![]() ![]() “He nicked my pig and killed it, but he gave me enough bacon to live off for four years,” said World Party’s Karl Wallinger after Williams covered his 1997 album track. The sound of a man on top of the world – the accompanying Escapology album went platinum in more than 14 countries – protesting “I’m not sure I understand the role that I’ve been given”, the resolutely downcast lyrics rubbing against the tune’s soaring, orchestra-assisted uplift. Robbie Williams performing in Hong Kong in 2001. You got the feeling that Williams, a fan of Ian Dury, saw Rock DJ as his tribute to the Blockheads’ disco-influenced hits: here, the backing comes from Barry White’s mid-tempo It’s Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me, while the rhythm of lyrics is audibly inspired by the Blockheads’ Reasons to Be Cheerful (Part 3). Go Gentle (2013)Īmid the camp jokes and Great American Songbook standards on Swings Both Ways lurked Go Gentle, a beautifully understated paean to his daughter, audibly influenced not by the swing era, but the sound of grownup, late-60s LA pop – Harry Nilsson, Jimmy Webb-era Glen Campbell. Still, the good bits are great, not least this witty, Kraftwerk-y Pet Shop Boys collaboration. It would be lovely to retrospectively claim that Rudebox – the album that ended Williams’ imperial phase at a stroke – is a lost left-field pop masterpiece, but it still sounds confused and patchy: the product of an artist who wants to do something different but hasn’t worked out what. Let Love Be Your Energy (2000)Īn infinitely more convincing take on Beatle-influenced alt-rock than the pallid Oasis-isms of 1997’s Old Before I Die and Lazy Days, Let Love Be Your Energy barrels confidently out of the speakers, a killer song atop wall of distorted guitars, its arrangement decorated with nods to I Am the Walrus and Penny Lane. Lovely melody, grandiose orchestration, lyrics that – typically – fret about reviews and star ratings and Williams’ own ambition: “All I wanted was the world.” 15. Williams subsequently took to deriding the Trevor Horn-produced Reality Killed the Video Star as “half-arsed” and dubbing it Let Me Underwhelm You, but its opening track is great. ![]() Motherfucker is the most startling of the lot: addressed to his children, it details generations of illness they might inherit: “I’d like to sing a song that says that you’ll be fine, but … I’d be lying.” 16. Long before mental health became a hot topic in pop music, Williams was laying bare his struggles in song.
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