Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 25/10/05
Label: EMI

Quite how Take That's fattest became Britain's finest is still something of a mystery. Not least to Robbie Williams himself. But in a pop world that forgot about entertainment (it does choreography instead) he remains the sharpest operator we've got. The boy's certainly got personality, and though hardly in the Freddie Mercury league, that career-defining performance at Live 8 was easily the day's highlight. Let's face it, in 40 years time we'll still be talking about Status Quo at Wembley, not that shrug-of-the-shoulders U2/Macca dream ticket.

It's the other half of the equation - the musical half - that still vexes Robbie. He's got the tabloid part down pat. That's no problem - or maybe it's the whole problem. He can get papped for fun. People find him interesting, albeit in a very superficial Heat magazine kind of way. But the lack of seriousness bestowed on his musical talents still irks. Ten years since boyband hell, Robbie is still perceived as an entertainer, not an artiste. While Knebworth fills, critics line up in their droves to tell him as much and Robbie reacts to criticism like Bruce Banner turns green and splits his pants. It's what drives him on and what keeps all of us - music lovers and tabloid twitchers - transfixed.

In this sense, "Intensive Care" is essentially nothing more than Robbie's latest bid to be taken seriously. It is also his first album without Guy Chambers, which theoretically is no bad thing. Not only did Chambers specialise in a sort of everyman Oasis-lite, he was also a bigger magpie than Noel Gallagher. There were the obvious steals in "Strong" (Gloria Gaynor) and "Rock DJ" (Barry White) and there was the downright illegal. Play D:Ream's "Shoot Me With Your Love", think "Let Me Entertain You" and wonder why the lawyers never called....

Robbie's new partner, Stephen 'Tin Tin' Duffy, who, latterly, is more accustomed to making records with Alex from Blur, at least promised a change of tact, if not the most auspicious of starts. The first fruits of the new era, "Radio", might have got to Number One, but it hardly boded well. And with "Intensive Care" opening with the line, "Here I stand victorious, the only man who made you come", the listener genuinely shirks with embarrassment. That's before hearing the actual song, which veers between tub-thumping stadium anthem and mid-80s Bowie before evaporating in a fart of its own self-importance. (The Thin White Duke later gets a reprise on "A Place To Crash", which flirts with the fluffier moments from "Aladdin Sane").

But stick with it and there are genuine highlights here. The single "Tripping" is fantastic. That killer chorus still sounding like the best thing he's ever sung, while "Advertising Space", despite its slavish homage to "Angels", has a genuinely intriguing lyric which encompasses Watergate and Marlon Brando. Better still is "Spread Your Wings", which marks the perfect collision of Duffy's mid-80s writing and Robbie's pen. The title might vomit forth images of stools and Brian McFadden, but it sounds faintly like The Smiths, only with a lyric about a girl jackin' to Oran 'Juice' Jones and Jocelyn Brown. Only Robbie could get away with that.

The remainder is sometimes funny, sometimes sad, and mostly predictable. Much like the man himself. It's another generic Robbie Williams album - another album shooting the breeze between showboating and voyeurism. An average effort with hints of greatness. For that the quest continues, and so, by default, will Robbie's career.

    by Adam Webb