Album Results
Album Reviews
Poised for global domination with his third album, Robbie Williams and producer Guy Chambers hardly dared mess with the formula of their 1998 crossover hit I've Been Expecting You. As such, Sing When You're Winning has plenty of introspective balladry akin to "Angels," and a few irresistible party time tracks in similar company to "Millennium." The album also moves Williams farther away from the increasingly dated visions of Oasis-style Brit-pop to embrace post-millennial dance-pop, complete with the bruising beats and extroverted productions to match. And Chambers certainly knows his production playbook well, conjuring a panoply of classic British rock touchstones like psychedelia, slick country-rock, Ian Dury, the Who, Elton John, and Madchester. Despite a small drop in songwriting from its predecessor, Sing When You're Winning ultimately succeeds, and most of the credit must go to Williams himself. Amidst a few overly familiar arrangements and lyrical themes, Williams proves the consummate entertainer, delivering powerful, engaging vocals -- no matter the quality of the material -- and striking the perfect balance between tongue-in-cheek, self-mocking humor ("Knutsford City Limits") and genuine feeling (tender ballads like "Better Man" and "If It's Hurting You"). The radio-ready single "Rock DJ" is a piece of immediately gratifying pop candy floss with a surprisingly endless shelf life, though "Kids," a vivacious, vacuous vamp of a duet with Kylie Minogue, doesn't even hold its own after one listen. Toss in a few beautiful album tracks (the opener "Let Love Be Your Energy," "Love Calling Earth," "Singing for the Lonely"), but then counter them with a few bland singalongs ("Supreme," "Forever Texas"), and the result is a scattered, entertaining album whose real star is Robbie Williams' personality. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
Track Listing
| 1. Let Love Be Your Energy |
 more
|
|
| 2. Better Man |
more
|
|
| 3. Rock DJ |
more
|
|
| 4. Supreme |
more
|
|
| 5. Kids |
Kylie Minogue |
more
|
| 6. If It's Hurting You |
more
|
|
| 7. Singing For The Lonely |
more
|
|
| 8. Love Calling Earth |
more
|
|
| 9. Knutsford City Limits |
more
|
|
| 10. Forever Texas |
more
|
|
| 11. By All Means Necessary |
more
|
|
| 12. The Road To Mandalay |
more
|
|
| Featured Review | |
|
Human The Killers |
| Before Stuart Price and The Killers originally hooked up in 2004 the worlds of dance and indie were often mutually exclusive with dance remixes of indie tracks, despite a few notable exceptions, often no more than mismanaged afterthoughts. However, when the Thin White Duke remix of 'Mr Brightside' burst on the scene it captured the imagination of both the indie kids and the clubbing masses and became one of the most talked about tracks on both the pages of NME and Mixmag. Fast forward four years and post Klaxons indie dance has almost become a cliché with every new band and its dog incorporating synthesizers and drum machines. Still, this hasn't deterred The Killers reuniting with Mr Price to produce their third album, 'Day & Age'. Production wise The Killers latest offering, 'Human', takes plenty of cues from synth pop and nu-wave as well as Stuart Price's earlier work as Zoot Woman. All in all the track works pretty efficiently with a big electronic sounding drum kit pushing the song along to its dance infused instrumental outro. However on closer inspection of Brandon Flower's nonsensical lyrics seems to let all the shiny production down. Take the grammatically incredulous chorus line of 'Are we human or are we dancer' which simply begs the question, "What does he mean?!" Like The Killer's live performance at the European Music Awards that was all at once motionless and spectacular thanks to the use of Fifty foot LCD screens, 'Human' may well be a case of style over substance. | |
 more
|
|
