Robbie Williams - Swings Both Ways

I'm not sure what to really think of this album. I'm not familiar with "swing" music, so to hear a whole album of it from one of the most popular UK musicians of recent memory was a bit bizarre.

Looking back at Robbie Williams' musical history, it turns out that this is not the first time Williams has produced a "swing" album. He created the album "Swing When You're Winning" (shortly after creating the album "Sing When You're Winning"), which I haven't listened to.

I don't think it's his "swing" music that he'll ever be remembered for, and I wonder what it is that continues to motivate Robbie to create this type of music.

I don't think I've ever heard a complete "swing" album in my life ever before, so this was a new experience for me. Now having completely heard the album, I can surmise that this probably isn't my type of music, and if I were to listen to a whole bunch of it, I'd grow tired of it very quickly.

But for now, this was alright. There's a decent range of guest stars to keep the listener going, from Lily Allen (who I don't particularly like) to Michael Buble, who never overstay their welcome. He discusses a fair amount of issues, including marriage in "Wedding Bells" to food issues in "No One Likes A Fat Pop Star". There were many other songs which I'm sure discussed various other topics, however in those cases the music seemed to overshadow the lyrical content.

After listening to this, I now wonder if we'll ever hear another great pop track from him. Because many of the songs on here are covers, which would still be easier to perform (even if it is a "swing" rendition) than creating a new pop song to take the world by storm (as seen through "Take The Crown" where no major hits came out of (I think), despite my liking of the song "Candy"), I just feel that he'll stick to this now as a method of generating money. Maybe I'm fretting too easily, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong provided the quality of the new songs are good.

I remember the days when he used to produce hit upon hit, and he'll probably never get back to those days (especially as he has failed to have a single chart here in Australia since 2009).

My highlights (if I've remembered them all) are "Where There's Muck" (with the catchy "kiss my ass" hook), "Soda Pop", "No One Likes A Fat Pop Star" and "Shine My Shoes".

I was stuck between whether to rate this 3* or 4*, and though I'd usually gives albums the benefit of the doubt, I think this is now a clear 3* for me. I just think that the worse songs on the album outweighed the better songs on the album, and therefore the rating is closest to a 3*.

3.25*.
Laatst gewijzigd: 03/12/2013 10:03