Out of the boy-band black hole, only two current artists have
\nbeen able to climb out and establish themselves as pop machines in
\ntheir own right. One of them is Ricky Martin, who got booted from
\nMenudo for being capable of growing a beard. The second was Robbie
\nWilliams, who left Brit boy-band Take That and sent that country’s
\nmasses of teenage girls into crying fits of hysteria. After a
\nwhile, he hooked up with Guy Chambers and proceeded to release
\nseveral albums that separated him from his boy-band past.<\/p>\n
However, just like that famous boy-band from the sixties (you
\nknow, the one with Johnny, Paulie, George and Ringo?), Robbie
\nunderstood that true success can only be cemented by conquering the
\nformer British colonies – a.k.a. us. Therefore, he released
\nThe Ego Has Landed<\/i> two years ago and began to tour the
\nStates. Now, he has returned with his second U.S. release,
\nSing When You’re Winning<\/i>.<\/p>\n
First, let me state the obvious –
\nSing When You’re Winning<\/i> is a much better album than
\nThe Ego Has Landed<\/i>. Why? Because the
\nEgo<\/i> album is a compilation of his best tracks from the
\nBritish-only releases while
\nSing<\/i> is a fully fleshed album. Minor hits like “Angels” and
\n“Millennium” had already struck a chord with European audiences,
\nbut the flow of
\nEgo<\/i> is not as great as on this new album.<\/p>\n
It begins with the danceable and energetic “Let Love Be Your
\nEnergy.” It’s a great kick-off to the album and provides it with
\nthe type of fun that permeates the whole album. In fact, all of the
\ndance songs are great. The single, “Rock DJ,” has a great 70s vibe
\nand is lots of fun. “Kids” and “Forever Texas” give you more of
\nWilliams’ and Chambers’ lyrical tongue in cheek. “Supreme” and
\n“Knutsford City Limits” are also good pop tracks. If the album were
\nfull of nothing but tracks like these, you’d have a very good pop
\nalbum.<\/p>\n
What makes their work-and this album-truly memorable is their
\nsofter, non-dance tracks. Songs like “Better Man,” “Singing For The
\nLonely” and the great “If It’s Hurting You” are very soft ballads
\nthat reveal a desire for deeper meaning in Williams’ and Chambers’
\nmusic. It’s something that you saw on
\nEgo<\/i> and that strikes a deeper chord here in “Sing,” as the
\nsongs move from one onto another. From the “Angels” – like “Love
\nCalling Earth” to the great closing track, “The Road to Mandalay,”
\nthe duo manage to remove all of the pop-ness of these songs out and
\nfill them with emotion. That’s good.<\/p>\n
About the only drawback is that the soft songs outnumber the pop
\nsongs. While that’s not too much to bicker about, I’d like to hear
\nmore of Williams’ dance songs. I mean, drive to this CD and listen
\nto the pop songs. They’ll make you feel real good.<\/p>\n
Overall,
\nSing When You’re Winning<\/i> is a good step for Robbie Williams
\nas he strives to make his presence felt here in Yankland. As long
\nas he keeps his sense of humor in place and doesn’t grow the ego
\nthat many pop stars claim not to have (ahemBritneyahem), then he
\nwill continue to be unique among our pop constellations. And that
\nwill always be good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":25802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6562],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-37008","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-robbie-williams","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37008"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37008"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}