@1716379259281785150

 

 

POLL

 

Many thanks to everyone who recently voted for their favorite Robbie Williams albums as part of Albumism’s readers’ poll series! Check out the consensus results & rankings below and stay tuned for our next readers’ poll coming soon.

 

https://albumism.com/polls/robbie-williams

Edited October 24, 20232 yr by Sydney11

@1849013044375904574

 

 

A trip down memory lane :heart:

 

 

Rudebox - A Track By Track Guide by Robbie Williams

 

Robbie takes us through his forthcoming album, Rudebox, and the thought process behind the tracks that make the album on which he 'found himself'.

“It wasn’t 'til I was in the studio the other day listening to a few of the tracks back, I was with the Soul Mekanik boys and the thought hit me… Do songs like the ones you like, I’m eight albums in, why didn’t I think of this before. Doh! I’ve just been scared to make this record before I think.

 

My solo career started when the Britpop explosion did and I thought, try and make songs that sound like that, but this is now… I’m 32 years old, eight albums in, and this is the record I’ve always wanted to make. It’s the start for me. It’s re-ignited how I think about what I can do with music myself. I’ve always been scared to try out different things and this album I think I’ve lost the fear of where I should be in my head as a populist, as a populist artist, and it means I can just go and do wonky pop now, which is all I really wanted to do anyway.

 

It has become something on which I’ve found myself. This is the right direction for me personally, this is what it is. I saw the whole Robbie thing coming to a close, I couldn’t make another album like the ones I’d made, and this has just opened up a thousand other doors. What I am excited about now is making more music. I love all the stuff on the album, I love Rudebox, it’s a favourite song of mine. I don’t know what’s gonna happen now, I’m excited about getting it out there, but I’m more excited about making more.”

Robbie Williams, August 2006

 

 

 

Rudebox

Danny and Kelvin (aka Soul Mekanik) sent me the very basic drum track and it just became a floor shaker with lyrics straight outta Stoke on Trent. My heads been in some strange places and taken some strange exit turns since I was 16. When we get in the studio we gel and we know where we are going, we get excited when it’s right. I think I’m/we’re onto something. I just think the synchronicity of where we come from and how we are as people adds its own certain chemistry in the studio. It’s a bit strange to be playing this live at the moment cos no one knows it and the venues are massive and playing something so leftfield can be quite daunting, it is something I haven't done on any other tour (played something no one knows) usually I am a big fan of give them what they want. This time I decided it is a case of give them what they don't know they want yet.

 

Viva Life On Mars

For me it is doing away with all I have been taught and instead of investing my faith in a Catholic religion, I decided that the fantasies on the internet are more interesting than the fantasies at the pulpit. I see it as Oh Brother Where Art Thou, meets Primal Scream when they were good; there has been three World Cups since then. Is this my first ever hoe down? A few hoes have bought me down before…

 

Lovelight

I wouldn’t have known about Lovelight if it hadn’t have been for Tom Middleton’s The Trip album - he put it on there, and I fell in love with it instantly…I can’t believe how big that song is and no one knows it. It is amazing to work with a white boy with a ghetto pass like Mark Ronson. He is on the cutting edge of all that is good out there and still manages to love pop. I feel honoured to work with somebody that puts cynicism aside in favour of the truth. I was concerned about singing that vocal, because its full on falsetto all the way through it and I’d only ever done that on the chorus of a track called Tripping that I did a couple of years ago. I knew that Lewis Taylor had done such a great vocal that it would be really hard to replicate but I think I did good singing…

 

King Of The Bongo

I didn’t pick this song, It picked me… 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. King Of The Bongo to me is like an unwritten Disney Film. How did Lily Allen end up on here? I knew about her as I had met her at the studio. The Lily Allen phenomenon is not solely contained to the UK she seems to be doing well everywhere... good on her too.

 

She's Madonna

My life seems to be like a never ending edition of Jim'll fix it. I am truly blessed. The odds of Robbie Williams making a ninth album ten years ago would have been more than long against. To be writing this album and having my heroes work with me feels phenomenal. I played Tour De France by Kraftwerk and said “I like this, Can we do something like this, but not much like this,” but then everything else came together pretty quickly. In case anyone asks…There is nothing tongue in cheek about this song at all, I have always fancied Madonna. I'd have hoped for it to be this good, but you can never tell before venturing into the studio. It is just a bonus that it worked out so well.

 

Keep On

There were three things I taped off the TV that I used to watch on repeat when I was a kid: Prince’s Alphabet St tour, Public Enemy at Brixton and The Happy Mondays at G Mex. I suppose I was interested in the Happy Mondays because they looked like psychedelic next door neighbours with faces and attitude that I understood. Little did we all know that in 2006 we would still be chasing 1989? I can't remember lyrics at the best of times, there are so many in this so I doubt I will ever do it live. It is about choosing a different kind of life and believing in the boogie and all it brings.

 

Good Doctor

Originally we had a sample from the Return of Django by the Upsetters, but we got rid of that, but we could always do that later. Sorry The Upsetters… It came from trying to bend the rules of a sober life, I am 32 and am still trying to look for a short cut, there isn't one. Is it hard to rhyme all those medical terms? No but it is hard to find a perfect balance.

 

The Actor

Partly written on Oscars Night, The Actor is about living in LA, and how it has given me little respect for the acting profession. I don't see this as a dance song at all; I see it as a story over Germanic electro pop.

 

Never Touch That Switch

The first records I bought were electro records and I never thought in a million years it would be something Robbie Williams could do. It only struck me in the studio as we were recording. Although I didn't write this one it just reminded me of pre-narcotics and pro-stealing your mums’ lino. What does it mean? I don't know, it is in the eye of the beholder. To me Never Touch That Switch is all about never opening your system to the mood altering experience...you don't know what it can do to you.

 

Louise

When I was writing and recording Intensive Care with Stephen Duffy, Louise by the Human League kept on being the centre point on what I wanted to achieve with the record. With Louise I remember when it first came out, and then I didn’t listen to it for ages until the middle of the 90’s. When I heard it again, it kind of broke my heart thinking of a period of time I had back when…I wanted to make an album that would hopefully break a few hearts in 10/15 years time. Louise was the template for the Intensive Care album, so it seemed the natural next step to play homage to it and I think we’ve done a good version of it. I’d always wanted to work with William Orbit, I love my ambient melancholy.

 

We're The Pet Shop Boys

I just love the fact that the Pet Shop Boys covered it, it is not one of their songs and I love the irony of me covering a cover. Above all that the romance for me in this song is paramount. Did I feel like a Pet Shop Boy when I was recording it? Yes absolutely (said with a big smile). Chris Heath (the person who co-wrote Feel, my autobiography, with me) played it to me and I fell in love with it. I must say when I’ve listened to it back and when I get a chance to sing it, the “What have I, What have I, What have I done to deserve this” bit sends shivers down my spine, everytime it comes up. It’s a sense of history, yours and mine and those particular lyrics really affect me. It’s an honour to do it. I love the Pet Shop Boys and I was pleased to learn that amongst pop genii I can hold my own.

 

Burslem Normals

It is about an ideal of youth; It is about how in the 80s and the early 90s there were so many avenues to explore and so many gangs to be a part of. Youth Culture these days depressingly seems just about the Chav. Back then we had so much choice and the Burslem Normals was a piece of graffiti from the town I was born in, I don't know what they were into, but they sound cool as f***.I have always liked what I like and it has always been varied and fortunately I find myself find a position where I do not have to pigeon hole myself. The sentiment in this song is the same as the sentiment in the song Heaven From Here but wonkier.

 

Kiss Me

Stephen Duffy plays like he hates it; I wanted to do it as I wanted him to see how good the track is. Also when this track came out in 1981, something nice must have been happening to me at the time, because it makes me feel full of hope. Youth’s yearning for life and love and all of that. Does he like it? I don't know, I daren't ask him. Ok, so I just asked him, and yes he does.

 

The 80s

I was obsessed by a track by the Mitchell Brothers called Routine Check and also a big fan of Mike Skinner of The Streets and what he does over records, be it rapping or poetry. Its very similar to Ian Dury’s stuff to me, I'm also a big fan of his, he was the first white British rapper. I’ve always always wanted to be a rapper, I’ve always been jealous of rappers because of how comfy they are and how cool they look, they’ve always got a tracksuit on and trainers and I have to dress up cos Im a popstar... I want to be a rapper but the world won't let me. The only reason I have craved my own niche is because it is not that easy. I love words and will continue to use them. It is bitter sweet about a decade where I formed an opinion, I was wrong.

 

The 90s

The 90s on the other hand was, originally going to have a sample from one of my top 5 favourite songs… Wichita Lineman in it. I didn’t like it at first, but I came around to it and did some poetry on it, some comfy rapping, with very English storytelling like a modern Roald Dahl but fatter! The 90s then on became the 90s after we took the sample out. I look back at it now with a fondness in my heart. I think they are just two nice bookends; ‘The 80s – up until I’d left school, lost my virginity, done all kinds. Then there was the whole Take That story to tell which was The 90s’. It’s weird now, I’ve spunked all the best material so I’ll have to do something drastic so that we have some source material for the next one.

 

Summertime

When it was originally written it was one of the first, if not the first songs I wrote when I came out of Take That and the feel of the song is a complete juxtapose of how I was at the time. When I wrote Summertime, which is a very euphoric, up song I don’t think I could have been anymore depressed, deluded, lost. I remember I went down to London in a pair of Vivian Westwood tartan bondage trousers, a pair of black Patrick Cox and a lovely white Vivian Westwood shirt…I was skinny as, a right proper raver and I moved in with a lady on new years night, and by February I was just fat! fat and horrible and lost, all over the place. That was when I met up with Ant Genn and we wrote the song together, Ant was my indie enfant terrible; I adored him cos he was cool as f*** and Northern and funny, I wanted to be him, but drugs took their tole on both of us. At least I have a lasting memory of an amazing yet catastrophic summer, plus I love the fact that little bunnies freeze in the snow.

 

Dickhead (Bonus track)

Dickhead was definitely leant from the Mitchell Brothers, so they are to blame for this whole thing. Conversely amongst my friends, Dickhead is the biggest compliment that can be paid, if I call you a Dickhead I like you, but it means the reverse on this record. Life sometimes seems to be a Krypton factor course of idiots, unfortunately idiots speak the loudest. This song is for everyone that thinks I am a Dickhead, I am just reciprocating, the feeling is mutual.

 

https://robbiewilliams.com/blogs/news/rudeb...robbie-williams

 

 

Two of my favourite songs from the album

 

 

Edited October 23, 20241 yr by Sydney11

A trip down memory lane :heart:

Rudebox - A Track By Track Guide by Robbie Williams

 

 

 

The 90s

The 90s on the other hand was, originally going to have a sample from one of my top 5 favourite songs… Wichita Lineman in it.

 

 

Oh my goodness -imagine if he had left that in?

It's one of my very favourite songs too :wub:

 

Anyway -still love the brilliance of the Rudebox album - much maligned but loved by many B-)

 

Nice reading again the reviews at the beginning of this thread . Unfortunately most ordinary folk just ran with the tabloids opinion & refused to give it a chance.

 

 

@Albumism

·

2h

Robbie Williams released 'Rudebox' 19 years ago on October 23, 2006 | Listen to the album + discover where it ranks in our readers' poll: https://album.ink/RWilliamsPoll

August 21, 2006

Rudebox - A Track By Track Guide by Robbie Williams

Robbie takes us through his forthcoming album, Rudebox, and the thought process behind the tracks that make the album on which he 'found himself'.

“It wasn’t 'til I was in the studio the other day listening to a few of the tracks back, I was with the Soul Mekanik boys and the thought hit me… Do songs like the ones you like, I’m eight albums in, why didn’t I think of this before. Doh! I’ve just been scared to make this record before I think.

My solo career started when the Britpop explosion did and I thought, try and make songs that sound like that, but this is now… I’m 32 years old, eight albums in, and this is the record I’ve always wanted to make. It’s the start for me. It’s re-ignited how I think about what I can do with music myself. I’ve always been scared to try out different things and this album I think I’ve lost the fear of where I should be in my head as a populist, as a populist artist, and it means I can just go and do wonky pop now, which is all I really wanted to do anyway.

It has become something on which I’ve found myself. This is the right direction for me personally, this is what it is. I saw the whole Robbie thing coming to a close, I couldn’t make another album like the ones I’d made, and this has just opened up a thousand other doors. What I am excited about now is making more music. I love all the stuff on the album, I love Rudebox, it’s a favourite song of mine. I don’t know what’s gonna happen now, I’m excited about getting it out there, but I’m more excited about making more.”
Robbie Williams, August 2006

Rudebox

Danny and Kelvin (aka Soul Mekanik) sent me the very basic drum track and it just became a floor shaker with lyrics straight outta Stoke on Trent. My heads been in some strange places and taken some strange exit turns since I was 16. When we get in the studio we gel and we know where we are going, we get excited when it’s right. I think I’m/we’re onto something. I just think the synchronicity of where we come from and how we are as people adds its own certain chemistry in the studio. It’s a bit strange to be playing this live at the moment cos no one knows it and the venues are massive and playing something so leftfield can be quite daunting, it is something I haven't done on any other tour (played something no one knows) usually I am a big fan of give them what they want. This time I decided it is a case of give them what they don't know they want yet.

Viva Life On Mars

For me it is doing away with all I have been taught and instead of investing my faith in a Catholic religion, I decided that the fantasies on the internet are more interesting than the fantasies at the pulpit. I see it as Oh Brother Where Art Thou, meets Primal Scream when they were good; there has been three World Cups since then. Is this my first ever hoe down? A few hoes have bought me down before…

Lovelight

I wouldn’t have known about Lovelight if it hadn’t have been for Tom Middleton’s The Trip album - he put it on there, and I fell in love with it instantly…I can’t believe how big that song is and no one knows it. It is amazing to work with a white boy with a ghetto pass like Mark Ronson. He is on the cutting edge of all that is good out there and still manages to love pop. I feel honoured to work with somebody that puts cynicism aside in favour of the truth. I was concerned about singing that vocal, because its full on falsetto all the way through it and I’d only ever done that on the chorus of a track called Tripping that I did a couple of years ago. I knew that Lewis Taylor had done such a great vocal that it would be really hard to replicate but I think I did good singing…

King Of The Bongo

I didn’t pick this song, It picked me… 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. King Of The Bongo to me is like an unwritten Disney Film. How did Lily Allen end up on here? I knew about her as I had met her at the studio. The Lily Allen phenomenon is not solely contained to the UK she seems to be doing well everywhere... good on her too.

She's Madonna

My life seems to be like a never ending edition of Jim'll fix it. I am truly blessed. The odds of Robbie Williams making a ninth album ten years ago would have been more than long against. To be writing this album and having my heroes work with me feels phenomenal. I played Tour De France by Kraftwerk and said “I like this, Can we do something like this, but not much like this,” but then everything else came together pretty quickly. In case anyone asks…There is nothing tongue in cheek about this song at all, I have always fancied Madonna. I'd have hoped for it to be this good, but you can never tell before venturing into the studio. It is just a bonus that it worked out so well.

Keep On

There were three things I taped off the TV that I used to watch on repeat when I was a kid: Prince’s Alphabet St tour, Public Enemy at Brixton and The Happy Mondays at G Mex. I suppose I was interested in the Happy Mondays because they looked like psychedelic next door neighbours with faces and attitude that I understood. Little did we all know that in 2006 we would still be chasing 1989? I can't remember lyrics at the best of times, there are so many in this so I doubt I will ever do it live. It is about choosing a different kind of life and believing in the boogie and all it brings.

Good Doctor

Originally we had a sample from the Return of Django by the Upsetters, but we got rid of that, but we could always do that later. Sorry The Upsetters… It came from trying to bend the rules of a sober life, I am 32 and am still trying to look for a short cut, there isn't one. Is it hard to rhyme all those medical terms? No but it is hard to find a perfect balance.

The Actor

Partly written on Oscars Night, The Actor is about living in LA, and how it has given me little respect for the acting profession. I don't see this as a dance song at all; I see it as a story over Germanic electro pop.

Never Touch That Switch

The first records I bought were electro records and I never thought in a million years it would be something Robbie Williams could do. It only struck me in the studio as we were recording. Although I didn't write this one it just reminded me of pre-narcotics and pro-stealing your mums’ lino. What does it mean? I don't know, it is in the eye of the beholder. To me Never Touch That Switch is all about never opening your system to the mood altering experience...you don't know what it can do to you.

Louise

When I was writing and recording Intensive Care with Stephen Duffy, Louise by the Human League kept on being the centre point on what I wanted to achieve with the record. With Louise I remember when it first came out, and then I didn’t listen to it for ages until the middle of the 90’s. When I heard it again, it kind of broke my heart thinking of a period of time I had back when…I wanted to make an album that would hopefully break a few hearts in 10/15 years time. Louise was the template for the Intensive Care album, so it seemed the natural next step to play homage to it and I think we’ve done a good version of it. I’d always wanted to work with William Orbit, I love my ambient melancholy.

We're The Pet Shop Boys

I just love the fact that the Pet Shop Boys covered it, it is not one of their songs and I love the irony of me covering a cover. Above all that the romance for me in this song is paramount. Did I feel like a Pet Shop Boy when I was recording it? Yes absolutely (said with a big smile). Chris Heath (the person who co-wrote Feel, my autobiography, with me) played it to me and I fell in love with it. I must say when I’ve listened to it back and when I get a chance to sing it, the “What have I, What have I, What have I done to deserve this” bit sends shivers down my spine, everytime it comes up. It’s a sense of history, yours and mine and those particular lyrics really affect me. It’s an honour to do it. I love the Pet Shop Boys and I was pleased to learn that amongst pop genii I can hold my own.

Burslem Normals

It is about an ideal of youth; It is about how in the 80s and the early 90s there were so many avenues to explore and so many gangs to be a part of. Youth Culture these days depressingly seems just about the Chav. Back then we had so much choice and the Burslem Normals was a piece of graffiti from the town I was born in, I don't know what they were into, but they sound cool as f***.I have always liked what I like and it has always been varied and fortunately I find myself find a position where I do not have to pigeon hole myself. The sentiment in this song is the same as the sentiment in the song Heaven From Here but wonkier.

Kiss Me

Stephen Duffy plays like he hates it; I wanted to do it as I wanted him to see how good the track is. Also when this track came out in 1981, something nice must have been happening to me at the time, because it makes me feel full of hope. Youth’s yearning for life and love and all of that. Does he like it? I don't know, I daren't ask him. Ok, so I just asked him, and yes he does.

The 80s

I was obsessed by a track by the Mitchell Brothers called Routine Check and also a big fan of Mike Skinner of The Streets and what he does over records, be it rapping or poetry. Its very similar to Ian Dury’s stuff to me, I'm also a big fan of his, he was the first white British rapper. I’ve always always wanted to be a rapper, I’ve always been jealous of rappers because of how comfy they are and how cool they look, they’ve always got a tracksuit on and trainers and I have to dress up cos Im a popstar... I want to be a rapper but the world won't let me. The only reason I have craved my own niche is because it is not that easy. I love words and will continue to use them. It is bitter sweet about a decade where I formed an opinion, I was wrong.

The 90s

The 90s on the other hand was, originally going to have a sample from one of my top 5 favourite songs… Wichita Lineman in it. I didn’t like it at first, but I came around to it and did some poetry on it, some comfy rapping, with very English storytelling like a modern Roald Dahl but fatter! The 90s then on became the 90s after we took the sample out. I look back at it now with a fondness in my heart. I think they are just two nice bookends; ‘The 80s – up until I’d left school, lost my virginity, done all kinds. Then there was the whole Take That story to tell which was The 90s’. It’s weird now, I’ve spunked all the best material so I’ll have to do something drastic so that we have some source material for the next one.

Summertime

When it was originally written it was one of the first, if not the first songs I wrote when I came out of Take That and the feel of the song is a complete juxtapose of how I was at the time. When I wrote Summertime, which is a very euphoric, up song I don’t think I could have been anymore depressed, deluded, lost. I remember I went down to London in a pair of Vivian Westwood tartan bondage trousers, a pair of black Patrick Cox and a lovely white Vivian Westwood shirt…I was skinny as, a right proper raver and I moved in with a lady on new years night, and by February I was just fat! fat and horrible and lost, all over the place. That was when I met up with Ant Genn and we wrote the song together, Ant was my indie enfant terrible; I adored him cos he was cool as f*** and Northern and funny, I wanted to be him, but drugs took their tole on both of us. At least I have a lasting memory of an amazing yet catastrophic summer, plus I love the fact that little bunnies freeze in the snow.

Dickhead (Bonus track)

Dickhead was definitely leant from the Mitchell Brothers, so they are to blame for this whole thing. Conversely amongst my friends, Dickhead is the biggest compliment that can be paid, if I call you a Dickhead I like you, but it means the reverse on this record. Life sometimes seems to be a Krypton factor course of idiots, unfortunately idiots speak the loudest. This song is for everyone that thinks I am a Dickhead, I am just reciprocating, the feeling is mutual.

Rudebox - A Track By Track Guide by Robbie Williams

Source https://www.youtube.com/@musicchannel7294

I love the 90s and also love Wichita Lineman.

I wonder how it sounded with that sample in?

@ssoundod

·

17h

#OnThisDay in 2006 – Robbie Williams topped the UK Albums chart with ‘Rudebox’ This was his seventh consecutive chart-topper as a solo artist in the United Kingdom, and it also reached No.1 in eight other countries that year

➡️https://soundod.com/november-4-in-music-history/

A lot of chat about Rudebox going on at the moment which will be 20 yers old on OCT 23rd

This is my favourite live version but I also love the original video

Source https://www.youtube.com/@TakeThatUcozru

Source https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Nho5FPo__hIFbg_UlaCgA

Rudebox (Radio Edit)

Song by

Robbie Williams

(Do the rudebox
Shake your rudebox
Do the rudebox
Shake your rudebox
Do the rudebox
Shake your rudebox
Do the rudebox
Shake your rudebox)

OK then, back to basics
Grab your shell toes and your fat laces
A little hand clap for some funk faces
And make your body move in the following places
Goes up your back and then down your spine
And when it hits your head...

OK then, back to bass-heads
Dance like you just won at the Special Olympics
They got the rudebox off the back of a spaceship
So sick I just had to take it
The R-U-D-E-B-O-X
Up your jacksy, split your kecks,

Sing a song of semtex
Pocket full of Durex
Body full of Mandrax
Are we gonna have sex (yes)
Do you wear your knee socks (ohh)
Back to the rudebox

Got this double fantasy
Where we just never stop
I've got one design
And that's to funk you to the top
Know what's on my mind,
It's only one thing you will find
I got one design
And that's to bump you till you drop

Rudebox
Do the rudebox
'Cause you so nasty
Rudebox
Shake your rudebox
Why you so nasty?
Rudebox
Do the rudebox
'Cause you so nasty
Rudebox
Shake your rudebox
Why you so nasty?

OK then, back to spaceship
Take both pills, f.uck the Matrix
Jack those Jills, shake your Playtex
Rock three stripes, not the Asics
A-D-I-D-A-S old school, 'cause it's the best
(Yes)
TK Maxx cost less
(Yes)
Jackson looks a mess
(Bless)

OK then, what to do
If you try to jack me I'll rudebox you
If you rudebox me I'll rudebox your whole crew
'Cause it's what I do
Ain't that right boo (true)

I'll ride with you
If you can get me to the border
'Cause the sheriff's after me
For what I did to his daughter
I did it like this
(You did it like that)
I love it when you double clap (clap)

Got this double fantasy
Where we just never stop
I've got one design
And that's to funk you to the top
Know what's on my mind,
It's only one thing you will find
I got one design
And that's to bump you till you drop

Rudebox
Do the rudebox
'Cause you so nasty
Rudebox
Shake your rudebox
Why you so nasty?
Rudebox
Do the rudebox
'Cause you so nasty
Rudebox
Shake your rudebox
Why you so nasty?

OK then, check the tan line
Make your body shape
Like you're stood on a land mine
Call me on my mobile
Not the land line
And jack the main line
At the same time

OK, this is what we do
Got a jam so fresh
It's nice for you
OK, give me what you got
And dial 808
For the bass to drop
OK then, what's the fracas
Grab your cardy
Your lead hat and the bus pass
You don't sweat much
For a fat lass
Grab your rudebox
'Cause your box is righteous
OK bum, rush the show
I got high speed dubbing on my stereo
And all the tunes in the box are the cherrio
I know I told you before,
Did you hear me though

Got this double fantasy
Where we just never stop
I've got one design
And that's to funk you to the top
Know what's on my mind,
It's only one thing you will find
I got one design
And that's to bump you till you drop

Rudebox
Do the rudebox
'Cause you so nasty
Rudebox
Shake your rudebox
Why you so nasty?
Rudebox
Do the rudebox
'Cause you so nasty

Rudebox
Shake your rudebox
Why you so nasty?

Do the rudebox
Shake your rudebox
Do the rudebox
Shake your rudebox
Do the rudebox
Shake your rudebox
Do the rudebox
Shake your rudebox
Do the rudebox
Shake your rudebox
Do the rudebox
Shake your rudebox...

Edited Sunday at 11:085 days by Sydney11

A reminder of some of the reviews at the time & even a few more in the years in between 😋

Robbie Williams, Rudebox

This article is more than 19 years old

(EMI)

I
It is hard to think of a recent release that has incurred quite the level of negative pre-publicity afforded Robbie Williams' seventh album. Coming hard on the heels of a world tour that began with Williams offering refunds to the entire audience at the opening show and ended with the singer apparently announcing his retirement from live performance, Rudebox has been billed as incontrovertible proof that the previously unstoppable Williams juggernaut has developed engine trouble. Here, it has been intimated, is the sound of Robbie Williams' big end going: an album so peculiar, so spectacularly misconceived, that it will decimate his fanbase at a stroke. "What a bizarre, baffling and downright strange record this is," howled one august music magazine.

Alas, would that Rudebox were that interesting. There are certainly moments when you wonder what on earth Williams thinks he's up to - not least a cover of world music star Manu Chao's novelty track Bongo Bong/Je Ne T'aime Plus that concludes with Williams doing a terrible impersonation of the French legend he recently namechecked in an interview as Serge Gainsborough - yet, for the most part, it turns out not to be bizarre, baffling or downright strange, but somehow inevitable. On his last album, Intensive Care, Williams' new co-writer Stephen Duffy apparently expunged the singer's desire to record the wretched jokey tracks that had peppered all his previous albums, like a musical equivalent of the tiresome array of gurns and knowing winks he employs onstage. Reviews were better, but in Britain at least, sales were not: the final single from Intensive Care, Sin Sin Sin, was the lowest-charting of Williams' career. The ensuing live dates, meanwhile, suggested that Williams' longing to be taken seriously as an artist and songwriter was precluded by his longing to perform Me And My Shadow à deux with Jonathan Wilkes, former presenter of ITV's You've Been Framed. Don't let Intensive Care fool you, seemed to be the message; I'm not done winking and gurning yet.

And so it proves. Despite a stellar cast list, including the Pet Shop Boys, Lily Allen, New York hip hop DJ Mark Ronson and producer William Orbit, Rudebox is an album that doesn't stop winking and gurning at you for over an hour. It throws a lot of musical styles at the wall: R&B, 80s cover versions and electro among them. But every time one of them looks like sticking, every time it threatens to hit a note of affecting seriousness (the brilliant, icy meditation on fame's corrupting power that is She's Madonna, a cover of New York electro act My Robot Friend's We're the Pet Shop Boys - a glorious homage to the power of music - or The Actor's skewed, slightly disturbing synth-pop) it quickly starts making with the pop-eyes and funny face: "We're mad, innit?" as Williams exclaims at one juncture. This, it scarcely needs saying, proves fantastically irritating, not least because the funny face usually takes the form of a novelty hip-hop track, often featuring the uniquely depressing sound of a white multimillionaire pop star rapping in Jamaican patois. Good Doctor finds Williams doing a terrible north-western approximation of Mike Skinner's vocal delivery. It's the Coronation Streets.

The kind thing to say would be that Rudebox exists in a long tradition of messy, risk-taking records that seem less like coherent albums than a kind of musical miscellany in search of an editor: the Beatles' White Album, Fleetwood Mac's Tusk and the Clash's Sandinsta! among them. But you feel fairly daft implying that Williams' limp cover of Stephen Duffy's 80s pop hit Kiss Me somehow drinks from the same stream of inspiration as Dear Prudence or Somebody Got Murdered, and, in any case, it's hard to think of a song more likely to curb the listener's generosity of spirit than Rudebox's closing "secret" track, Dickhead. A woeful sub-Eminem rant, it features Williams gallantly threatening to set his retinue of bouncers on anyone who dares to criticise his music. By the time it concludes, puzzlingly, with the singer shouting "I've got a bucket of shit! I've got a bucket of shit!", one feels less inclined to say the kind thing than the cruel thing: you don't need to tell me that, pal, I've just spent the last hour examining it.

In truth, Rudebox doesn't deserve such opprobrium. If it's unlikely to confound fans of Captain Beefheart with its edginess and experimental verve, the mind still boggles at what Williams' core audience - the mums, the Heat readers, the couples who buy two CDs a year from Tesco - will make of it. A scant handful of highlights aside, it is packed with half-baked ideas, bad jokes, music that any other star of Williams' stature would be terrified of the general public hearing. Perhaps that's the point. If nothing else, Rudebox is a sharp reminder that Robbie Williams is unique.

Robbie Williams, Rudebox | Music | The Guardian

Edited Sunday at 11:595 days by Sydney11

Twenty Years Ago Steve Pafford did Robbie Williams in the Rudebox review

You’ve heard the impossibly incongruous chart news from Blighty, right? Robbie Williams, 52, has overtaken The Beatles on the all-time leaderboard for most UK No. 1 albums ever with his 16th pole positor Britpop. 

Other than the cynically inevitable ’deluxe’ edition featuring a track called 100% Beau (miaow), co-authored with Supergrass’ Gaz Coombes, I can’t say said album or feat has filled me with the joys of winter, although the PSB-ish one about Morrissey is hilariously perceptive.

Alas, back in 2006 the ex-Take That Fat Dancer did release something at turns bizarre and really rather interesting: a curate’s egg of experimental mainly synth-pop songs that sound like a superior grab-bag of B-sides. Your Steve Pafford guy was summoned to EMI’s Hammersmith HQ for a preview, and this was the result.

Get ready to relight my fryer… Or was that his and Gary’s?

One could be forgiven for thinking Robbie really has “gone gay”, if his latest “experimental dance” opus is anything to go by.

Rudebox has constant references to bum-sex including the Robster being on the receiving end. “So sick, I just had to take it”.

The insanely catchy next single Lovelight, with its pitch-perfect falsetto disco, does the unthinkable and manages to out-camp the Scissor Sisters.

Lyrically the alluring electro-ballad Burslem Normals is a bitter Morrissey-inspired barb against Burberry bling chav culture, though the music is pure ABBA-esque Erasure, only with a more expensive synthesizer.

Speaking of synth duos, he then ropes in his and our favourite double act Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe on two of the most accessible tracks here: We’re The Pet Shop Boys is a hard-edged cover of a cover where the narrator wistfully reflects back to a time in the Eighties when he and his lover thought of themselves as the Pet Shop Boys.

PSB crop up again on She’s Madonna, a gloriously Motown-eque sweeping synth anthem that nods to many of the pop duos past hits with a ridiculously rampant Robbie vocal. It’s possibly the best thing Robbie or the Pets have put their name to for aeons. So ignore my tittle-tattle on which way Robbie is well swung, because, on the face of it, the song seems to provide ‘proof’ of Robbie’s heterosexuality. With a chorus of ‘I love you baby, but face it, she’s Madonna/No man on earth could say he don’t want her. But hang on, surely even someone as buffeted from the real world as him would know that the 48-year old Madge vadge is about as appealing to the straight male population as rice pudding? Ah, she’s one of those ‘gay icon’ type thingies, yes? I get it now.

Elsewhere there’s an intriguing ragbag of ideas, from solid covers of ’80s Pop faves Louise and Kiss Me (Human League and current writing foil Stephen ’TinTin’ Duffy respectively), Hunky Dory-era Bowie tributes (Viva Life On Mars and The Actor) and a Streets-lite two-part autobiographical suite The 80s and The 90s, where lyrics such as ’It’s nice that you’ve got a mansion/While I’m treated like the drummer from Hanson” prove that the ex-boybander’s post-Take That trauma is still as evident and as brilliantly twisted as ever. Strange fascination indeed. ****

Steve Pafford

Twenty Years Ago Steve Pafford did Robbie Williams in the Rudebox review - Steve Pafford

Those lyrics are about the same level as something Geri Halliwell could come up with on a good day!!! Awful, awful song and album. They were both an insult to music.

Robbie Williams: Rudebox

Your least favourite popstar’s gone electro and it’s – whisper it – good

By NME|23rd October 2006

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 zeitgeisty, 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.

Priya Elan

Robbie Williams: Rudebox

Robbie Williams RUDEBOX. EMI

“It wasn’t till I was in a studio the other day listening to a few of the tracks back, I was with the Soul Mekanik boys and the thought hit me… Do songs like the ones you like, I’m eight albums in, so why didn’t I think of this before? Doh! I’ve just been scared to make this record before I think.” Well Robbie, you’ve at last convinced me. Now I’m no fan but there’s a lot about this album I like; its (very) rude rap, its diversity (he still hangs onto a few pop ballads that are as good as anything he’s recorded before), its humour, its exuberance. Robbie adds, “My solo career started when the Britpop explosion did, and I thought, try and make songs that sound like that, but this is now… I’m 32 years old, eight albums in, and this is the record I’ve always wanted to make. It’s the start for me. It’s reignited how I think about what I can do with music myself. I’ve always been scared to try out different things and with this album I think I’ve lost the fear of where I should be in my head as a populist; as a populist artist. It means I can just go and do wonky pop now, which is I really wanted to do anyway.

“It has become something on which I’ve found myself. This is the right direction for me personally, this is what it is. I saw the whole Robbie thing coming to a close: I couldn’t make another album like the ones I made before; and this has just opened up a thousand other doors. What I am excited about now is making more music. I love all the stuff on this album, I love Rudebox, it’s a favourite song of mine. I don’t know what’s gonna happen now, I’m excited about getting it out there, but I’m more excited about making more.”

There’s no less than 16 songs on RUDEBOX and at times it had me roaring with laughter. For example, Rudebox is a jigging song if I’ve heard one (you can image some very rude dancing to this beat-laden mutha), and his take on black rappers is achingly funny. Bongo Song with the lyric “I’m the king of bongo, hit me when I come…,” innocent female backing vocals and even the odd touch of brass, had my feet tapping and chest heaving. She’s Madonna sounds like a traditional Robbie ballad with its huge melody and expansive production. Keep On is a clever mix of ballad and rap while We’re The Pet Shop Boys is a great homage that includes samples and the boys helping things along. Good Doctor is rap with the funkiest of beats and Robbie doing the black rapper helped by other (real) rappers. Never Touch The Switch opens with some quite unique sounds and I can imagine this making USA inroads. Louise is a top quality pop ballad with a lower register voice floating over a top William Orbit production and mix. It’s a highlight of this interesting album. My other great favourite is the haunting Burslem Normals which sounds like another Orbit effort but is actually produced by Soul Mekanik and mixed by Jeremy Wheatley. Perhaps RUDEBOX is not a great album but it is a very good one, and I think I’m listening to the real Robbie Williams for the first time. It’s almost like a concept pop album with many high points and very little to dislike; it’s also diverse in both mood and pace. Ultimately it’s Robbie taking a few risks, and in a way I could almost get to like him. Well done fella…

3.5/5

Shakenstir » Robbie Williams RUDEBOX. EMI

Rudebox

Ed Power

Robbie Williams' seventh album is everything a pop record should not be.

Clocking in at 75 baffling and exhausting minutes, Robbie Williams’ seventh album is everything a pop record should not be: portentous, potty-mouthed, over-weening. Williams, now 32 and tiring of the chart wars, is, one guesses, either bent on frightening the beyjasus out of fans, or has finally succumbed to the mania that seemed always to glimmer between the cracks of that cheeky-imp leer. Whatever’s eating him, the result is one of the most dribble-down-its-mouth bizarre mainstream albums in recent memory.
Saving Rudebox from itself is a top of the line production crew: William Orbit, The Pet Shop Boys, grime duo Soul Mekanik and house guru Joey Negro all have an opportunity to reshape Robbie in their own image and their studio chops ensure the project is some way shy of a travesty.

You will be relieved, for instance, to know that ‘Rudebox’, the single, is, by a distance, the daftest thing on the record. Here Robbie, against the grind and shuffle of a boilerplate funk breakdown, extols us to “rock the three stripes not the Asics” while getting his groove on in quite ludicrous fashion. As the chorus, a spew of distorted Barry White vocals, rolls around for the fifth time, the listener might be forgiven to attacking their stereo with a meat-cleaver.

Evidence of William’s plunge off the deep end continues to stack up over the LP’s opening third. ‘Viva Life On Mars‘ trafficks in apocalyptic country rock: not entirely inaccurately Williams describes it as ‘sci fi hoedown’. ‘King Of The Bongo’, meanwhile, is a distressingly exuberant Manu Chao cover with a Lily Allen backing vocal.

Scarier yet is ‘Keep On’, which sees our unhinged hero attempting to cultivate the Mike Skinner within. Notwithstanding a satisfyingly squelchy bass-line, the end product is every bit as limp as one would expect. In no way a geezer, Williams’ Joe Bloke shtick would be laughable were it not so cack-handed.

Only as the album lurches towards its midpoint does some calm descend. ‘She’s Madonna’, coasting on a glossy Pet Shop Boys production job, is a misty eyed ballad in the tradition of William’s finest – i.e. slushiest – work; ‘The Actor’, for its part, is a passable tilt at euro-techno, featuring Williams and an unidentified female vocalist engaging in a frosty Felix Housecat/Miss Kitten back and forth.

Significantly, Rudebox’s two most satisfying moments are covers. William’s reading of the Human League’s ‘Louise,’ upholstered with gleaming William Orbit production, finds the singer swooning at the feet of the song – the only point across the entire record where the wideboy Robbie persona is asked to take a back seat. No less affecting is ‘Kiss Me’, a weak-kneed version of Stephen Duffy’s mid ‘80s hit , wherein Williams delivers a more than passable impression of a heartbroken shyboy. Sandwiched in between is the brilliantly screwy ‘We’re The Pet Shop Boys’, written by the electro artist My Robot Friend and overseen by – oh, can you smell the irony – Neil Tenant and Chris Lowe.

Over the closing strait Williams appears to experience a sudden jolt of clarity; realising perhaps that he stands in danger of frightening off the entirety of his fan-base, Robbie trots out ‘Millennium’-shaped ballad, ‘The ‘90s’, a wrenching rumination on his Take That years and the ravaging consequences of fame and wealth. Too little, too late, those diehards that have not already taken refuge in the high ground may bleat.
Bloated and barking, Rudebox feels like nothing less than the last will and testament of a pop icon who has fallen out of love with the medium and is scrabbling for a fresh direction. One hopes he finds the inner peace he so clearly, and desperately, seeks.

Rudebox | Hotpress

Edited Sunday at 11:565 days by Sydney11

Album Review: Robbie Williams – Rudebox (2006)

Posted byswiselyFebruary 6, 2011Posted inMusicTags:Madonna, Pet Shop Boys, Robbie Williams, Rudebox, Take That

peak: UK #1

I recently reviewed Williams’ Reality Killed the Video Star (2009). That album is the complete opposite of the one reviewed here, Rudebox, and yet I love both. RKTVS was his last album before he rejoined Take That. The 2009 album was a surprising shift into mature pop – and if you know anything about Robbie Williams, you know “mature” is definitely not the first adjective that comes to mind. In fact, it is the excessively childish nature of his 2006 album, Rudebox, that makes his 2009 album such an achievement.

If I had to cite one single reason why I like Rudebox, though, it would be Robbie’s willingness to branch out into weird musical territory. He’d fiddled with rap and electronic elements before (like with “Rock DJ” and “Radio”), but never made a strictly rap-and-electronica song. That’s all this album is, rap and electronica, though there are a few moments of pop. But musically, it’s a perfect running or mindless-partying album. Its purpose is to make you laugh and dance: nothing more, nothing less.

So, taken that way, Rudebox is a success. Lyrically speaking, the songs peak with so-stupid-it’s-funny, but nothing is of poetic value. “Good Doctor” is a funky joke song about our modern drug cravings. “Dickhead” is hilariously simplistic and rude – if ever you doubted the usability of the word dickhead, listen to this song, and your mind will be changed. But if you’re a lyrical purist, whatever you do, do not listen to “Keep On.” It’s so stupid, it isn’t even funny. It just hurts.

Robbie’s traditionally gone two ways with his hit songs: either making fun of himself or feeling sorry for himself. The lack of Robbie’s personality in the beginning and middle of this album is distracting, because you expect the show to be all about him. Instead, he’s pulling electronic covers (“Lovelight,” “Kiss Me,” and “Bongo Bong/Je Ne T’Aime Plus”) and singing about Madonna and the Pet Shop Boys…with the Pet Shop Boys. So where’s Robbie?

He finally shows up in his autobiographical songs, “The 80s” and “The 90s.” Both are solid pop/rap songs, and they are so overly self-centered that you’re finally assured this is a Robbie album. He may even evoke some sympathy from more sensitive listeners.

Overall, it’s a B- album. I award the grade for some kickass beats and a couple of laughs.

Album Review: Robbie Williams – Rudebox (2006) – Stephanized!

35 minutes ago, Summer FRUITS!!!!! said:

Those lyrics are about the same level as something Geri Halliwell could come up with on a good day!!! Awful, awful song and album. They were both an insult to music.

I take it you don't like it then

Rudebox – The hidden gem of Robbie Williams’ career.

June 25, 2017

MarcyB0y1 Comment

Every artist is responsible for at least one dud album in their career. Whether its due to misjudgement of genre, poor selection of material or simply an identity crisis, every artist, no matter how credible has had their moment. It’s impossible and unrealistic to expect an artist to consistently produce an output of quality material, particularly over a long career.

Many consider Robbie Williams’s ‘dud’ moment to be ‘Rudebox’; his experimental, genre-hopping ‘wonky’ seventh album. It’s an album wrongly but most commonly judged by and remembered for its ill-judged release of the title track and the lack of Guy Chambers’ presence. Yet, given a chance, ‘Rudebox’ is an under-valued and underrated inclusion in Williams’ extensive discography. Over a decade later, it’s still his most endearing and experimental work and certainly holds the test of time with its electronic basis.

‘Rudebox’ was released in October 2006, just a year after Williams’ previous release, the well intentioned but uninspiring ‘Intensive Care’. ‘Intensive Care’ was a notable album for Williams, being the first which lacked the writing credits and production duty of Guy Chambers following a bitter and very public falling out. New collaborator Stephen Duffy tried his utmost best to fill his shoes but just stopped short of doing so. Together, the duo produced an album which was a testament to Robbie’s love of 80’s Pop. It was a brave and worthwhile attempt but aside from its strong selection of singles, the remainder of the album was simply filler and not much else.

‘Rudebox’ was Take 2 of encapsulating Robbie’s influences in an album and this time was a far more substantial effort. At a whopping 73 minutes and 16 tracks long and worked on with various writers, musicians and producers, the album was a bold statement from the outset. Rather than attempt to replace Chambers with a new writer/producer partner, this time, Williams embraced his newly found freedom and worked with whoever he bloody well wanted to work with. The result was a genre-hopping, brash album which covered Hip-Hop, R&B, Electronica, Pop, electropop, funk amongst many others. The album also featured the inclusion of 5 covers, a rarity for Williams.

The album got off to a shaky start when a newly-reformed Take That decided to resurrect their career around the time of the ‘Rudebox’ era. Where Take That had the stunning Barlow-ballad ‘Patience‘ which was warmly received by the public and didn’t stray too far from their signature sound, Robbie offered ‘Rudebox‘, an unorthodox venture into Pop/Hip-Hop. Williams’ image hardly represented this image and brand and the single was panned by critics with its cultural references and Williams’ incongruous attempt at rapping. The single fared well in the UK singles chart but is perhaps best summarised by Williams who once referred to it as being “made to feel as welcome as a ginger step child”. In hindsight, ‘Rudebox‘ wasn’t necessarily the wisest choice of lead single on a credibility level but it certainly generated discussion and a buzz around the album.

Just weeks later, the album was the subject of great controversy when Williams and ex-Take That manager Nigel Martin-Smith became embroiled in yet another feud. Martin-Smith instigated legal action over the lyrical content present in ‘The 90’s‘, in which Robbie accused his ex-manager of pocketing profits:

Now I’m managed by a prick                                                                                                   And I’m sixteen and chubby
Told me lose twenty pounds and you’re not Rob, you’re Robbie                                                 And if I see you with a girl then you’re gonna be sorry                                                           And if you don’t sign this contract get your bags from the lobby                                                 Such an evil man I used fantasise and take a Stanley knife and go and play with his eyes       I pray to the lord he won’t have any children, he didn’t spot Elvis leaving the building

Martin-Smith pocketed £300,000 for defamation of character, though the track remained, albeit with the offending verse removed and an instrumental break in its place.

Despite blurred reception to early promo of the album and the Martin-Smith controversy, Williams maintained his belief in his newly developed sound at the time:

“It has become something on which I’ve found myself. This is the right direction for me personally, this is what it is. I saw the whole Robbie thing coming to a close as it was, I couldn’t make another album like the ones I’d made, and this has just opened up a thousand other doors. What I am excited about now is making more music. I love all the stuff on the album, I love Rudebox, it’s a favourite song of mine. I don’t know what’s gonna happen now, I’m excited about getting it out there, but I’m more excited about making more.”

– Robbie Williams speaking of the album prior to its release

At times, ‘Rudebox‘ is best enjoyed with a tongue-in-cheek attitude whilst at others it can be enjoyed with genuine credibility. The non compos mentis approach to the title track continues through to the likes of ‘Keep On‘, an exceptionally fun but absurd pop track featuring the vocals of Lily Allen and genius production of Mark Ronson. It’s a chaotic and neurotic track on which Robbie raps over a cacophony of hip hop beats, giggling synthesizers and blues-esque guitars. Likewise, the self-deprecating nature of ‘Good Doctor‘ with its quirky jazz and tight percussion is another tongue in cheek moment a genius insight into Williams’ life. It’s Williams at his best as a wordsmith, with lines such as:

I went to the doctor to get a prescription
I told him little fact but lots of fiction
About a bad back that I ain’t got
He tried to sell me faith healing, I think not
I want Xanax, Vicodin and Oxycontin

Then, there’s the quirky, western-techno suffused ‘Viva Life On Mars‘, the tropical-soul of ‘Bongo Bong and Je ne t’aime plus‘ (a cover of two songs originally by Manu Chao) and the flat electronica of ‘Burslem Normals‘ (which after Rudebox, is probably the second worst track on the album).

On the whole, however, the album can be enjoyed on a far more credible level. ‘Lovelight‘ is one of the album’s highlights. A cover of Lewis Taylor’s 2003 funk track, Robbie’s gentle falsetto vocals in addition to Mark Ronson’s golden touch of production makes it a shimmering pop moment. It’s still a brilliant track and remains one of Robbie’s most underrated works.

Likewise, the Pet Shop Boys collaboration ‘She’s Madonna‘ is pure genius and a prod at Guy Ritchie leaving ex-girlfriend Tania Strecker for the pop superstar. Madge herself was reportedly fond of the track and it is without a doubt one of the album’s finest moments, if not, its best. Had this been released as lead single instead of the title track, the album may be remembered more fondly. Musically inspired by Kraftwerk’s 1983 single ‘Tour De France‘, The Pet Shop Boys’ electronic production is flawless and the accompanying music video (which featured Williams as a drag queen) is similarly as endearing. Even this track couldn’t escape controversy, however when Ashley Hamilton (co-writer of Robbie’s earlier smash hit ‘Come Undone‘) claimed to have co-written the track but hadn’t received any credit.

‘The Actor‘ is in a similar vein to ‘She’s Madonna‘ but far darker in tone, documenting Williams’ dissatisfaction with celebrity culture and most notably, egotistical Hollywood superstars over a squeaky electronic track. ‘Never Touch That Switch‘ is a similarly filthy and paranoia-tinged electro track.

Overall, the covers present on the album also work well. ‘Kiss Me‘, a cover of Tin Tin’s 1982 single (previous Williams collaborator Stephen Duffy was a member of the band) is a flamboyant electro interpretation whilst ‘Louise‘ is a loyal and tasteful cover of the Human League track, with added gloss and fizz courtesy of genius William Orbit (responsible for the likes of All Saints’ ‘Pure Shores‘.) ‘We’re The Pet Shop Boys‘ is plastered with self-indulgent humour as Williams enlists The Pet Shop Boys to produce a track originally released by My Robot Friend as a tribute to the duo.

Two of the album’s most surprising highlights are ‘The 80’s’, and ‘The 90’s’.  These tracks are two bookends documenting Robbie’s experiences as a teenager in the 1980’s and of his rise to fame in Take That during the 1990’s. Out of the two tracks, ‘The 90‘s is superior, an astoundingly frank recollection of Williams’ time in Take That. Unlike his previous digs at his boy-band roots, this track would prove to be the first time he reflected on his past with far greater maturity than demonstrated previously and saw Williams finally accepting some responsibility for his bitter fall out:

And now it’s breaking my heart because the dream’s turned to shit
It ain’t broke but I’ll break it in a little bit
And I’m always in trouble but I’ve stopped saying sorry
Everybody’s worried, “What the f***’s wrong with Robbie?
He’s not answering his phone, he’s not talking to me
I saw him on the telly at Glastonbury.”
And now I’m running away from everything that I’ve been
And I’m pissed and I’m f***ed and I’m only nineteen
I can’t perform no more, I can’t perform no more
But the boys know I’m f***ed and so they show me the door
And if truth be told I wasn’t fit enough to stay
So I put me head down and walked away.

Originally written over one of Williams’ favourite songs, ‘Wichita Lineman‘ by Glen Campbell, Jerry Meehan later re-wrote the song musically to remove the sample. It’s a stark reminder of what a brilliant wordsmith Williams is – his ability to tell a story through music is compelling as ever on this track.

The album comes to a close with the serenity of ‘Summertime‘, a song written when Williams first left Take That and featured in a different form years earlier during the credits of ‘Mike Bassett: England Manager’. William Orbit’s makeover makes it an ambient, summery anthem and a fitting close to the album. Well, that’s until the grime-pop of ‘Dickhead‘ begins.  But the less said about that, the better.

‘Rudebox’ was Williams breaking out of the mould he’d unwittingly trapped himself in and him having the balls to make the album he wanted to make. It’s bold, brash and bloody brilliant and still as endearing as ever almost eleven years later.

Rudebox – The hidden gem of Robbie Williams’ career.

“Rudebox” by Robbie Williams is the Best Electro Record Ever Made and That’s a Fact

By Josh Baines

July 27, 2016

On February 13, 1974, the gods of light entertainment blessed us with a gift. At some point on that fateful Wednesday, Robert Peter “Robbie” Williams was swaddled up, swept into the biting winds of Stoke-on-Trent and a legend was born. Robert, at some point, probably on his second day of existence, morphed into Robbie. As Robbie, he’s been the nation’s favorite cheeky chappy for a quarter of a century now. Sure, Bradley Walsh has given it a go, and you’d imagine that Olly Murs would happily donate both bollocks to knock Robbie’s crown clean off his quiff, but it’s never going to happen. Robbie Williams is the cheekiest chappy to ever grace the luminous sofas of chat show sets the world over.

Robbie Williams—boy band heartthrob, housewife favorite, UFO hunter, Rat Pack fetishist, and total f***ing legend—is all things to all men. What’s really important though, more important than the record sales or the incredible Facebook presence, is that Robbie is the man behind the greatest electro record of all time: “Rudebox.”

You remember “Rudebox” don’t you? The Sly and Robbie-sampling banger that landed at No.4 in the UK charts like a bullet. The nimble little rocket that, “compared to Williams” other singles was considered a commercial disappointment. The cheekiest of the cheeky chappy’s cheeky back catalogue. Of course you remember “Rudebox.” For a decade now you’ve been doing the rudebox. You’ve been shaking your rudebox. You’ve been wondering what the f***ing hell a rudebox is but been having too much fun sweating out on the dancefloor to care. “Rudebox” is inside you, deep, deep inside you. “Angels” is for funerals, “She’s the One” for weddings, and “Rudebox” for every time you and the lads want to kick back with four to six cans of premium continental lager and a deep pan frozen pizza on a Friday night.

As he poked his smiley little head out of his mother and mugged to the midwife, not even Robbie—Robert back then you’ll remember—covered in mucus and blood and membrane and placenta but always ready for a smile and a wink at the nurses, could have predicted he’d grow up to release an electro record that found him rapping the following lines in an incredibly stilted semi-Mancunian-cum-cockney-cum-Jamaican accent without dying of shame:

OK then back to baseheads
Dance like you just won at the special Olympics
I got the rudebox off the back of a spaceship
So sick I just had to take it
The R.U.D.E.B.O.X
Up your jacksie, split your kecks
Sing a song to Semtex
Pocket full of Durex, body full of Mandrex
Are we gonna have sex? Will you wear your knee socks?
Back to the rudebox

Shame isn’t a concept that Robbie Williams is aware of. Robbie Williams was born with the shame synapses of his brain swapped out for boisterousness and banter. This is why “Rudebox” exists. No one else on the planet would have ever considered combining Radio 4 panel show standard comedy rapping with one of the clunkiest choruses ever composed, let alone decided to record it, release it, shoot a video for it, and do promo for it. But Robbie did. Because Robbie knows best. The cheeky chappy’s got us by the balls and he’s looking directly in our eyes and we’re pumping cash into his pockets and smiling back. “Why you so nasty,” a voice asks us. Because Robbie told us to be, we say. Robbie made us nasty.

Electro, by and large, is for leather-clad lads with straggly long hair who stick to the walls of goth clubs in seaside towns and call themselves Lord DarkPsyche on Facebook and have the air of damp about them, so it’s no wonder that it took a bona fide star like Robbie to conjure up some much needed magic. He even makes leather—in this case a tricolor-tinged black Adidas jacket—look good. Not even your man from Drexciya could rock a jacket like that.

He’s convincing, Robbie, even when he’s peddling utter dross. The Todd Terje interpolating “Candy” should be the kind of sub-Radio 2 whimsy that’s only adored by local radio breakfast show presenters and the terminally dimwitted, but somehow the Robster pulls it off and you’re left confused but fundamentally charmed. Same with “Let Love Be Your Energy” or “The Road to Mandalay” or “Rock DJ.” Robbie’s got that ineffable sense of showbiz about him which means he can dive headfirst into rancid pits of abjection and come up smelling of Davidoff Cool Water. He’s Des O’Connor, he’s Norman Wisdom, he’s Graham f***ing Norton. And “Rudebox” is his masterpiece.

It doesn’t matter that Robbie’s ability to rap is on par with your dad’s on Boxing Day after a crate of Spitfire and a mug of Cointreau. It doesn’t matter that he sounds anesthetized on the chorus. Nor does it matter that it’s aged about as well as a teabag left in the bottom of a sink. The fact that Robbie can’t decide if he wants “rudebox” to be a noun or a verb? Doesn’t matter either. It doesn’t even matter that the song might actually be Robbie’s ode to the humble vagina, and how he’s going to “bump” it till the recipient of his rudebox-prodding “drops”. Only Robbie could get away with a song about f***ing someone till they literally die, till their body stiffens round the dampening remains of his electro-tinged stiffy. That’s our Robbie!

And look, if our Robbie, the pride of Stoke-on-Trent, the man born to tell jokes to a clearly enraptured Michael Parkinson, an entertainer devoted to giving his audience everything he can and a little more, an icon whose eventual death will be greeted by a period of national mourning with his face emblazoned on the half-mast flags that’ll fly compulsorily from every building in the country, could get away with murder, he could get away with electro.

Oh, the only other electro record that comes close? “The Way You Move” by Bodyrockers, obviously. But we’ll talk about that another day.

“Rudebox” by Robbie Williams is the Best Electro Record Ever Made and That’s a Fact