurrectionist transvestite humping-and-murder-fest. Up Against It joined the pantheon of tantalising rock what-ifs, alongside the Rolling Stones' film version of A Clockwork Orange, the acid house album Shane McGowan lobbied the Pogues to make, and Paddy MacAloon's concept album about Michael Jackson. To that illustrious list, we can now add the improbable name of Robbie Williams. In 2007, he apparently recorded an album he later described as "career suicide" and "Robbie's gone mad music", presumably a sonic expression of the period in which he grew a beard, put on weight, searched the California desert for aliens and helpfully began dressing as a pop star who'd gone crackers. It sounds fascinating, but instead, Williams opted to make his comeback with Reality Killed the Video Star, a Trevor Horn-produced album that, he notes, "ticks all the boxes". It certainly does. Williams and his songwriting team have recovered their ability to write ruthlessly effective radio-friendly songs. The album bulges with fantastic melodies and undemanding pop references: the opening Morning Sun nods to I Am the Walrus, You Know Me boasts a string arrangement based on John Barry's Theme From Midnight Cowboy. Alas, Williams's less lovable traits are also present and correct, among them his apparently irrepressible desire to release jokey novelty tracks – here represented by an entirely ghastly bit of cod cock-rock called Do You Mind? – and his penchant for groan-inducing wordplay, most of which doesn't even count as punning, because puns are supposed to make sense. You listen to him singing "you would never be my trouble and strife, if I made you my Swiss army wife", groan, then think: what's that actually supposed to mean? Perhaps she's good at getting stones out of horses' hooves. You might expect an album this musically surefooted to be triumphalist in tone, but Reality Killed the Video Star is more complicated and interesting than that. The lyrics tremble with uncertainty about Williams's return. Morning Sun worries about reviews and star ratings. "Don't call it a comeback," pleads Last Days of Disco. A lovely, languid sigh of a song called Deceptacons touches on the beardy UFO-hunting years – it carries a definite hint of Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft – and their effect on perceptions of his sanity: "Well, he's never been right." On Starstruck and the brilliant electro-wriggle Difficult for Weirdoes, he aligns himself with society's outsiders, including make-up-wearing teenage boys and, a little bafflingly, the Futurists. You might reasonably suggest that the precise similarity between Robbie Williams and Filippo Marinetti is a trifle difficult to work out. You might also reasonably suggest that pop music has come to a pretty pass when Robbie Williams can present himself as some kind of leftfield artist. Nevertheless, he has a point. The pop stars that have emerged during his absence have tended to cleave to the US model: bland, orthodontically perfect, deprived of their personality via the complex surgical process known as media training. By contrast, Williams belongs to a grand, possibly dying, British tradition of flawed, wonky pop stars, people whose appeal rests at least partially on the fact that they appear to have ended up at the top of the charts almost despite themselves. In that light, Reality Killed the Video Star's neurotic self-obsession seems not merely like honesty, but a rather canny move. Anyone can hire Trevor Horn and some crack writers and knock out an album of polished pop-rock, but perhaps only Robbie Williams would release an album of polished pop-rock consumed with angst, self-doubt and songs justifying his interest in extraterrestrial life forms. If it's not as daring and confounding as the tantalising what-if of his abandoned career-suicide comeback album, it's still a pretty unusual ploy given the current climate. Under the circumstances, it would seem churlish not to welcome him back. Edited November 5, 200915 yr by Scotty
November 6, 200915 yr Author Robbie Williams: Track by Track review of new album Reality Killed The Video Star Sunday Mercury http://www.sundaymercury.net/entertainment...66331-25108591/ After years in the showbiz wilderness Midland pop icon Robbie Williams releases his comeback album tomorrow. Brit Awards judge PAUL COLE listens track by track. THE title is surely ironic. Reality Killed The Video Star, opines the 35 year-old singer whose own career was launched in a carefully cultivated and coiffeured boy band coldly calculated to make megabucks. But while Take That have gone on to reunion success, the career of the Stoke-on-Trent self-publicist has nosedived of late, largely thanks to his move to LA and misguided Rudebox electropop adventure. A confused comeback on TV’s X Factor did little to quell fears that Williams’ career had finally hit the buffers. It’s a surprise, then, that the much anticipated return of the Robster is actually rather good. Morning Sun: The opener in which Robbie admits: “Message to the troubadour, the world don’t love you anymore” is strewn with Beatley strings and minor key melancholy – a return to what he does best. **** Bodies: Record company bosses must have insisted that he get down with the kids. It’s a schizophrenic song, half of which is out there on the techno dancefloor, while the other half is old-fashioned pop. ** You Know Me: A cornball cliché-ridden song with a soda pop chorus straight from the cusp of the 1950s and 60s. This is old school pop by the numbers, complete with shooby-do backing vocals.*** Blasphemy: An entire song based round a bad pun (Is it a blast for you? ‘Cause It’s blasphemy”) lent undue gravity by its chamber pop piano, oboe and strings. The last song Robbie wrote with Guy Chambers. ** Do You Mind?: Creaky rock and roll to be filed alongside Kids, the hit he had with Kylie. A catchy chorus could make this a huge hit single, but it’ll make real rock fans cringe in embarrassment. ** Last Days Of Disco: Come on out! We know you’re in there! This is so much like Pet Shop Boys that Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe must have been lurking in the studio. Still, it’s got chart appeal. *** Somewhere: Brief bridging track, which lasts less than two minutes, sounds like something Paul McCartney might have written, and is backed by Beatley harmonies. More please. **** Deceptacon: The most ambitious song on the album finds Robbie’s multi-tracked vocal wrapped up in production so warm, you’d want to huddle round it in the winter. One of Williams’ best, and the album highlight. ***** Starstruck: Laid-back song about fame will take you back in time to glitter ball disco with Philly flourishes. Trouble is, it’s lightweight filler sandwiched between two of the strongest songs. ** Difficult For Weirdos: Another one from the Pet Shop Boys brigade book of songwriting takes you back to the 1980s. Although he takes no risks here, Robbie sounds as if he has a new lease of life. **** Superblind: “Can’t help thinking ‘bout me,” Robbie sings in an intensely melodic soft-rock song. “I’m the genius behind me. If you’re here next century what will they think when they think about me? **** Won’t Do That: Brassy pop song with a chart hook sounds as if it’ll be a stadium singalong. Perhaps he thought it would impress his new best mate Gary Barlow, ahead of the Take That reunion. **** Morning Sun (Reprise): Return of the opening track, this time given orchestral oomph. It sounded good when the album started, and it sounds great second time around. Robbie Williams is back in business.****
November 6, 200915 yr Author Album: Robbie Williams, Reality Killed the Video Star (EMI) The Independent (Rated 3/ 5 ) Reviewed by Andy Gill Robbie Williams' albums have increasingly come to focus upon the singer himself, which has consequently made them less and less appealing to those not entirely smitten with his charms. By 2006's Rudebox, with its songs about Robbie growing up in the Eighties and growing bitter in the Nineties, this was proving counter-productive, the album being regarded as under-performing, commercially. As he observes here in the opening "Morning Sun", "a message to the troubadour: the world don't love you anymore". The song was supposedly written about Michael Jackson shortly after the singer's death, but as Williams noted during his Electric Proms comeback show, "I thought it was about [him], but it's actually about me again". Certainly, there's no avoiding the obvious self-referentiality of the album title, which puns on producer Trevor Horn's pivotal Buggles hit "Video Killed The Radio Star" to suggest how all-singing, all-dancing video stars like Williams have been supplanted in the pop industry by the rapid turnover of ruthlessly-drilled reality-show contestants – despite their being ultimately traceable to manufactured boy-bands like, well, Take That. And it's hard to read the brief "Somewhere" as anything but an autobiographical reflection on Robbie's lengthy, lonely, lost weekend in the LA wilderness, with its rueful advice to "take your chance in life, go out and find a wife, don't get stuck in the state that I'm in". But elsewhere on Reality Killed the Video Star, the signs are that the now-married singer has regained his waning zest. Though less experimental than Rudebox, it's more accomplished and generous-spirited. Its predecessor's Pet Shop Boys electropop stylings are restricted to a few tracks such as "Last Days Of Disco" and "Difficult For Weirdos", a reminiscence of the stubborn courage required to glam-up publicly during the New Romantic era, while elsewhere the mainstream musical influences are as tried and tested as the Elton-style plodder "You Know Me" and the Beatle-esque strings draped over "Morning Sun". Robbie being Robbie, of course, there are a few curiosities disturbing the smooth surfaces conjured up by Horn, not least the fatalistic, twitchy techno single "Bodies", with its references to "decay and entropy" and "bodies in the cemetery" and its choir chanting "Jesus didn't die for you/me" – a line one might have expected in "Blasphemy", the last song Williams co-wrote with Guy Chambers. Here, to a chamber-pop setting of piano, oboe and strings, he trots out a few typically tactless references to senile dementia, the deaf and dumb, and the Great Depression, perhaps to justify the terrible pun "Is it a blast for you? 'Cos it's blasphemy!". Older, then, but wiser...? Download this: Morning Sun; Bodies; Difficult For Weirdos
November 6, 200915 yr Author Robbie Williams: Reality Killed the Video Star Robbie Williams adopts his centre stage position with songs that are alternately self-glorifying and self-pitying The Times Online David Sinclair *** In these days of shrinking markets and shattered business models, there are some artists for whom the big-numbers pop machine still works, or so Robbie Williams and his record company are nervously hoping. Three years after the comparatively disappointing sales of Rudebox Williams has gone into overdrive to make Reality Killed the Video Star his eighth No 1 album in a row. While his UFO-obsessed exile in California may have left Williams a bit out of sync with the modern pop world — witness his saucer-eyed foray into the X Factor bearpit — nothing has been left to chance in the making of this record. There are six writers (including Williams) credited with composing the opening track, Morning Sun, an engaging but undemanding Elton John-type piano ballad with gradually escalating Beatles-style strings. And it apparently took five people to write Somewhere, a song lasting just over a minute with a lyric not much longer than a haiku. With the songs safely through the committee stage, the studio performances were delivered to Trevor Horn, a man with all the approved credentials to produce an old-fashioned blockbuster. The resulting recording is clean and big, a panoramic soundscape, but always with the voice close to the front of the mix. With all this activity going on around him, Williams adopts his preferred position — centre stage — with practised ease. The songs — some happy, but most strangely sad — are all about him and his place in the Universe, with lyrics that are alternately self-glorifying and self-pitying. “I can't help thinking about me/ I’m the genius behind me,” he sings in Superblind, a number that begins as a wistful ballad but soon adds gusty layers of power guitar chords and swirling strings. Elsewhere, things don’t sound so good. “I've been bleeding lately, internally,” he complains in Blasphemy, another piano and string-driven number, co-written with Guy Chambers, in which Williams contemplates a sea of troubles including the onset of “great depression” and, prematurely, “senile dementia”. But despite the deft and often dark wordplay — as in the hit single Bodies — there is something safe and ultracalculated at the heart of this album that undermines the needy, nervy egotism that continues to sustain Williams as a front-rank star. He’s not on the skids yet, but the days when a new Williams album was accompanied by the sound of champagne corks popping are starting to seem a little distant
November 6, 200915 yr Author Bright sounds from a pop veteran Sydney Morning Herald ROBBIE WILLIAMS Reality Killed the Video Star (EMI) Let's not waste time grumbling about pop music, boys and girls: done well, it's the best fun you can have without leather straps and restraints. And Robbie Williams has made some of the best mainstream pop music of the past decade or so — smart, catchy, touching the truth and so easy to enjoy. At all times he's worked from four basic forms: ballads that rise on Elton John sentiment but soar on Williams's characteristically personal tone; buoyant pop-rock with guitars halfway between jangle and charging; '80s synth disco that carries the DNA of the Pet Shop Boys; and smart-alec neo-cabaret moments where you can practically hear the nod and wink from his inner Anthony Newley. After confounding some with his indulgences on 2006's too-maligned Rudebox, this time we return to regulation. Musically at least. Sonically, the definitive '80s producer, Trevor Horn (Video Killed the Radio Star) has things feeling just that little bit brighter and velvety. And lyrically there are some interesting adjustments to the brashness, some rounding of the character — there's more doubt and less manufactured bravado. Thankfully, there are fine examples of those open-wound/open-heart ballads that are his forte. The best of them, Deceptacon (preceded by the very brief but melancholic aural amuse bouche of Somewhere) is grand theatre without bombast, all strings, triple-layered vocals a la 10CC and a nagging sense of loss. And I can't help but be sucked in by Blasphemy, the last song Williams wrote with co-writer Guy Chambers some six years ago, which pairs some of his most lacerating lyrics with an almost folk simplicity and something touching. The big pop songs are You Know Me, which pitches an Elton John melody amid some heavy '60s Dusty-and-Beach Boys moves, and the less satisfying Won't Do That (too close to plodding) and Do You Mind? (a rock band doing cabaret). You will spend more time with The Last Days of Disco and Starstruck, which are pure Pet Shop Boys or, for that matter, pure Trevor Horn, with low, burbling sonic beds, touches of fancy cars on a wet road, swirling synths and dramatic nuggets delivered deadpan. Almost as good is Difficult for Weirdos, a throwback to Rudebox's nutty disco, while the plainly odd Bodies could wear out its welcome sooner than the rest of the record. I'm not sure but I'm going to enjoy the pop music while I find out
November 6, 200915 yr Author Robbie Williams – Reality Killed The Video Star: Review November 4th, 2009 http://www.thecelebritytruth.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/200px-Reality_Killed_the_Video_Star-1.jpg We’ve gotten our hands on the new Robbie Williams album, Reality Killed The Video Star, and it’s a smashing listen – and a fine return to form for the British lad. Read our review after the jump! I’ll start by confessing that I’m a fan of Robbie Williams, and have persisted past his last two experimental albums Intensive Care and Rudebox in the hope that he’ll blast back with his trademark larger-than-life sound. Enter Reality Killed The Video Star. From the outset, the new album sounds like Robbie Williams matured, or as he describes it himself, it’s a bit of “old Robbie, new Robbie and a Robbie that neither of us have met.” Gone is the boyband, the drug and alcohol infused popstar, the Lothario, and what we’re left with is a warmer, funner and in-love Robbie Williams who seems determined to resurrect his somewhat flagging career with an album full of strong songs. It also feels like Mr. Williams has picked the highlights of his career and channeled that sound into a choice selection of 13 tracks. Comparisons will be made to songs that sound like they belong on 2003’s Escapology or 2001’s Swing When Your Winning, or even his electro-experimental Rudebox album from 2006, but the emphasis seems to be on churning out quality, not quantity. http://www.thecelebritytruth.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Robbie-Williams-EMI.jpg Bodies is the perfect first single. Like a worldwide siren to announce his long-overdue return to any fans that may have dropped off during his time away from the spotlight, this could easily be mistaken for a Williams/Guy Chambers collaboration of years gone past. Although it was reported that Chambers would helm the entire album, he only appears as co-writer on track 4, Blasphemy, a stripped back number that parts out the wisdom, “We could send a million to the moon/But why can’t I get along with you/With cellophane around my mouth/Stops the anger seeping out.” Although not the best song on Reality, it does generate hope of a full-album collaboration somewhere down the track. Behind the desk is Trevor Horn (John Legend, Pet Shop Boys, Seal), a man who gained notoriety in the seventies as part of The Buggles, who’s hit single Video Killed The Radio Star was the inspiration behind the title of Williams’ new album. Horn brings experience and sound. A very big sound. Brass, strings, guitars, piano, flutes, disco beats; it’s almost easier to name instruments that don’t appear on the album rather than ones that do. You get the feeling that the pair get each other in a way that’s been lacking since Chambers’ departure from Camp Williams. Do You Mind sounds like Robbie was just having fun and is a straight forward slice of pop rock based around an AC/DC-ish guitar loop (I did say “ish”). Last Days of Disco is Williams still showing he can move a dancefloor, while Deceptacon is the 35-year-old channeling David Bowie (and well, I might add). If you’re a Robbie Williams fan wanting the second resurrection of arguably one of the greatest performers of our generation (55 million albums sold to date, six of the Top 100 biggest selling albums of all time in Britain will attest to this), you won’t be disappointed. Are all of the elements aligned to make this one of his best? Give it a few listens before you cast judgment. We believe it’s a resounding yes. Words: David Christopher. Photos: EMI. source
November 6, 200915 yr Author Reivews are positive overall, but some of these 3 star reviews from the broadsheets are quite annoying. It is almost as if they know its a great album but cant quite fully admit it :rolleyes: Also, The Mirror gave it an awful review today as expected :lol: I bet the staff on that horrid paper prop work on commission of who can slag Rob off the most :lol: To show how clueless they are, they said Blasphemy was the weakest track :lol: :rolleyes: The tabloids generally dont know much when it comes to music but OK Mag gave it 5 stars :lol: Its been three years since the (lets face it) dodgy Rudebox, but now our Robbie's back - rap free and ready to please fans! "I want them to feel elated and I want them to relate", he says. And from the moment the lush strings, surging chords and Beatles-esque horns on opener Morning Sun cast a warm glow, it's clear he's succeeded. There isn't a duff track, On You Know Me, the melancholy lyrics fuse with its doo-wop 1950's-style harmonies, while the electro feel of Last Days of Disco and the surging synths on the brilliant Difficult For Weirdos nestle perfectly beside the old school cocky, glam-rock swagger of Do You Mind. Blasphemy is darkly gorgeous while on Superblind, the dreamy verses lead cleverly into a storming epic chorus. And the rousing closer Won't Do That is testimony to the reborn, but thankfully, not re-invented Robbie. Verdict - Welcome Back - Five Stars! TRWS
November 6, 200915 yr Author Robbie Williams: Reality Killed the Video Star - the verdict http://www.inthenews.co.uk/interview/enter...036;1339083.htm 7/10 Alistair Potter After a three-year break, the future Brit Lifetime Achievement award winner returns with an album that's much more 'him'. What's it all about? Thirteen tracks (14 if you count the bonus download track Arizona) that mark Robbie Williams' return to the UK pop scene. This release comes a full three years after his last album, Rudebox, met a mixed reception from critics and fans alike and failed to perform commercially. Reality... is a slightly different offering. It shows off a more rounded musician - with a range of influences, from the Beatles to the Beastie Boys - but with greater poise. Williams has clearly matured since he's been away, and although the juvenile charm and stubborn insistence on experimentation still remains to an extent, this is a much more enjoyable listen than his sometimes cringeworthy 2006 LP. Who's it by? Anyone not already familiar with the career of Robbie Williams either doesn't read the papers, or has as much knowledge of the British music scene, and celebrity as a whole, as the damp underside of a rock garden. Williams has been a staple of the pop musicscape since he released his first solo album in the late 1990s, Life Thru a Lens. Even before that, he was a name - if not quite the household one he has since become - as one of the original five members of Take That. Since Life Thru a Lens, the pop star extraordinaire has released six more studio albums (Reality... being his eighth); broken long-standing records for tour ticket sales; moved to LA; gone in and out of rehab for prescription medicine addiction; and been involved in more tabloid tales of celeb trysts than any other British male musician. As an example... "Don't call it a comeback/Look what I invented here/I thought it was easy/They can't take it away from us." - Last Days of Disco "What's so great about the Great Depression?/"Is it a blast for you?/Because it's blasphemy." - Blasphemy What the others say "The signs are that the now-married singer has regained his waning zest. Though less experimental than Rudebox, it's more accomplished and generous-spirited." - Andy Reid, Independent "The ego has landed, again, but he's a lot more endearing this time around." - Mike Diver, BBC "Robbie Williams has returned to what he knows best… delivering a glorious pop album that wears its influences on its sleeves." - Paul Williams, Music Week So is it any good? It's difficult to know if this is enjoyable because Rudebox was so inconsistent and so poorly received, or if Williams is genuinely back to his best. Where I've Been Expecting You and Sing When You're Winning saw knowing nods and self-effacing but self-confident winks, Rudebox was a hopeful nod and something that looked like Williams had grit in his eye. Don't get me wrong, Rudebox had some great, great tracks on it - Lovelight was superb and The Actor, I think, remains one of Williams' most accomplished album fillers. But it was just too inconsistent, a jumble weaving from appealing to appalling with alarming pace. That's where Reality Killed the Video Star is so much better. It's a clearer idea and a return to the pop songs and ballads that have served Williams well - providing a platform that shows off his own talents as well as the music itself. His misguided homage to the electropop 80s, which too frequently failed to deliver, is gone and replaced with a more fulsome sound - something that can be attributed in many ways to new producer Trevor Horn. Some tracks still hark back to the sort of material Rudebox aimed to deliver, but they do it with more skill and conviction. Last Days of Disco is an instant gem on an album that needs more than one listen to get to grips with, and shows off the better side of Williams' lyricism with the line "Don't call it a comeback... " (delivered with a grin, you imagine). The darker side of Williams is still in evidence, with self-pitying tracks like Somewhere and Won't Do That and some embarrassing lines of attempted parody (particularly on Blasphemy). But while there are pitfalls here, there's much more good than bad. The first single, Bodies, has an infectious driving bassline and the production is superb, while the album's opening track Morning Sun is the perfect gentle album intro. The strong opening of these two tracks isn't quite maintained throughout, although You Know Me - the second single to be released next month - is decent and the sort of poppy ballad where RW can excel. Despite tailing off a little in the second half, Reality... still excites at times, with Difficult For Weirdos and Deceptacon both shining through. And although some lyrics are more obnoxious than clever, there's still plenty to like. I won't call this a comeback - even though many critics might be tempted - but it's certainly the most engaging album Williams has produced in years.
November 6, 200915 yr Author Some of the best bits so far from the main reviewers ^_^ ""Robbie Williams has returned to what he knows best… delivering a glorious pop album that wears its influences on its sleeves." - Music Week “Mainstream pop with twists of lyrical wit, irony and imagination - classy piece of work, mature, reflexive and substantial” – The Telegraph “the flow of the record is excellent when heard as a whole - his finest album since I’ve Been Expecting You. The ego has landed, again, but he's a lot more endearing this time around” BBC “Engagingly mature return from Stoke’s favourite son” – Uncut Magazine “it's fantastic: a brilliant reminder of how his songs can combine wit, strangeness and accessibility” - 4 stars - The Guardian "The signs are that the now-married singer has regained his waning zest. Though less experimental than Rudebox, it's more accomplished and generous-spirited." - The Independent “his best since 2002's Escapology - a No1 hit. Simple as that” The Sun 'The album bulges with fantastic melodies' 4/5, The Guardian "the most engaging album Williams has produced in years" In The News 'Robbie Williams makes his much-heralded return to form' InStyle Magazine 'The king of charisma returns' Album of the Month, Marie Claire 'Robbie's excelled himself and we're thrilled to have him back and better than ever' 5 stars, Heat "Welcome Back - Five Stars!" OK Magazine Edited November 10, 200915 yr by Scotty
