It's the same review I think.

Wonder if the Daily Express and Daily Star are in the same 'stable'? :unsure:

Hmm, must be :o

 

It's does'nt even say who reviewd it in the Star <_<

As long as someone is copying a good review I don't mind :lol:

They better not take anything from the Guardian or Independent though <_<

Yes, the reviews are pretty mixed. Trying to sum this up (papers or magazines only)

 

:cry: Q, Guardian, Independent, Mirror

 

Mojo, Music Week, NME, Times, Daily Express , Star

 

:unsure: Sun (Vicky gave it a good review but the one from yesterday's edition wasn't so positive)

 

Did I get this right ? Hope so, because then the score would be 6-4 for the positive reviews

It's the same review I think.

Wonder if the Daily Express and Daily Star are in the same 'stable'? :unsure:

 

They are.

 

Two days to go before I buy the album & listen to it after work on Monday. :dance:

 

The Telegraph give it a nice review too.

 

On the back of a stadium tour and with last year's seven-million-selling album still presumably fresh in his fans' minds, Britain's most popular entertainer makes an unexpectedly rapid return with the most eclectic and yet madly compelling album of his career.Electro-pop, hip-hop, surrealist rap (in a northern comic meets ragga MC style), romantic crooning, space-age country and western, disco, world rhythms and Bowie-esque balladeering all vie for space, sometimes in the same song.

 

Crammed with hooks, rippling with snappy couplets, replete with some of the oddest cover versions ever released by a major star (one of which has Williams belting out "We're the Pet Shop Boys" with the Pet Shop Boys), the almost frantic mix of styles and ideas risks confusing and even alienating some of Williams's mainstream audience, yet it is probably the record that most reflects his complex inner world

He's like a hyperactive manchild with attention deficit disorder, rooting around in a musical toy box, using (to quote a typical glib yet revealing couplet) "my cuts and lacerations/ To feed myself a new sensation". If you stumbled across this on MySpace, you might think a pop genius had been born. Neil McCormick

Thanks Linz, good to get another nice one.

So the score is not looking bad. Too bad though that there are still so many articles floating around all carrying the same annoying line "RW, whose album Rudebox has been panned by the critics..."

Wants to make me :puke2: Get real you ignorant journalists, it is getting brilliant reviews as well and that by the likes of NME and Musicweek -_-

 

Yes, the repected papers/mags are mostly praising the album but no the critics just concentrate on the jokes of papaers like the Mirror and Sun :rolleyes:

 

I love the last line in that review Linz posted ^_^

 

If you stumbled across this on MySpace, you might think a pop genius had been born

Another $h!t review from http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/music

 

Robbie Williams' just-couldn't-be-bothered seventh studio effort contains no fewer than five cover versions.

 

Robbie Williams

Rudebox (EMI)

**

Say what you want about Robbie Williams, he isn't predictable. As the childish single and title track might suggest, his seventh studio effort salutes Eighties electro. Encapsulating the just-couldn't-be-bothered feel are no fewer than five cover versions including anaemic versions of The Human League's Louise and Stephen "Tin Tin" Duffy's once-uplifting Kiss Me. The co-penned material ranges between unlistenable (Burslem Normals) and inane (She's Madonna, a career low for collaborators, Pet Shop Boys). Worse still, for a man who genuinely has nothing to be resentful about, Williams is astonishingly bitter: the track called The 80s finds him still banging on about Take That, while the unpleasant Dickhead could hardly be more appositely titled. Does nobody care enough to say "no" to him?

 

John Aizlewood

 

 

From http://www.observer.guardian.co.uk

 

 

Oh great. Another fan. :rolleyes:

 

 

That's enough of his favourite things

 

Kitty Empire

Sunday October 22, 2006

The Observer

 

 

Robbie Williams

Rudebox (EMI) £12.99

Like most millionaire megalomaniacs, Robbie Williams doesn't like being told what to do. Wisdom dictates that white boys from Stoke shouldn't rap. Rudebox - both the relatively unsuccessful single and Williams's eighth album - is jam-packed with Robbie raps. Industry consensus suggests being sparing with cover versions. Here are five, spanning genres, eras and moods. This is an abnormally crowded record. There are samples of, references to, or appearances by Pet Shop Boys, Lily Allen, Mark Ronson, David Bowie, Madonna, the Streets, William Orbit, Sly & Robbie. Most recordings at this level employ a constellation of talent, tipping their hats to a welter of influences. Rudebox feels more like a teenager's wall: pure homage.

 

It's unfortunate. One of the most likable things about this album (and Williams himself) is what a fan he is: of the pop of his youth, of the latest sounds, of his peers. He wants to be in Pet Shop Boys, if only for a while. So he covers 'We're the Pet Shop Boys' by My Robot Friend, and asks Tennant and Lowe in to produce 'She's Madonna'. He loves her, too, hence a song about Mrs Ritchie, who he later namechecks as a great actress (yes, a great actress) in his 'Vogue'-alike list of luminaries ('The Actor'). You suspect Williams wants Rudebox to be his Confessions on a Dancefloor, or his Fundamental, the two recent, acclaimed, returns-to-basics by his totems. Instead, Rudebox is a hodgepodge: a vanity project, a disc of experiments in thrall to the music Williams loves, but is unable to process into a crowd-pleasing long-player.

 

Perhaps the entertainer has tired of the game. Indeed, Williams has indicated he's made this album for himself. And if his fans are bewildered, at least he's having a ball, rolling around in hip hop, electro and retrofuturist synth sounds, puncturing Hollywood pretensions and mourning lost simplicities ('Burslem Normals'). Instead of whingeing about his ills, he pokes fun at them on the amusing 'Good Doctor', in the style of the Streets. It can only be good news that Williams's 'poor me' quotient, so high on the tracklistings of Intensive Care and Escapology, his last two albums, has come crashing down.

 

Proper fans of Robbie's - those who spark up lighters for 'Angels' - will beg to differ, but some of us would rather listen to 'Bongo Bong/Je ne t'aime plus', a cover of Mano Negra's 'King of Bongo', on endless repeat than ever hear 'Angels' again. That's not a ringing endorsement of Rudebox per se, more a plea for a folly that is, in many ways, the least awful Williams album thus far.

 

 

 

 

 

Well at least they called it his least awful album so far :lol: :rolleyes:

Guess that's progress! :lol:

The danish newspaper (BT) is really positiv about Rudebox. Here is there comments (sorry for my translation):

 

Robbie in the footsteps of Pet Shop Boys

 

Robbie Williams next step is pure and updated 80´s feeling

 

What a fresh breath of air!!!! In stead of reviewing a Robbie Williams-album using the same recipe as his debut-album 9 years ago, Robbie has renewed himself – as an artist and as a musician.

 

As you know, if you heard the single “Rudebox†with the melody-line from Sly & Robbie, this is Robbie with a brand new style. A good style!!! When you get use to it. With a mixture of Pet Shop Boys and Mike “the streets†skinner, Robbie has made his best album to date. This is his 6. album which will be released Monday.

It’s electronic like never before. Disco-house, electro-funk and blue-eyed soul. An updated feel of the 80’s. The 32-year old has never singed better. Even his rap, which other critics hate, has improved. His rap-style sounds like mike skinner which especially works on “The 80’s†and the hidden track “Dickheadâ€

 

Quite fabulous is the collaboration with Pet Shop Boys – which haven’t been heard better in years. In the beautiful celebration of Madonna with “She’s Madonna†and the cover-version of “my Robot Friend†called “We’re The Pet Shop Boys†where you won’t hear the difference between Robbie and Neil Tennant…..!!

And then the next single, “Lovelightâ€, which purely sounds like George Michael…..!

Liberating himself from his previous song-writing collaborators Guy Chambers and Stephen Duffy and moving in to a new musical direction has been the right move to do. The key-element of the musical progress is not only that he writes all the material on his own, but also the possibility of getting new input from various places. The 5 cover-songs are very good. Among others a fresh Manu Chao song “Bongo Bong….†and the Williams Orbits produced Human League-classic “Louise†which has plenty of qualities to be played on the phono.

One could might say that the album lacks straight forward melody, choruses and stadium-hits. But that’s that. This album is, with the exception of “Good Doctorâ€, a more artful, challenging and feel-good album from Robbie Williams in years.

 

:cheer:

 

Thanks to purerobbie.com

Their have been some very nasty reviews today :angry:

 

This is a weird review so I'll post it ^_^ From RWAP.

 

Sunday Herald

 

No Angels, no delight

 

ROBBIE WILLIAMS – RUDEBOX (EMI) **

 

THE SCENE : EMI OFFICES. LONDON

 

A middle-aged executive – paunchy, ruddy-faced – sits behind a desk. His name is unimportant. Another man – younger but still wearing the traces of youth with mild desperation – sits on a sofa, smoking furiously. His name is Robbie.

 

ROBBIE : Yeah, a hip hop album. A dance album. Something different. I need to do it. I’m going out of my mind singing Angels night after night. And the rest. It gets boring, so boring, it makes me want to kill myself. People want that bloody song played at their funeral! I want to make an album that gets played at conceptions. Not bloody wakes.

 

EXECUTIVE : It’s not that simple, Rob. There’s … I mean do you know how much work we’re talking about here? It’s not like you can just hand everything over to Guy Chambers this time …

 

ROBBIE : Look, Mark Ronson’s up for it, and he’s gonna get Lily Allen in too. And William Orbit. And the Pet Shop Boys. And I’m gonna do some covers: Human League, Manu Chao. And there’s this song by a guy called My Robot Friend, all about being the Pet Shop Boys. Neil and Chris are gonna produce it, and do backing vocals. Y’know: We’re the Pet Shop Boys, as sung by the Pet Shop Boys! It’ll be ace. And you should hear some of the beats Mark’s done; the demos are boss.

 

EXECUTIVE : (apprehensive) There won’t be too much rapping, will there? I mean, surely, aren’t you a bit … English?

 

ROBBIE : Um … (sheepishly) there’ll be some. Bu think about it this way: nonsense verse, Morecambe and Wise, Spike Milligan. Classic English eccentricity. That’s where I’m at right now.

 

EXECUTIVE : And that song about when you were in Take That? Is that still happening? Only, we’ve had some calls. You know, from your ex-manager’s lawyers. Not happy people, I must say.

 

ROBBIE : Oh, I’m defo still doing that. My therapist thought it might be a good idea. Get it all out in the open.

 

EXECUTIVE : (wary) Well … OK.

 

ROBBIE : Anyway, that’s not the important part. The important thing is that this is really me, all of it. (bold and confident) This album is Robbie, all of it. All of me.

 

Robbie stubs out his cigarette and absent-mindedly wanders off. The Executive picks up the phone, his stubby fingers punching in a number.

 

EXECUTIVE : George? It’s me. Think we have a problem. (Pause) Yes, Robbie. He’s just been here. I swear our bonuses were shrinking with every bloody word he said. It’s going to be a harsh winter.

 

RECOMMENDED DOWNLOAD : We’re The Pet Shop Boys

The danish newspaper (BT) is really positiv about Rudebox. Here is there comments (sorry for my translation):

 

Robbie in the footsteps of Pet Shop Boys

 

Robbie Williams next step is pure and updated 80´s feeling

 

What a fresh breath of air!!!! In stead of reviewing a Robbie Williams-album using the same recipe as his debut-album 9 years ago, Robbie has renewed himself – as an artist and as a musician.

 

As you know, if you heard the single “Rudebox†with the melody-line from Sly & Robbie, this is Robbie with a brand new style. A good style!!! When you get use to it. With a mixture of Pet Shop Boys and Mike “the streets†skinner, Robbie has made his best album to date. This is his 6. album which will be released Monday.

It’s electronic like never before. Disco-house, electro-funk and blue-eyed soul. An updated feel of the 80’s. The 32-year old has never singed better. Even his rap, which other critics hate, has improved. His rap-style sounds like mike skinner which especially works on “The 80’s†and the hidden track “Dickheadâ€

 

Quite fabulous is the collaboration with Pet Shop Boys – which haven’t been heard better in years. In the beautiful celebration of Madonna with “She’s Madonna†and the cover-version of “my Robot Friend†called “We’re The Pet Shop Boys†where you won’t hear the difference between Robbie and Neil Tennant…..!!

And then the next single, “Lovelightâ€, which purely sounds like George Michael…..!

Liberating himself from his previous song-writing collaborators Guy Chambers and Stephen Duffy and moving in to a new musical direction has been the right move to do. The key-element of the musical progress is not only that he writes all the material on his own, but also the possibility of getting new input from various places. The 5 cover-songs are very good. Among others a fresh Manu Chao song “Bongo Bong….†and the Williams Orbits produced Human League-classic “Louise†which has plenty of qualities to be played on the phono.

One could might say that the album lacks straight forward melody, choruses and stadium-hits. But that’s that. This album is, with the exception of “Good Doctorâ€, a more artful, challenging and feel-good album from Robbie Williams in years.

 

:cheer:

 

Thanks to purerobbie.com

 

:yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo:

 

Another good one thanks to Linz at RWAP

 

www.metro.co.uk give it 4 stars

 

 

Robbie Williams pulls out the stops again for the entertainingly flawed, dance floor stylee Rudebox.

 

It's jam-packed with pop culture references: Sly & Robbie, the Sugarhill Gang and especially the Pet Shop Boys, who contribute two tracks including camp 'n' classy pop symphony She's Madonna. Kiss Me is a slick electro reworking of Stephen Tin Tin Duffy's 1980s hit, here produced by disco king Joey Negro.

 

These highlights remind us that Robbie's an undeniably versatile crooner (albeit a pretty weary rapper) and the flurry of ideas suggests he's desperate to win over the unconverted – although fans holding out for Angels II might be less impressed

 

Not sure if this one has been posted. :unsure:

 

 

From http://www.bbc.co.uk/totp

 

 

ROBBIE WILLIAMS - 'RUDEBOX'

 

Y'know, some of us had just about given up on this fella. Far too much time making smug to the camera, far too many 'outrageous' quotes for the press and far too little putting anything of himself into his tunes, most of which were all starting to melt into each other like Rolos on a hotplate.

 

The song 'Rudebox' changed all that. It was like someone had flicked the 'reboot' switch on the fella who made 'Rock DJ' and all those startling pop records at the turn of the, erm, 'Millennium'. And suddenly we're getting another load of smart, witty, pretty and re-energised pop tunes where once we just had snoozy old arena therapy-rock.

 

I'll not spoil things by giving away the plot, but suffice to say Robbie has suddenly become someone worth listening to again. Give the man some room, people, he's ready for take-off!

 

:yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo:

 

I can't believe how all these reviews are poles apart. It's so strange...

:yahoo:

 

They either hate it or love it seeminly :lol:

A good review from cdwow :smoke:

 

When you are such a reluctant pop-star, you gain inspiration from other acts to inject into your own. So RW has taken a slab of Sly & Robbie (no relation) on the title track, covered a tune from the Human League, and generously lifted words and music from the Pet Shop Boys. Then to add bonus street cred, he’s f**king sworn all the way through. The music press can’t decide if this is his best or his worst, and such division will split the fans too. But bizarrely, and for all the rampant plagiarism, this is the most imaginative Robbie Williams album yet.

 

At least we were forewarned. The “Rudebox†single is a million miles from “Angelsâ€. It also continues this massively misguided misconception that he can rap. But surrounded by sycophants throwing cash in his footprints, of course this is a “brilliant†side to his multi-faceted burgeoning talent. The chav-ish invitation to strut “your jaxi and split your kecks†will also put paid to any concept that he can ever make it in the US. But to be fair, this is a sparkling production. The chorus riff borrowed from “Boops (Here To Go)†almost 20 years ago is inspired, and the newly funky side to Williams is truly welcome.

 

The first hint that this is a personal retrospective from an unhappy chappy is the lead line on track two: “I lost all faith in what I knowâ€. That and the repeated refrain that “I just wanna beâ€. It’s also the first time he nabs lyrics from “West End Girlsâ€. You don’t really sing “from Lake Geneva to the Finland Station†by accident. And although the tune is a jaunty banjo pop plucker, it’s apparent that he’s a closet Pet Shop Boys fan – so got them to help out too.

 

“She’s Madonna†has the shuffling synths that herald a Tennant / Lowe production, and they also produce “We’re The Pet Shop Boysâ€. A great song, but actually not one of their own penned tracks, yet it did appear as one of their B-sides – and this is a carbon copy of it. Nice, but particularly redundant on this album.

 

He seemingly enjoyed the last Gorillaz album too, as “Bongo Bongo†has the same joie de vivre that ‘Demon Days’ had. It’s also the daftest, catchiest, and stupidly foot-tapping track on the album. Even his French rap (no really) doesn’t deflate the wonderful silliness of it. And the final (grammatically incorrect) line of “je t’aime les filles†tries to cast aside those pesky lingering questions about his sexuality.

 

“Lovelife†shows his falsetto style around a nicely jittery R&B rump-shaker. “Keep On†is a strange combo of funky pop, lounge lizard, and Rob-rap – where he pronounces that he thinks with his “ding-a-lingâ€. Of course. It’s different though, so has every right to be included. “Good Doctor†equally unusual, as a bar-room styled rapped cocktail list of prescription drugs that he has (presumably) struggled with.

 

The most autobiographical tracks are “The 80’s†and “The 90’sâ€. The first comprising of sketches about growing up through A.D.D. (“thick was the term they used for meâ€), puberty, losing virginity, and being picked on. “The 90’s†is the infamous Take That track which supposedly slammed their former manager, but those references have been magically edited out on the CD used in this review. What’s left are reminiscences that he “adopted four brothers – some I liked more than others†and that “the lead singer made it hard to like himâ€. That they evolved into a “bag of nerves, not band of brothers†and he then fell off the lorry – and out of the group. Disarmingly honest, unashamedly explicit, and surprisingly good.

 

Who knows why he wanted to cover the Human League track “Louise†but it is inoffensive enough, if not a patch on the original. Stephen Duffy helped the Robster on his last album, so RW repays the royalties favour with a hyped-up disco reworking of “Kiss Me†– Duffy’s biggest claim to fame. “Never Touch That Switch†and “Never Touch That Switch†keep it moody, low-key, and although hardly inspiring, and well chosen diversions from styles on past albums. Although he rips off goodness knows how many lyrics on the final track, the William Orbit production turns it into a pithy dreamscape.

 

It’s the album that he himself wanted to make, with much less of the limp-lettuce warbling of before. You feel you know the man better, even though the pictures aren’t all pretty. But that illusion is well overdue to be shattered anyway. He has a mega-bucks, multi-album deal with his label, so this will cross one off his “to do†list and put him one step closer to reluctant retiree from reluctant star. At least he can say he was proud of this opus when that happens.

 

Neil Chase

Music Editor

 

Canadian review :D

 

Robbie Williams, Rudebox

 

3.5/5

 

 

For some reason, Robbie Williams has had difficulty translating his superstar success in North America. It's too bad, because right now there are lame excuses for mass appeal male pop stars right now — the whiny Justin Timberlake is as "good" as it gets. And unfortunately, though Rudebox is Williams' best album since 2000's Sing When You're Winning, its electro-pop leanings are a deficit in today's hip-hop heavy marketplace.

 

But that aside, Rudebox is relentlessly catchy and fun, and its appeal lies in the fact that it never takes itself too seriously — even the horrendously bad title track works because Williams's lame Cockney raps are so knowingly delivered. However, the album's straightforward pop tracks are the true killer singles here, including both "Lovelight" and "Summertime" – though don't mistake the sincere-sounding "She's Madonna" as one of those tracks, as it's supposedly a knock on Guy Ritchie, who allegedly dumped a serious girlfriend as soon as he caught the Material Girl's eye.

 

While Rudebox is never brilliant, there are a few duds ("Louise" and "The 80's" come to mind) but there's more good than bad, and its hard to fault an album that is so consistently entertaining. (Chrysalis/EMI)

 

http://www.popjournalism.ca/pop/reviews/20...ewilliams.shtml

I was just in the middle of posting that review when my Internet died a death. :lol:

 

It's quite good I guess :unsure: (whiny Justin Timberlake :lol: ) but how can they say the 80s is a dud? :o