Robbie Williams
Greatest Hits

Chrysalis
2004
C+



he “fat dancer from Take That” (© Noel Gallagher, 1994) released a cover version of George Michael’s excellent “Freedom 90” (better than anything Happy Mondays ever did) as his debut single in 1996, a song chosen primarily to spite “the new George Michael” (© Everyone, 1994), otherwise known as Gary Barlow, his former band mate in Take That, and the man who had been widely regarded as both the creative force within the early 90s most successful boyband and also the Most Likely To Have A Successful Solo Career. But Robbie’s take on “Freedom” is nowhere to be seen on his new Greatest Hits compilation, an otherwise exhaustive collection of hit singles which he’s accumulated over the last eight years, and Gary Barlow is nowhere to be seen at all.

So why might Mr Williams choose to ignore that particular piece of his past? Because it’s a cover version? Doubtful, as his version of World Party’s “She’s The One” is present and correct. Perhaps he’s trying to completely cut ties with his former band, and such a spite-loaded, eye-on-history choice as a single now seems like a petulant gesture, especially given the fact that Robbie is now bigger than Take That ever were. Robbie has a thirst for reinvention, and it’s that thirst which has seen him propelled from hi-nrg gay-club floor fillers and sensitive pop ballads with Take That to the kind of international superstar solo artist status where he can happily duet (literally and metaphorically) with Hollywood stars (Nicole Kidman) on big band standards and still leave them off his Greatest Hits. But that’s Robbie in a nutshell; risk-taking backed with a constant need for approval, a perpetual hedging of bets despite a deep-seated need to show off and confound expectations. This is a man whose debut album went under the working title of The Show-Off Must Go On, remember. So why was “Freedom” ignored? Because Robbie has hit singles coming out of his ears, and this collection could easily have been a double CD. Yet he still includes a b-side just for the sake of contrariness…

Sometime before his last studio album, Robbie decided his creative relationship with Guy Chadwick had gone far enough, and sought out a new collaborator and, bizarrely, a new identity, claiming that his next album would be a “project” based around a character named Pure Francis. What happened to Pure Francis is unclear, but Robbie did find Stephen Duffy, and “Radio”, the UK number 1 that heralds this compilation, is the first fruits of their labour together. “Radio” might just be his best single yet, a foray into 80s electro-pop that, while maybe a year too late to garner cred from zeitgeist-predicting hipsters, still oozes quality and pushes him in yet another direction. Mannered and theatrical, it toys with Robbie’s identity while masquerading as a song about songs. But for someone so paranoid that people love the song but not the singer that could never be the case; everything Robbie does is about himself, even if it’s seemingly about nothing at all. But anyway, it certainly bodes well for his next record.

So what about the hits? Chances are that you’ll know everything here (with the exception of “The Road To Mandalay”, that errant b-side with delusions of grandeur), and chances are that your opinion is already set in stone. “Old Before I Die” is a clumsy Oasis-wannabe pop-rock stomp, “Lazy Days” a semi-tuneless waste of time, “Misunderstood” a saccharine ballad from the new Bridget Jones film, “Feel” a touch too woe-is-me autobiographical. But aside from these few missteps the quality comes thick and fast. Like it or loathe it, “Angels” made his career, and its unifying, melancholic power is undeniable. Likewise the irresistible stomps that are “Let Me Entertain You” (as true a sentiment for Robbie as “Rock N Roll Star” was for Noel Gallagher), “Millennium” and “Rock DJ”—cheesy they may be, but to denounce them for that would be churlish when they’re as effective as they are at what they do.

It’s when Robbie sidesteps expectations that he’s at his best, which is why “Radio” is so good. Likewise “Let Love Be Your Energy” is something approaching a diversion, and is all the better for it, slightly odd, slightly at an angle to Robbie’s usual output, and slightly better too. “Strong”, “Come Undone”, and especially “No Regrets”, offer unexpected (but not that unexpected) confessions of weakness and sentiment, more curveballs that further stretch the often cartoonish perception of Britain’s biggest pop star. Meanwhile the Kylie-starring “Kids” fits neatly into his oeuvre by not stretching it at all.

He gets a lot of stick, Robbie, from a lot of sides, but this collection makes it clear that, quite simply, he trounces all comers. Ronan Keating? AOR-before-his-time, joyless and without a hint of risk or kicks or performance. George Michael? Too smooth, too concerned with image, too past it and too caught out there. Brian McFadden? Don’t make me laugh. Only Eminem is a better white male pop star right now, and he’s moving in a totally different orbit. And as for Gary Barlow… well, the less said the better. Robbie Williams, somehow, is a national treasure.



Reviewed by: Nick Southall

Reviewed on: 2004-11-05

Recent Reviews By This Author

Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
Roots Manuva - Awfully Deep
The Chemical Brothers - Push The Button
M83 - Before The Dawn Heals Us
Can - Monster Movie / Soundtracks


Comments
Log In to Post Comments
Posted 11/05/2004 - 09:22:51 AM by DaveG924:
 Is "Road to Mandalay" actually a B-side? I always thought it was the closing track on RW's most excellent "Sing When You're Winning" album. Best concert I've been to in 10 years.
 
Posted 11/06/2004 - 03:35:20 AM by NickSouthall:
 It was also the b-side to "Eternity".
 
Posted 11/10/2004 - 02:14:39 AM by florenz6:
 It may storm the charts, it may get 7 points by young Mr. Southall,it may be one of the bestselling gifts for christmas trees - Robbie Williams is just a great bore, musically. He surely is a good entertainer for this kind of stuff, but this music is totallly MOR, an endless recycling of old formulas. It doesn´t stretch the mind at all, I don´t even like to dance to this. But one aspect makes it a bit interesting for me: it really contains everything in music that i don´t like.
 
Posted 11/13/2004 - 07:30:31 AM by florenz6:
 P.S. There is no vulnerabilty in this music, no open form, no no surprise, no moment of confusion, no gateway to the new, no break with standars rules, no real re-inventing of old things, no real finesse. Robbie Williams´ music is the everyday experience of the normal. Magic is something very else - this abc of boredom keeps people in their own expectations und assumptions about he world, it makes one feel safe & secure, though nothing really is safe and secure. It is the music, your parents are likely to like. It makes you drama of buying a fucking new car.
 
Posted 11/22/2004 - 04:02:38 AM by NickSouthall:
 What's so special about being special? Why must everything be magical, exceptional? Must all music seek to expand the mind or break standard rules, immerse us in a moment of confusion, surprise us or re-invent things? Isn't it somewhat condescending to insinuate that, somehow, the lives of millions upon millions of people are mundane and boring and not worth living, when there are millions upon millions more who would crave that mundanity and safety in the face of constant fear, repression, war, denial and poverty? And also isn't there some degree of value in feeling your individual self subsumed for a a moment or an hour into a collective consciousness of 250,000 all around you, and find your self disolved as you and everyone else sings the exact same words at the exact same time and, just possibly, all feel something approximating the same emotion too? Isn't that just as incredible, more so even, as one person experiencing a moment of confusion or gateway to something new while listening to Fennesz or Radiohead or Louis Sclavis? You may not like Robbie Williams, florenz6, but a lot of other people do. Don't assume that your reasons for disliking are more valid than their reasons for liking - in my experience negativity is NEVER as valid as positivity, whatever "valid" is.
 
all content copyright 2004 stylusmagazine.com