Monday, October 04, 2004
He Puts the 'E' in the Arse...
So, Robbie Williams has a new single out, and all across the country people have been expressing their opinions of it - mainly "What the fuck?!". As we don't possess a single original idea of our own, we've decided to give you our own views on it. In the past we've not exactly been shy about sharing our views on the ex-Take That member, with our view normally being short, sweet and consisting mainly of four letter swearwords, so when we say that Radio is, without a doubt, the best thing he's ever released, you'd be forgiven for having the phrase "Damning with faint praise" appearing in pink neon letters in your mind, but you'd be wrong. Not only is this the best thing he's ever done, but it's also easily one of the best songs released this year.
We're not quite sure how he's managed to come up with something that's quite so fantastic. Given the sort of lowest common denominator trash he normally comes out with - Let Me Entertain You excepted - we really didn't have high hopes for his comeback single and, indeed, our natural dislike for anything Robbie related meant we were all set to slate it, possibly using such words as "bandwagon jumper", "desperate" and "twat". So it was something of a surprise to come away from our first listen with feelings of confusion about a song that we weren't entirely sure whether we liked or not, but knew damned well we wanted to hear again.
The main difference seems to be that he's realised that if you're going to write music with some bloke from the 80's, it's best to do it with someone who's actually quite good and exciting, rather than picking someone who's band was as dull as dull could be. This is why, now that Guy Chambers has been ditched, he's teamed up with Stephen 'Tin Tin' Duffy of Kiss Me fame and, assuming that this partnership isn't just a one-off, we could well find ourselves becoming a fan of Robbie 'Tit Tit' Williams.
It's not perfect, like all great things it's ultimately flawed, what's been most obvious over the last few days is that it's just too production heavy to work as a live song, but that simply makes it better as a pop song, as pop only truly exists at it's best inside the steel heart of a studio mixing desk. We're still slightly annoyed at ourselves for loving this, we have tried to force ourselves to hate it, but every time we try we just find ourselves loving it more. It just all seems to come together and work beautifully. Even the video, which should have us thinking "Fuck off, he's trying to dance like David Byrne", actually has us thinking "Fucking hell! He's trying to dance like David Byrne! How fantastic!". We feel quite dirty about it to be honest, and we're sure that normal service will be resumed shortly and we'll happily return to calling him Knobbie Williams in a childish, but still quite funny, way. Until then though, we deem this song to be 18th Acest Thing in the World... Ever, and Mr Williams? Sir, we salute you.
We're not quite sure how he's managed to come up with something that's quite so fantastic. Given the sort of lowest common denominator trash he normally comes out with - Let Me Entertain You excepted - we really didn't have high hopes for his comeback single and, indeed, our natural dislike for anything Robbie related meant we were all set to slate it, possibly using such words as "bandwagon jumper", "desperate" and "twat". So it was something of a surprise to come away from our first listen with feelings of confusion about a song that we weren't entirely sure whether we liked or not, but knew damned well we wanted to hear again.
The main difference seems to be that he's realised that if you're going to write music with some bloke from the 80's, it's best to do it with someone who's actually quite good and exciting, rather than picking someone who's band was as dull as dull could be. This is why, now that Guy Chambers has been ditched, he's teamed up with Stephen 'Tin Tin' Duffy of Kiss Me fame and, assuming that this partnership isn't just a one-off, we could well find ourselves becoming a fan of Robbie 'Tit Tit' Williams.
It's not perfect, like all great things it's ultimately flawed, what's been most obvious over the last few days is that it's just too production heavy to work as a live song, but that simply makes it better as a pop song, as pop only truly exists at it's best inside the steel heart of a studio mixing desk. We're still slightly annoyed at ourselves for loving this, we have tried to force ourselves to hate it, but every time we try we just find ourselves loving it more. It just all seems to come together and work beautifully. Even the video, which should have us thinking "Fuck off, he's trying to dance like David Byrne", actually has us thinking "Fucking hell! He's trying to dance like David Byrne! How fantastic!". We feel quite dirty about it to be honest, and we're sure that normal service will be resumed shortly and we'll happily return to calling him Knobbie Williams in a childish, but still quite funny, way. Until then though, we deem this song to be 18th Acest Thing in the World... Ever, and Mr Williams? Sir, we salute you.
