Latest Album Reviews: Robbie Williams, Client Liaison, Lady Gaga, Tkay Maidza, Birds of Tokyo & more
Will you take that from Robbie? Are people still Gaga for the Lady? Will Client Liaison get the contract? Read on, sexy customer.
ROBBIE WILLIAMS
THE HEAVY ENTERTAINMENT SHOW
(SONY)
4 stars
FEAR not, Party Like a Russian was a red (army) herring. This eleventh album is the belated sequel to 2002’s Escapology - the final album from Robbie’s imperial period.
Since then Restless Robbie has explored everything from rap to swing, electro pop with Mark Ronson to lush orchestra work with Trevor Horn, confusing casual fans.
Now Vintage Robbie is back. The title track sees William pitch himself as “Eminem meets Barry Manilow” and notes “He will sell his kids for a hit in Belgium.” And indeed, there’s still no one doing pop like this.
You want smooth (FM) family-friendly Robbie? Love My Life is his ode to his kids. That too sweet? Try Motherf---er, for his son, with the lyric “your grandma is a fluffer, your mother is a nutter”. Bless. Written with Melbourne’s Tim Metcalfe and Flynn Francis, it’s now been given a huge Guy Chambers production which turns it into vintage 90s ladrock Robbie ala Old Before I Die.
The Ed Sheeran co-write Pretty Woman is less Love Yourself or Thinking Out Loud than a bluesy Sing-style funk stormer. Glam slammer Bruce Lee is ELO and T-Rex covering Let’s Stay Together, Sensitive sounds like Robbie and super producer Stuart Price picturing George Michael covering Nick Jonas’ Jealous. Yes, that good.
Sensational is the bookend for concert opener Let Me Entertain You - this one’s a swing-and-zing fuelled exit song with the tongue poking through his cheek as he sings “I love you cause you love me, and I wish that you could always stay, now go away.”. There’s also something about being hung like a dolphin and calling the audience sluts. Again, no one else could get away with this.
Every Robbie album shoehorns in a few supremely odd moments - here he’s back with Rufus Wainwright for Hotel Weird, an ode to mental illness where their voices morph into each other and hipster hero John Grant on the ABBA meets Pet Shop Boys twisted fun of I Don’t Want to Hurt You.
Marry Me could do for weddings what Angels has done for funerals, while David’s Song (randomly co-written with Jewel) is the closest thing here to a new Angels, the title a tribute to his late manager David Enthoven with a turbo chorus.
It’s curiously shunted to the deluxe version, but the beautiful When You Know is up there with Robbie’s finest work. It’s written for his wife Ayda Field, the woman he stopped servicing the community for. The painfully autobiographical lyrics brilliantly note they “hate the same people”. If Feel was his song about an exhaustive, international search for real love, this is the happy ending.
Mixed Signals is one the Killers prepared earlier. If they’d released it it’d sound like they were trying to make another Mr Brightside or When You Were Young; gifted to Robbie he’s now got a killer Killers pop triumph that also pushes him out of his vocal comfort zone.
In an era of beige pop and even more beige pop stars, it’s good to have Robbie back ready to reclaim his crown./CAMERON ADAMS
Sounds like: let him entertain you...again
In a word: colourful
Here are some more records we reviewed:
and more, gee we spoil you.
Now it’s time to buy!
https://www.jbhifi.com.au/music/browse/pop/heavy-entertainment-show-the-deluxe-edition/315884/
https://www.jbhifi.com.au/music/browse/pop/joanne-deluxe-edition/320043/
https://www.jbhifi.com.au/music/browse/alternative/digital-zodiac/320007/
https://www.jbhifi.com.au/music/browse/rap-hip-hop/tkay/994295/
https://www.jbhifi.com.au/music/browse/alternative/you-yang/982077/
https://www.jbhifi.com.au/music/browse/alternative-rock/brace/315527/
https://www.jbhifi.com.au/music/browse/electro-pop-new-wave-alternative/diplomatic-immunity/320199/
https://www.jbhifi.com.au/music/browse/alternative-pop/lady-wood/988063/
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@joeylightbulb (Mikey)
Originally published as Latest Album Reviews