Not As Bad As You'd Expect

It's being labelled commercial suicide by most reviewers, but after hearing the whole of Rudebox, Robbie Williams' new album, I, through gritted teeth, have to admit it's not that bad.

And I'm not exactly his greatest fan. I didn't mind him in Take That, I even bought the quite good first two albums. But ever since, his albums have gone blander and blander while selling more and more, and there isn't a week goes by that he isn't in the papers moaning about how "troubled he is." He almost gives Kerry Katona a run for her money in the "woe is me" stakes.

So even though I won't be shedding any tears if Rudebox spectacularly flops, I'd much rather him sell millions of albums with this rather bold new direction than him sell millions of albums with the MOR serious singer-songwriter rubbish that he did with on his last album.

The first thing you notice about Rudebox, is that for a supposedly "dance" album, there's not that much dance music on it. You're not going to find any tracks appearing on the next Ministry of Sound compilation that's for sure. And several tracks, the country tinged "Viva Life On Mars" and the uplifting "Summertime" wouldn't sound out of place on any his previous albums.

When he does venture into dance territory, it's with mixed results. "Kiss Me" is horribly dated europop, reminiscent of doomed 90s boyband 2 Third3, "Louise" is a pointless Human League cover and "Burslem Normals" is a forgettable attempt at chillout.

But it works better on one of two Pet Shop Boys collaborations, "She's Madonna," a quite lovely mid-tempo number, the retro-electro pop of "Never Touch The Switch" and "The Actor", a quite bizarre Royksopp-influenced duet which namechecks Judi Dench.

The standout track however is the next single, Lovelight, one of four covers on the album, which is the kind of soul-pop record that George Michael did so well in the 90s. It's the best thing he's done since "Feel" and might just be good enough to re-convert the fans he lost after the opinion-dividing "Rudebox."

Overall, it's a very bizarre album which is plagued by appalling attempts at rap and too many covers. But it does have its moments and it's going to be interesting to see whether Take That's new album will end up selling more this Christmas.