He is not the greatest singer; in fact, at times, he doesn’t even have a particularly pleasant voice to listen to. His music is neither cutting edge nor influential and he couldn’t find the zeitgeist if it had a huge target painted all over it. So how come Robbie Williams has scored 19 top ten hits, packed Knebworth with nearly 375,000 people and achieved the fastest selling music DVD of all time, with the accompanying release What We Did Last Summer? It’s a mystery. Interestingly a retrospective trawl through his musical career affords us precious few clues.
The tracks on Greatest Hits are presented in chronological order, though selective songs have been strategically excised from the timeline. His first solo single, a cover of George Michael’s ‘Freedom’, has been dropped despite reaching Number 2 in the charts.
The opening songs, ‘Old Before I Die’ and the pedestrian ‘Lazy Days’, recall Robbie’s Britpop / Oasis aspirations of ’97 and with hindsight the self-consciousness of these singles is revealed. ‘South of The Border’ has also airbrushed out of the back catalogue to ensure we don’t dwell upon how badly Robbie’s solo career struggled in the earliest days.
The turning point, the career-defining ‘Angels’, arrives not a moment too soon. Quite simply it is the best ballad Guy Chambers will ever write. With its stately beauty and emotional simplicity ‘Angels’ still retains its power to tug at the heart. But what’s significant is how this song, as with many of his best hits, conjures up memories of a live performance, in this case Glastonbury 1998t.
‘Let Me Entertain You’, for all its faux-rock stylings, taps into the showbiz / cabaret sensibilities that are at the heart of Williams’ populist appeal (it’s no surprise that this song now starts thousands of karaoke nights). ‘Millennium’ continues the run of big hitters and while its ‘You Only Live Twice’ riff is still compelling - like practically everything with millennial connotations (the Dome, the River of Fire, Cliff’s Prayer) - the song doesn’t fare so well with the passage of time. In contrast ‘No Regrets’, with the Pet Shop Boys backing vocals and production credits, seems contemporary and much underrated.
The album’s middle section is tellingly like a reprise of what has gone before. A “don’t-change-the-formula” consolidation includes the lyrical ‘She’s The One’, the punchy ‘Supreme’ and the cheeky-chappie “Rock DJ” which are entertaining enough but hardly inventive or impassioned.
The passage of time does show up the hideous duet with Kylie, ‘Kids’, as a dreadful misfire – there isn’t enough sexual chemistry to melt an ice cube on a summer’s day. ‘Eternity’ is a pretty song, but as the third reworking of ‘Angels’ on the same album it seems rather too familiar.
The last section heads into darker, confessional territory. ‘Feel’ is a brilliant musicalisation of Robbie’s tabloid-persona woes. You’ve read the red tops’ tales of Robbie’s troubled love life, now the cabaret-clown sings about his secret heartbreak himself.
‘Sexed Up’ is another baleful ballad of breaking up, but the rawest outpouring comes with ‘Come Undone’. Musically it is self-psychoanalysing at its finest: “Do another interview, sing a bunch of lies / Tell about celebrities that I despise / And sing love songs, we sing love songs so sincere”. Either it’s a frightening and revelatory song about a celebrity unravelling or a bitter and arrogant, cynical spin of his self-perpetuated public image.
As a coda to the Williams and Chambers partnership, it is the logical conclusion but lyrically it’s too acerbic for most tastes. No wonder “Ouch!” is the opening line of Robbie’s new song, ‘Radio’.
From the distortion on his voice to the new sound, ‘Radio’ certainly indicates Robbie’s desire to tread into new musical territory, but, after eight years of working a highly successful formula, Greatest Hits poses a big question: will Robbie be able to find a new style, and will the public follow?
Originally published 18th October 2004
It struck me even at the time, what is the point of reviewing someone as famous as Robbie's Greatest Hits...if you like Robbie (essentially a singles artist) then this would be for you, if you don't particularly (me), then why would you bother...oh well there was always the money..a sentiment I'm sure Williams would appreciate.
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