Robbie Williams - Reality Killed the Video Star (2009)
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Robbie Williams
Reality Killed the Video Star
Tracks
1. Morning Sun
2. Bodies
3. You Know Me
4. Blasphemy
5. Do You Mind
6. Last Days Of Disco
7. Somewhere
8. Deceptacon
9. Starstruck
10. Difficult For Weirdos
11. Superblind
12. Won’t Do That
13. Morning Sun (Reprise)
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Review by Lisa Dib
Robbie Williams’ latest pop-rock offering opens with the uncharacteristic tweeting of birds and a gentle harmonica. This is Morning Sun, and its piano base is deeply saddening.
“You always wanted more than life but now you don’t have the appetite” he wails.
Robbie
Williams is a confirmed depressive; thusly his music takes on a whole
new air. The track itself is a fairly typical piano-laden pop-rock
ballad, complete with heavily beating- much like the heart of our
anti-hero- beat overcasting the dulcet keys.
Single Bodies
- which I am disappointed is not a cover of the spitting Sex Pistols
track- is a Hindi-influenced, horned affair that has vocal elements of Rock DJ in the chorus.
hortulus@iinet.net.au
“All we’ve ever wanted was to look good naked” he cries. That Robbie, he knows us so well.
Now,
you probably don’t need to be told that Williams is no Oscar Wilde. Not
one of the world’s foremost wordsmiths, Robbie Williams is, in his own right
and genre, still a genuine soul with the pen.
Yet lines like “What’s so great about the Great Depression? Was it a blast for you, cause it’s blasphemy” from Blasphemy are hard to reconcile.
Do You Mind?
has the chunky riffage of an Aussie pub rock anthem, complete with
plonky keys in the chorus and “ah, ah ah ah ahs” of a cheery Talking
Heads B-side.
Difficult for Weirdos sees Robbie channelling Daft Punk, in his own English pop-rock way; “We’re the futurists in the bistro”
The
problem in this record lies in the lack of genuine chutzpah. There’s no
energy to the album. If there’s one thing about Williams’ back
catalogue is that- despite the tone of the song in question - it is
usually sung and played with real, hand-in-the-air energy and vitality.
Look at Angels and the reaction it elicists at shows or, hell, even at the pub. Most people know the words to Rock DJ; I can't even recall how most of these songs go after a few days.
Sorry, Robbie, it’s goodnight from me.
RATING: 2.5 out of 5
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