Artist: Williams, Robbie
Label: Universal Music Group
Release: year_month
Running time: 43:41
Rating: 3.9/5
From the British pop rock star who dazzled in all his glory at the turn of the millennium, we’re used to unpredictability, and above all to the rollercoaster ride he’s staged throughout his entire musical career. When his lack of discipline and his arrogance forced him to leave the quintet Take That and find his feet as a solo artist, he needed some time, or rather an album or two, to build up the badly needed trust in himself and faith in his creative potential. He was lucky, too: back then he teamed up with a then fairly unknown producer, Guy Chambers. Together they made five exceptionally good albums that carried Robbie to the very top of the popularity charts, made a name for Guy, and opened the big doors to working with more and more different, and above all promising, musicians.
All good things come to a quick end, and that goes for this songwriting duo too. Robbie’s visibly growing self-confidence got more and more annoying for Guy Chambers, so they called time on the collaboration, and for the next album, Intensive Care, Williams partly produced it himself with the help of Stephen Duffy.
Then came the dark era of the albums Rudebox and Reality Killed the Video Star, on which Robbie took a nosedive. He knew it damn well himself, too. The result wasn’t what he’d wanted, so he put no effort whatsoever into promotion, or into a tour to back the two new studio records. He needed a new motive, and above all the desire to climb back up to where he’d once been. The reunion with Take That served that well. He felt the stage again. And that’s what Robbie does best, and where he feels most at home. For a big comeback on stage, though, he needed a new album, one like the ones he made with Guy Chambers. Too bad the two no longer speak the same language.
So for the production of Take The Crown, Robbie needed a new man. He invited Jacknife Lee, who in the past has produced albums by U2, Snow Patrol, R.E.M. and The Cars. That’s enough of a résumé to suggest Take The Crown might lean towards more rock-oriented music. Which turned out to be only partly true, most of all in the songs Into the Silence, which recalls U2’s Joshua Tree era, and Shit On the Radio, which has some recognizable rock predispositions. The rock elements, especially the guitar inserts woven into an orchestral backdrop (Different) or just a synth bed (Hey Wow Yeah Yeah), are of course audible and noticeable, but they could have been so much more pronounced, emphasized, sensual, wanted. Robbie has a colorful, sharp and powerful enough voice to take on a somewhat grittier, more rock-leaning sound, and it’s a shame he didn’t allow himself that on this very album.
Unlike Reality Killed the Video Star, which presents an anemic, uninterested, almost boring Robbie, Take The Crown is an absolute win in terms of energy. Every beat, every sung insert, the whole thing lets you feel how enthusiastically he threw himself into the project and how much he enjoyed making it. The unpredictable, arrogant, cheeky Robbie is back. Back to let us in on what a bad ass he can be and how he allows himself to raise a toast with ‘go fuck yourself’ (Gospel). He makes it explicitly clear that he’s damn well aware of his past sins (especially his stupid behavior as a teenager and the trouble he had with all sorts of addictions). He tells us he’ll surely do better in the song Different, and with the song Looser he tries to convince us he doesn’t care whether he wins or loses. Well, on that last point, don’t bet a penny on his sincerity. But hey, that’s part of his personality too: contradiction at every turn!
He worked in some nostalgia right in the first song, Be A Boy, which recalls the Take That days and has a beautifully executed saxophone line that brings the 1980s synth wave foundation to life and gives it some meaning. In a way, Gospel also takes him back to the days of teenage crushes. The first single from this album, Candy, perhaps most strongly recalls the most successful Robbie, the one who knew how to win us over with Millenium, Come Undone and No Regrets. As does Different, in which guitar sounds are nicely woven into a rich instrumental backdrop topped off with strings. The song flows beautifully all the way until just before the end, where you can feel he tried to squeeze more out of it than the song itself has to give. A snippet of melody that feels forced and disturbs the whole. The song, which is due out as the second single, probably in December, has hit potential, but it will certainly never reach the heights of Angel, Feel or She’s the One.
Shit on the radio picks up the tempo a little and steers the album towards more danceable melodies, though it has no great lyrical substance. The title pretty much says it all. Who knows what was going through Robbie’s head on this one? It wouldn’t be the least bit surprising, though, if by that title he meant that this radio hit will actually be his. All That I Want keeps the pop frequency going and is definitely one of the better songs, pleasantly enriched with solid guitar riffs that fire up the otherwise very monotonous rhythms. He gets very direct in the next song, Hunting For You, which leans on the sounds of the 1980s and where he says, without mincing words, »addictive in my world, corrosive, destructive, but I’ve got kind words in my heart, it’s passion, it’s fashion«. The album then moves on to somewhat more rock-flavored songs, which peak in Into the Silence and Not Like The Others.
Worth mentioning is the song that closes out the reach for the crown. Robbie decided to include the song Loser on the tracklist after all, even though it isn’t his own work. It was written by siblings Ethan and Barbara Gruska, who hide behind the American duo The Belle Brigade. It came out as the first single from their debut album The Belle Brigade, on January 19, 2011. He sang it as a duet with Lissie, an American folk rock artist who hasn’t yet managed to firmly cement herself on the music map. A perfectly logical move, considering Jacknife Lee is also behind the production of her upcoming album.
The album sounds very ambitious, and you’ve got to believe Robbie when he says he’s damn serious about his comeback. Unlike the previous anemic album Reality Killed The Video Star, Take The Crown has without a doubt bent the curve of his career back upwards. Especially if he catches the right wave and manages to draw attention to himself again with good live shows, waking up a few people besides his standard fans. He won’t be grabbing the crown just yet. Not with this album. But he’s on a good path towards it, he just has to try a little harder.
Line-up
Jacknife Lee – keyboards, guitar, bass guitar
Bill Rieflin – drums
Justin Meldal Johnsen – bass guitar (1, 4, 10)
Blake Mills – guitar (2, 3, 7, 8)
Troy Van Leeuwen – guitar (4, 6, 9)
Chris Thornberry – piano (3, 11)
Eric Gorfain – horn (9, 11)
Alex Budman – saxophone (1)
Jebin Bruni – piano (4)
Lissie – backing vocals (2)
Barbara Gruska, Samantha Sidley, Alex Lilly – backing vocals (3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10)
Owen Pallet Orchestra – orchestral arrangements (3, 4, 8)
Production
Island Records
Track list
1. Be a Boy
2. Gospel
3. Candy
4. Different
5. Shit On the Radio
6. All I Want
7. Hunting For You
8. Into the Silence
9. Hew Wow Yeah Yeah
10. Not Like the Others
11. Losers (feat. Lissie)
