Escapology --- Robbie Williams --- 2002 (EMI)
This was the last Robbie Williams album I listened to. It's not that I went off him, it's just that a release like “Rudebox” made me pause before just rushing out and buying his next album, and after that I was pretty much inundated with so much downloaded content that the idea of getting his next few albums, although flirted with and not by any means disposed of, is still more or less on the back burner. I really enjoyed “I've been expecting you”, thought “Life through a lens” was ok and quite enjoyed “Sing when you're winning” (but ignored the swing album, as I don't like that sort of music particularly), and ended up here.
So, is it any good? Yes it is. It's very good. Not that surprisingly, being the album that was intended to break him commercially in the US, it's polished, slick and very commercial, but still retains the arists's quirky sense of humour, and a lot of his own heart and soul, on songs like “Nan's song” and “Hot fudge”. The album opens with him exclaiming, in very Divine Comedy manner, “Cows!”, rather fittingly, as the title of the opener is “How peculiar!”, and sets his stall out from the start as he sings
”I am all of the above..” It's more bluesy rock than pop, a gap Williams straddles quite well, given his already established popularity and image as a pop star. It's a heavy start to the album, perhaps not what his longtime fans would have expected, and the follow-up, the first single, “Feel”, would be more to their taste.
A piano-driven semi-ballad, it's well known as it was in the charts and on the radio seems for ever, and it's a really good song, a look into the heart of the artist as he looks for meaning in his sometimes superficial life.
”I don't wanna die/ But I ain't keen on livin' either...” The album is if nothing else good value for money, with fourteen tracks, few of which come in at under four minutes, with one of them running over seven. Perhaps surprisingly, there are really no bad tracks on this album, and some really good ones. I wouldn't class it as better than, or even as good as “Expecting”, but it comes darn close.
“Monsoon” is a great autobiographical song, almost Oasis-like (which I know he'll hate, as he has a real problem with the Gallagher brothers, but hey, he's hardly likely to read my little review, is he?) with some truly great guitar work, and some of the best, sharpest lyrics he's written to date: [i]”To all you Sharons and Michelles/ With all your tales to tell/ Save your milk money well/ I'm glad that spending the night with me/ Guaranteed you celebrity.”[/] “Sexed up”, the first real ballad is just perfect, piano and acoustic guitar melding in a gentle song about a breakup, hard feelings and regrets, selected as the fourth single from the album and getting into the top ten.
“Love somebody” is another ballad which starts off pure acoustic, then gets going with some really nice strings arrangement, a real sense of desperation in the chorus, real urgency. Great vocal harmonies, almost a gospel song in its own right. “Come undone” was another single, and no doubt you heard it on the radio at some point, so not too much to say about it other than that it's a great little song, and indeed one of only two on the album not co-written by longtime songwriting partner Guy Chambers. I much prefer the hilarious and clever “Me and my monkey”, though, which is in fact the longest track on the album. Hey, you have to listen to it, just for its having a title like that! But it is a great song, with a totally out-there lyric involving casinos, fast cars and Mexican stand-offs, all under a great horn-driven theme made to sound like a mariachi band playing.
”We hit the strip with all the wedding chapels/ And the neon signs/ He said 'I left my wallet in El Segundo'/ And proceeded to take two grand of mine.” You just don't get songs written like this anymore! And then you get the weirdly titled “Song 3”, where Robbie channels the ghost of Kurt Cobain, and very well too. “Hot fudge”, meanwhile, is pure LA-funk, Robbie revealing his long-held wish to make it in the US:
”Hot fudge, here come the judge/ There's a green card in the way/ The Holy Ghost and the whole east coast/ Are moving to LA/ We've been dreaming of this feeling/ Since 1988...”
The album ends on a very simple, tender tribute to Robbie's grandmother, the song simply called “Nan's song”, in which he sings of losing her and how he misses her. It's a very revealing song, raw with emotion and backed by acoustic guitar and violin, a real insight into a man often accused of being more than a little shallow. It's also the other song he wrote without the help of Guy Chambers, and it closes the album in fine, if low-key style.
“Hidden tracks” can be weird. He's included two here, which run after “Nan's song” ends, so don't hit the “stop” button just yet! Screeching guitar introduces a sort of end-theme to the album, called “Save the children”, then you have to be patient as the second hidden track doesn't come in for another six minutes (!), on the back of an acoustic guitar strum, joined by organ and then piano, apparently Robbie's random thoughts when he was out on a boring date. He calls this “I tried love”.
Maybe his subsequent albums were all great, but as I said I haven't listened to anything after this one, and on that basis I find it not to be his best --- that honour still goes to the stunning “I've been expecting you” --- but a very close second. If nothing else, listen to it for “Me and my monkey”...
TRACKLISTING
1. How peculiar
2. Feel
3. Something beautiful
4. Monsoon
5. Sexed up
6. Love somebody
7. Revolution
8. Handsome man
9. Come undone
10. Me and my monkey
11. Hot fudge
12. Song 3
13. Cursed
14. Nan's song (incorporating “hidden tracks”
Save the children and
I tried love)
Suggested further listening: “I've been expecting you”, “Life through a lens”, “Sing when you're winning”