It is indeed. When I posted the first part yesterday I wondered where the actual review of the individual tracks had got to. :unsure:

 

Superb review. :yahoo:

I get downloaded songs from Rudebox, now!!! :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: My friend download them for me... :)

 

Just now I'm listening songs... :heart:

Apperently NME have gave it a brilliant review. Can't find it on their site though :arrr:

 

At least parts of it are up on rw.com

Rob will be so pleased about this one :D

So they really did not change their minds about the whole album after that mini review they had a while back :o :yahoo:

What does it say Monsoon? :unsure:

 

RW.com won't open for me, well the article won't :arrr:

Here it is thanks to RWAP :D

 

The NME review

 

BOXING CLEVER

 

Your least favourite popstar's gone electro and it's - whisper it - good

 

With his Take That past coming back to haunt him, tabloids sharpening their knives and missed appearances, clearly all is not well with Williams. And yet he has claimed that this is the first musical venture where he is being himself. The stakes are extremely high. Luckily, 'Rudebox' is the best thing he's ever put his name to.

 

From a career of trying on different ill-fitting identities (CampPop Robbie, Fat Dancer Robbie, Swing Robbie, Stadium Robbie) he has finally found one that fits. F***ing about on laptops with the likes of Lily Allen and Pet Shop Boys, he has hit on a fun, frantic, pisstaking mixtape of crystalline '80s electropop, Skinner derived rap-ups and lazy skank pop.

 

Lyrically, Williams has always been a very British mix of redcoat self-deprecation and zietgeisty, chemically-enhanced moodiness, but on 'Rudebox' he continues this without falling into the previous pratfalls of whininess or navel-gazing.

 

There's the double-headed autobiography of 'The 80s' (currently at the centre of a legal dispute) and its follow up 'The 90s', the clattering 'Vogue' rap in the LA tale 'The Actor' and 'She's Madonna' - possibly his most bonkers song ever.

 

'Rudebox' is not 'Robbie Williams, the serious artiste', but it is an amazing pop album. It remains to be seen if it will be his undoing with the mainstream and those tabloid hacks. But it seems, musically at least, he's just getting started. And, if you leave your preconceptions at the door, you might just love it. 8

 

Priya Elan

 

That is a superb review :yahoo: :cheer: :wub:

 

Rob will be stoked with that one...(except maybe the heading :huh: ...least favourite :wacko: )

 

I have such a great feeling about this album being successful. I hope its his biggest ever...he deserves it :heart:

Pretty crappy reviews in The Independent, The Guardian and The Sun. :cry:

Hardly surprising though given how much the UK press hate him. Talk about 'stabbing your own'... :rolleyes: :arrr:

I gave up reading UK newspapers a long time ago ^_^

My Madonna song's stalkerish

The Sun

 

http://i11.tinypic.com/4hsvqr6.jpg

 

IT’S taken a decade and nine albums but Robbie Williams has finally dared to make the album he’s always wanted to make.

 

Teaming up with Pet Shop Boys, Lily Allen, William Orbit and uber producer Mark Ronson, Robbie has turned his back on his usual pop niche market, bravely stepping out of his trademark music zone with his most experimental album to date.

 

Gone are the lighters-aloft ballads and cheeky sing-along anthems, replaced by rap (well Robbie’s attempts to) electro-grooves, covers of Eighties hits and a self-confessed stalker tribute to Madonna.

 

Robbie says: “I’m more confident now. When I left Take That and started my solo career, I developed a songwriting partnership with Guy Chambers that just ran and ran for five albums and you get into a comfort zone. You know this person and you know what you’re going to do — you’re not scared to try things out.

 

“And as that ran its course, I had no other option but to go out and explore and go and work with other people. Mark’s given me the confidence to go and do that.â€

 

Clearly Robbie has got bored with the musical style that made him a star — and you have to admire him for daring to break away. But is it too late?

 

Rudebox, his first release from the album has been ridiculed. Rightly so. Robbie’s attempts to rap are more Goldie Lookin’ Chain than Mike Skinner.

 

 

When it does work, as on the anthemic Lovelight — a sweeping funked-up cover of the Lewis Taylor soul track — it is up there with his best.

 

And Never Touch That Switch, a track written by Soul Mekanik gives him the credibility he is desperate for.

 

Robbie says: “When I was a kid all I listened to was hip-hop. My first records were Electro-1 and Electro-5. At school, all I ever listened to was Eazy-E, NWA, Public Enemy and The Jungle Brothers. Every week I’d buy a new tape with the money my grandma kindly gave me.â€

 

On Bong Bong and Je Ne T’aime Plus, a cover of French folk singer Manu Chao, Lily Allen provides backing vocals and it is one of album’s decent cover versions.

 

With its pounding tribal beat and Lily’s dreamy-vocals, this track is one of the best. Robbie says: “I picked songs only a certain cross section of people would know. King Of The Bongo was one and Lovelight was one of those. I wouldn’t have known about Lovelight if it hadn’t have been for Tom Middleton’s The Trip album. I fell in love with it instantly. I can’t believe how big that song is and no one knows it.

 

“And King Of The Bongo was played to me by a couple of friends of mine six years ago and I always thought ‘I’ve got to cover this’ and now was the right time.

 

“There is a whole catalogue of things I’d like to do, I’d like to do a covers album of covers. There are some really good covers of covers to cover.â€

 

She’s Madonna is the talking track of the album. Written by Robbie and his pals Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, it’s got the signature chiming electro sound of the Pet Shop Boys all over, with witty lyrics about Guy Ritchie dumping ex Tania Strecker (also an ex of Robbie’s) for Madge.

 

Robbie explains: “I sent the track to Madonna and she really liked it. I also sent her Rudebox and she didn’t really like it. You could say that the track is a bit stalkerish. She wanted to know what it was about. I lied.

 

“She said, ‘Is it the futility of being in love with Madonna? Is it the futility of being in a relationship with Madonna? Do you like Madonna in the track?’ It’s quite a day sending a song to Madonna about her. She’d heard I’d done it.â€

 

But this album isn’t going to win over any new Robbie fans because as a ninth album, experimentation comes too late.

 

His covers of Stephen ‘Tin Tin’ Duffy’s Kiss Me and The Human League’s Louise are akin to any karaoke down your local pub — despite Joey Negro and William Orbit twiddling the production knobs.

 

Plus, the rapping really makes this album an easy target to laugh at.

 

SFTW VERDICT: All in all Robbie deserves a pat on the back for finally rounding up some cool-name co-writers and producers.

 

It’s just a shame his comedy rap vocals let the songs down.

 

(3/5) :rolleyes:

 

Those latest reviews ... :cry:

I wouldn't really worry about if we could rely on loads of people buying the album, but this time I'm not so sure about that either, so I'm getting increasingly worried :(

Most of the bad reviews are only from music snobs who have no sence of humour. Unless he is a boring Indie band then they will always dislike him :rolleyes:

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

They're is a brilliant review from the Star :cheer:

 

4 out of 5 :D

 

If I can't find it on their site I will type it up -_-

Good grief!

 

The Star's Music Critic must not have realised it was Robbie! :lol:

 

 

I've never seen such a mixed bag of reviews. And I guess that will be the reaction of the general public. Some will love it and think it's genius. Others will think it's total $h!t.

Don't think there's going to be any in-between with this one. -_-

Yes, it was a really good review. The star's site is absolutelly useless. All it shows is the front page of the paper and some sport info :angry:

I'll type it up after my cuppa :drink:

Here is the Star's review

 

 

ROBBIE WILLIAMS - RUDEBOX

 

We've been hearing alot about this record _ how Robbie has gone completely underground; how loyal fans will be outraged; how he's embarassed by,and looking to ditch, his earlier work.

 

As it turns out, Rudebox is actually rather excellent, and isn't the record label-destroying album of weirdness we has been led to expect.

 

All the things that people love and hate about Robbie are present and correct, from the cheeky-chappie joking through to the self-love and self-loathing that he seems to ricochet between.

 

It's in a musical sence that this album really takes off though - Bob goes for the sort of music that HE is into. As a result, the album ranges from stomping electro pop through raucous blues to French pop, and yet somehow stays coherent.

 

Employing the Pet Shop Boys to produce two tracks - including a superb cover of Human League's Louise - was a stroke of gernius, and it appears the PSB's touch is precisely what he has been searching for.

 

Robbie's always been far more complicated than either his rabid fans or detractors have acknwledged. Rudebox should go some way to making that clear.

 

**** :D

I've read that final line in an earlier review. Someone is copying! :blink:

I've read that final line in an earlier review. Someone is copying! :blink:

 

Really :huh:

 

Maybe their is a different review in the UK Star printed a while ago :wacko:

MUSIC

The Daily Express

13/10/06

Marcus Dunk

 

ALBUM OF THE WEEK

ROBBIE WILLIAMS: RUDEBOX EMI

 

ROBBIE'S RUDE AWAKENING

 

Robbie Williams has always been one of those stars who provokes strong reactions. The people who love him, really love him, while those who hate him, really, really hate him. It's difficult to know whether this album will change anybody's minds about him but it really should.

 

For not only is Rudebox a brave departure for Robbie, it's also his most accomplished record to date.

 

Not everything has changed, however. All the things that people love and hate about the boy Williams can be found here, from the cheeky-chappy joking through to the self-love and self-loathing that he seems to ricochet between. What's often missed by both the lovers (who think Angels is the pinnacle of his musical genius) and the haters (who despise him for the same reason) - is his smart sense of humour.

 

It's nowherw more evident than on two of the albums best tracks, The 80's and the 90's where he charts his rise from schoolboy failure to all-conquering boyband star to washed-out waster.

 

There's been a lot of talk about The 90's which had to be re-recorded due to some petentially libellous lyrics about Robbie's Take That days. Lead singer Gary Barlow, for example, comes in for some pummelling: "I adopted four brothers/some I liked more than others..but the lead singer made it hard to like him/but I still loved him, despite him". Its a witty ditty that proves yet again that Williams is a skilled songwriter.

 

It's musically, however, where this album really takes off. He leaves behind the stadium pop of earlier efforts to make the sort of music that he likes. As a result, the album ranges from stomping electro pop through raucous Primal Scream-like blues to French pop, and yet somehow manages to sound coherent.

 

Robbie's always been a more complicated act than either his rabid fans or detractors have aknowledged. Hopefully, Rudebox will go some way to making that clear.

 

Here. :unsure: Is this the same reviewer? :o