"Rudebox" by Robbie Williams

A quickie review of the new Robbie Williams album, "Rudebox".

It's crap.

The End.

Ok, ok, I'll give you some more details.

There are 2 songs on the album I really like, "She's Madonna" and "We're The Pet Shop Boys", both of which are produced by, well, The Pet Shop Boys of course. Both sound like decent PSB songs (the latter is actually a cover of a PSB B-side), and would benefit from Neil Tennant singing rather than the rather whiney Robbie.

Apart from that, "Kiss Me", a cover of the Stephen "Tin Tin" Duffy song, is as camp as tits. Yeah, we know it was produced by uber-house stalwart Dave Lee (or Joey Negro, if you prefer), but it's not "house", more "pink Barbie caravan". Still, the gays will love it, and it has chart appeal when all other singles fail.

Elsewhere Robbie treats us to the self-absorbed, not-as-clever-as-he-thinks "The 80's" and "The 90's", where he appears to be using his listeners as some form of counselling service so that he can tell us how hard done by he was during the Take That years.

Frankly, adding the talent vacuum that is Lily Allen to a couple of tracks isn't helping any. In fact, parts of the album sound like they could be songs she rejected, which isn't saying much. The rest of the album sounds like songs Justin Timberlake rejected.

And where did Robbie get the idea he can rap from? Somebody make him stop. Please!

So, there you have it. Sorry I'm not a bit more positive, but I was kinda looking forward to this album. My advice would be; go out and buy "Fundamental" by The Pet Shop Boys instead, and see how it's supposed to be done. Or if you just want something fun, may I recommend Girls Aloud's "The Sound of Girls Aloud"; no finer collection of well-crafted pop song will you hear all year, frankly. At least until the Sugababes "Overloaded: Singles Collection" gets released anyway.

Have a good weekend everyone!