Say Wha...?

How on Earth did Robbie Williams manage to create one of the year's best albums in the form of Rudebox? I mean... what? It's truly one of the the most bizarre albums I've heard in a long time. I'm fairly certain it was conceived in a haze of pot and booze. But, man, at times it's fuckin' brilliant. I mean, sure it has it's head scratching moments ("Dickhead" most prominantly), but when it's great it bloody well soars. Even the song "Rudebox" seems better in context of the album. My favourite at the moment is probably "The '80s", a hilarious Streets-rip off detailing every moment of Robbie's life in the 1980s, and Robbie's cover of My Robot Friend's "We're The Pet Shop Boys" (delightfully producers by, er, The Pet Shop Boys), and "Kiss Me" a sky-high pop dance moment that reeks of Madonna (she is all over this record. She's namechecked in three songs). "Good Doctor" is some strange car accident of about seven different genres, but it (like a car accident) fascinating. "Keep On" is vaguely racist I think, but is also sort of stupendously hilarious. "The Actor" is smooth and manages to named check Judi Dench, Madonna, Joaquin Phoenix AND John Barrymore in the space of 30 seconds. "The '90s" is about as close to a traditional Robbie song as you get and even then it's at the same time nothing like traditional Robbie. "Viva Life on Mars" is country-infused pop. He even manages to fit in a cover of Human League's "Louise" (a very identical cover too).

Seriously, one of the craziest most bizarre and out right strange albums by a high profile artist. But for that he gets big points. He actually came through with his threat of changing musical direction (you hear me Mr Timberlake!). It's definitely not an album for everybody (I'm not exactly sure who it is an album for), but it's the most gleefully ridiculous album of the year and that's a hell of a better than what 98% of mainstream pop artists are doing right now. And you gotta give him credit for not simply jumping into bed with Timbaland or Will.i.Am to produce an album and instead chose producers like William Orbit and the Pet Shop Boys to give him something altogether new. God, this album has done my head in.