Album - 'Reality Killed The Video Star' - Nov 9th + Single - 'Bodies' - Oct 12th 2009

Dutch Interview from last night https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gnVvI9JH8s

"It's about time I knocked one out really"



And he has no clue what age he is...


Thanks for that Mazza

Quote :

Can Robbie Williams recapture the magic

THREE years since releasing his mildly received Rudebox album, Robbie Williams is back. His new single, Bodies, is strong and catchy but this Insider wonders will it be enough after that much time out of the spotlight?

Williams' performance in Sydney in 2006 was one of the best shows of the year but it's hard to imagine he can do it again. Plus, many of Williams' fan base are now grown up with families.

So will they come out in force for him, like they did for Take That's phenomenal relaunch recently?

Williams, 35, has consistently battled his personal demons, moving to Los Angeles - where he's comparatively unknown - and going to rehab.

But now he's back: he's in shape and has a new love, Ayda Field, and a new album, Reality Killed The Video Star (due out in November).

The track listing was leaked online and the songs will carry such titles as Last Days Of Disco, You Know Me, Difficult For Weirdos, Morning Sun and Superblind.

Whether or not he can pull off the greatest comeback ever will be revealed when Williams performs at the ARIA Awards in Sydney in November.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sunday-telegraph/can-robbie-williams-recapture-the-magic/story-e6frewt9-1225772210193

You can vote for Bodies in the TMF Most Wanted Chart Vote List

http://www.mtv.co.uk/channels/tmf/chart

Quote :

Robbie Williams Interview

He tells MTV News: "The next couple of months will define the rest of my life"…

Robbie Williams has spoken to MTV News about his new single and album.
Reality Killed The Video Star is Rob’s eighth studio album and his first in over three years.

Asked what we can expect from his new material Robbie explained: “Electronica, ballads, (tracks with a) 70’s rocky kinda feel. I’m all over the shop musically once again with this album.”

He continued: “It could’ve all gone west. I don’t know if people have got their ears on for me but I’m knocking at the door going- do you want some of this again or not?

“I’m alright if you don’t like it or if you do. I think the next couple of months will define the rest of my life.”

Since 2006 Williams has spent most of his time in LA and has rarely appeared in the papers.

Yet in the late 90s and early noughties he was one of the biggest popstars in the world- selling 55 million albums overall and 1.6 million concert tickets in a single day.

Talking about his new single Bodies the former Take That man revealed what he’s been up to whilst living in the States.

“The song itself is a big conspiracy-laden song. Its where my head’s been for the last 3 years, on the internet watching films like Zeitgeist, The God That Wasn’t There and 9/11 Was An Inside Job.”

Robbie nearly themed the Bodies video around conspiracies but explained: “they (the public) would have said- ‘he’s definitely gone mental.’ So I said, ‘what do you think we should do?’ And they (label or management) said ‘lets do an aftershave advert’ and I’m like, ‘cool!’”

Asked what it would take for him to view Reality Killed The Video Star as a success he told MTV:

“A lot of people going and buying it and taking it home and going, yep! But also a general sense of, ‘he’s back on form’- that would be good enough for me.”

Look out for more from Robbie soon on TV and online…

http://www.mtv.co.uk/artists/robbie-williams/news/155503-exclusive-robbie-williams-interview

'let's do an aftershave advert'



Thanks for posting Mazza

There is a 12 page special in the german Stern about Rob -any one intersted ?
If I will pop out later and grab a copy and scan them

https://ttfflaydees.forumotion.com/robbie-williams-f81/robbie-general-news-media-chat-t142-930.htm

Thanks Tina, but Karen is already on the job

karenc wrote:

https://ttfflaydees.forumotion.com/robbie-williams-f81/robbie-general-news-media-chat-t142-930.htm

Thanks Tina, but Karen is already on the job

Just saw it - she had beat me

Quote :

From The Times September 26, 2009

Can Trevor Horn weave magic for Robbie Williams?
From working with Grace Jones to the Pet Shop Boys, the pop producer has proved he’s a man with his finger on the zeitgeist. Can the former Buggle weave his magic for Robbie Williams?


Music producers have a Zelig-like quality. In the studio, to get the best out of a band or a singer, they are there at, and yet detached from, the great moments in recording history. Even by producers’ standards, however, Trevor Horn’s knack for playing a part in the records that have shaped the course of popular music is uncanny.

Horn predicted the Eighties a year before they began. Video Killed the Radio Star, the 1979 hit by his old band Buggles, may have been inspired by a J. G. Ballard story about a boy who cleans up old sounds with a vacuum cleaner and comes across a forgotten opera singer, but it was prophetic. The song’s video was the first to be on MTV, ushering in an age in which visual impact in pop music became as important as sound.

Thirty years later Horn has produced Robbie Williams’s new album, Reality Killed the Video Star. Now it looks like the reality television star Susan Boyle could beat Williams to the Christmas No 1 spot. Is this all part of a plan to skewer the zeitgeist?

“The title was Robbie’s idea,” says Horn quickly. “For me, programmes like Britain’s Got Talent and The X-Factor are a bit tired. You have someone like Susan Boyle — she shows up, she looks a bit manky, she sings OK and everyone goes bananas — but you can’t have too many of them.” Williams’s album title does suggest that reality television has won the battle over pop for public consciousness.

Related Links
Robbie Williams unveils comeback single
Pop: Produced by Trevor Horn
Robbie Williams announces comeback
“I’m aware of what we’re up against,” Horn says. “But people from reality shows can be like a tree planted in a garden where the roots aren’t deep — if they don’t take quickly, they’re going to die.

“Someone like Robbie is born for fame, and it’s not just talent but charisma: he charges through the door and the whole mood lifts. Tina Turner was like that as well. With a lot of people everyone’s mood drops the moment they arrive, so that kind of quality is valuable — and rare.”

Williams has returned after lost years in LA, growing a beard, searching for aliens, and spending too much time googling his name and dealing with the attendant psychological issues that arise. Did Horn have to coax him back into work?

“After a few years of turbo fame, the strain gets to anyone, but Robbie was ready to get back into it,” Horn says. “And he made me laugh in the studio. He was always digging up some s*** I made in 1979 and playing it back to me. He wanted to know if I still had the large glasses. Without wanting to gush too much, he is a very likeable, hugely charismatic guy.”

The son of a milk technology engineer from Co Durham who moonlighted as a bassist in a local orchestra, Horn began his career as a bass player for the disco singer Tina Charles. By the Eighties he was a producer with the very successful, if largely forgotten, pop duo Dollar. The big change came when he produced Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood in 1983, pouring £70,000 into transforming a song that already existed. Wasn’t he concerned about the lascivious nature of Relax, which contains the immortal line, ‘Relax, don’t do it, when you want to suck it to it’?

“Holly Johnson [the band’s lead singer] told me the line was, ‘when you want to sock it to it’, which is quite different,” claims Horn. “I knew the song was sexual, but I thought it was like Good Golly Miss Molly. You know, suggestive.”

Horn’s career has been as much guided by developments in technology as by the people he has worked with. He did do a brief tenure with the progressive rock giants Yes, but he is chiefly thought of as the boffin in oversized glasses who knows what to do with all the new machinery that has been baffling everyone since the early Eighties.

From the one-note keyboard pulse of Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood to the fragmented, floating melodies of his studio group Art Of Noise, to the synthetic bass boom of Robbie Williams’s new single Bodies, Horn is the top producer for artists looking to capture the sound of the future.

It’s a profitable role. We’re at Sarm Studios in Notting Hill, West London, which Horn part owns and from where his record label (ZTT) and publishing company (Perfect Songs) are run. The studio has recently produced hits for Lady Gaga and Take That. All have combined to make Horn a multimillionaire, but money never seems to have been the driving factor.

In 2006, Horn’s wife, manager and business partner, Jill Sinclair, went into a coma after being accidentally shot in the neck with an air rifle by her son. It was Sinclair that helped Horn set up ZTT; it was also Sinclair that suggested he work with the Sheffield group ABC after she saw them on Top of the Pops. In April Horn paid tribute to Sinclair at ABC’s reunion concert in London, for which he received a standing ovation. He is understandably reluctant to talk about his wife, who remains in a coma, but he does suggest that staying busy and productive can help. “You soon discover that the things money brings aren’t important,” he explains. “People need to work.”

Which is what Horn is doing. As well as finishing off Robbie Williams’s record, he has recently completed an album by the less well-known singer Kid Harpoon, who has written songs that, Horn claims, are so good that they they remind him why he initially got into the business.

A quick listen to a few tracks from Williams’s album suggests what to expect. Bodies is reminiscent of Frankie Goes To Hollywood at their most brash, while a beautiful ballad, Morning Sun has a touch of Sgt Pepper-era Beatles, with its sweeping strings and long instrumental section. These are big songs in which the studio has been used as the chief instrument. How did Horn approach them? “Robbie’s songs are anything but formulaic, so I needed to be creative,” he says. “Robbie would always tell me if he didn’t like something I did. But all of what I do is designed only to make the singer sound good. With too many records these days the production comes first, so they sound like they come out of a tin.”

This statement is somewhat surprising, given that Horn is the man associated with putting records into tins in the first place. “But the amazing things about the old Buggles songs is that they were all played!” he counters. “We would play backing tracks for 14 hours until it sounded like a machine made them. My aim in those days was to combine The Man-Machine by Kraftwerk with middle-of-the-road pop. I was quite militant about it.”

Horn’s obsession with technology has been driven, at least in part, by an inability to reproduce the expensive-sounding productions on late Seventies records by Elton John and Dire Straits. “I could never get that sound, so I looked towards technology to get a different one,” he explains. “I hated punk, but it made me think that I had nothing to be afraid of. If people that bad were prepared to make music, anything was possible.”

By the early Eighties Horn was buying up, at huge cost, machines such as the Fairlight, the world’s first sampler, and the Synclavier, a prototype synthesizer that gave Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood its urgent, alien sound. It certainly wasn’t down to the band — they didn’t play on the record.

As well as dealing with costly machines, Horn has dealt with very big stars. He refuses to name the difficult ones — apart from Shane MacGowan. “He was threatening everyone in the studio, but he was so out of it that you could have knocked him over with a feather,” Horn recalls. “All that diva s*** comes from insecurity. Someone once asked me how we were going to allocate the dressing rooms for a big gig we were doing. I replied, ‘Give the biggest to the most insecure person’.”

Grace Jones, one of the most dramatic and formidable pop stars of the past few decades, comes to mind. Horn worked with the Amazonian icon in 1985 on Slave to the Rhythm, a powerful dance album inspired by a style of funk music called go-go, which came out of Washington in the early Eighties.

When asked what she was like to work with, Horn says (after a remarkably long pause): “I’m very fond of Grace. I asked her to be part of a show I put on at Wembley and she railed at me for half an hour because I didn’t get back in contact with her after Slave to the Rhythm.

“At the end of this diatribe she shouted at me, ‘I’ll do the show, but it’ll cost you!’ I asked if it was going to cost me from my wallet, my soul, or my body. ‘All of them!’ Grace, when she’s great, is wonderful. There is certainly nobody like her.”

How would Horn describe his job, now that anyone with a computer can sample and synthesize to their heart’s delight? “To get the record finished. And that’s harder than you might imagine. I guess there’s only one real job for the producer: to know when something is right.”

Biography

Early years
Born in 1949 in Durham, Trevor Horn was inspired by his father, John, a dairy engineer by day but played double bass in ballrooms by night. Horn played bass at school and for club bands.

In the studio
By the age of 30 he had set up his first recording studio with his friend Hans Zimmer. He also formed the synth-pop band Buggles in 1979 — their single Video Killed the Radio Star was the first video to be played on MTV. Horn went on to play with Yes and formed the band Art of Noise.

Greatest hits
Obsessed with technology, he was one of the first to buy a Fairlight sampling synthesizer and spent more than £70,000 on his version of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s single Relax, which, after being banned by Radio 1 because of its lyrics, went on to become one of biggest-selling songs of its day. Horn claims that the original version of Relax was “rubbish”. It was only on the fourth attempt to rework the song that he was happy with it. As a producer he soundtracked the Eighties, scoring hits for Frankie Goes to Hollywood, ABC and Grace Jones. More recently he has worked with Pet Shop Boys and Belle and Sebastian, and is now at the controls for Robbie Williams’s comeback, Reality Killed the Video Star.

Robbie Williams’s single Bodies is out on October 12 on EMI Virgin. For more on Horn’s work, go to trevorhorn.com

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article6848972.ece

http://www.in2town.co.uk/Entertainment-News/Susan-Boyle-could-be-Xmas-number-one-worldwide/menu-id-4588

Quote :

Who will win with the Battle for the Xmas Number one Spot. First of all in the blue corner we have Robbie Williams, the man who has been out in the wilds for a long time and has only just come back with a less than average song. Then we have Simon Cowell X-Factor winner, the winner of the show is always number one, and then we have talent, true talent in the Orange corner with our very own Susan Boyle, lets face it, it does not take brains to know who will be number one at Christmas.


Susan Boyle is the odds on favourite to be number one at xmas leaving Robbie Williams wondering are his tunes really upto it and Simon Cowell pockets getting fuller and fuller with two of his signings in the charts at Christmas.
Robbie Williams has now decided he would like to try and crack America but lets face it, he has tried before, before and oh yes, before and failed where as Susan Boyle only had to say hello to the American Public and has been welcomed with open arms.
Robbie Williams hopes that his new album, Reality Killed the Radio Star, will revive his career but with his first tune receiving very mixed reviews with our very own review giving the ex-Take That hitman a negative review, his chances are getting slimmer and slimmer.
Susan Boyle on the other hand can do no wrong, she is going from strength to strength and will rule the music world with her remarkable voice and talent leaving Robbie Williams wishing he had The Susan Boyle Gift.

If you are a betting person then get yourself down to the bookies and place your bets on Susan Boyle being the Xmas number one before its to late.

The scariest thing is the comments from the American's reading this article.

And the saddest thing is that the article is probably right - she'll beat Robbie hands down. Because people are idiots.

What gets me is that Rob's album is out too early for the xmas #1 anyway

Radio Airplay - UK

1 1 Pixie Lott Boys And Girls
2 20 Taio Cruz Break Your Heart
3 7 Robbie Williams Bodies
4 2 Madonna Celebration
5 9 Black Eyed Peas I Gotta Feeling
6 10 Mika We Are Golden
7 13 Alexandra Burke Bad Boys
8 18 Shakira She Wolf
9 3 David Guetta feat. Akon Sexy Chick
10 14 Michael Buble Haven't Met You Yet

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/2659297/Robbie-Williams-new-album-is-best-for-years.html

GARY BARLOW rates it. JAMES CORDEN loved it. Even PHIL "The Power" TAYLOR said it was a cracker.

And I reckon ROBBIE WILLIAMS's eighth album, Reality Killed The Video Star, is his best since 2002's Escapology.

I've had a listen to the ex-TAKE THAT star's latest effort and it's a No1 hit. Simple as that.

It's just what his army of loyal fans have been waiting three long years for.

Some interesting themes crop up on the 51-minute, 13-track release, out on November 9.

There's the obligatory girlfriend track about AYDA FIELD, the woman responsible for sorting his life out.

There's another which definitely isn't about her, with some cheeky wrist-related lyrics - and he's not talking about tossing pancakes.



Moody dude ... Robbie's new album under pseudonym

I got my hands on a Press copy of Rob's new CD which he released under the pseudonym Luke Moody to defy internet pirates.

It probably won't attract a legion of new followers - the album, with Rob posing on a motorbike on the sleeve, is hardly modern.

But legendary knobs and dials man TREVOR HORN has steered Rob back on course.

Hats off to him for returning to a winning formula.
Muckers

It's genuinely something for fans to get excited about. And like his old Take That muckers, the songs will sound even better live with a stadium audience singing it back to him.

Rob is currently hanging out with his old bandmates in New York.

He flew in from LA to surprise MARK OWEN for his stag do.

He was also seen hanging out in the studio with the lads because he was invited to hear the first mix of their upcoming live album.

Here's my track-by-track review of Rob's CD.

1. MORNING SUN: Has the feel of a Carpenters/Burt Bacharach ballad. Lyrics about astronauts and space crop up. One of the top three songs on the album.

2. BODIES: I rate this first single. This could be an Ian Brown track. The best song here.

3. YOU KNOW ME: The second single. Has to be the song on the album about Ayda Field. Only criticism - backing vocals sound like Sir Paul McCartney's Frog Chorus.

4. BLASPHEMY: Big string arrangement. Rob's vocal is impressive, even though it's one of the weaker songs.

5. DO YOU MIND: My least favourite song. A bit of a filler.

6. LAST DAYS OF DISCO: Has a Pet Shop Boys, electro sound to it. Trevor Horn stamped all over it.



Motoring on ... real album cover

7. SOMEWHERE: A 60-second string arrangement with good vocal.

8. DECEPTACON: Hints about missing UK, with lyric "goodbye to Deceptacons" - his word for LA parasites. Great tune.

9. STARSTRUCK: Could be another ode to LA life. Great lyrics. "Everybody's famous", "Knock one off the wrist". Ahem.

10. DIFFICULT FOR WEIRDOS: Electro-tinkering and effects on Rob's voice. Pet Shop Boys-esque again.

11. SUPERBLIND: Classic cocky Robbie, contemplating his future. "I'm the genius behind me. What will they think, when they think about me?" Top.

12. WON'T DO THAT& 13. MORNING SUN REPRISE: Rob introduces brass for the final fanfare. A rousing, upbeat finish.

I'm quite excited to hear it, now that it's getting decent reviews. It was a worry that it would get slated, and that's always horrible, whether you like it or not. But it's looking good.
:)

Loving Smartass' run down of the album. It un-nerves me when he's nice though

Quote :

Robbie Williams roars back with Reality Killed the Video Star

Robbie Williams's audacious new album Reality Killed the Video Star reveals a new maturity

There’s a moment in Robbie Williams’s comeback single when you wonder how much desire remains in the 35-year-old superstar for the kind of world-conquering fame and fortune that he has treated as a blessing and a curse.

Released on October 12, Bodies (EMI Virgin) represents an audacious return for the biggest British pop star of the post-Britpop era. The production by legendary Eighties studio wizard Trevor Horn is big and bold, with a weird electronic bass, anthemic, string-laden chorus, chanting monks and gospel choir in the mix, while Williams fires off a witty, abrasive lyric about self-serving belief, full of heat-seeking slogans such as “all we ever wanted was to look good naked”. And then, right at the end, Robbie and the massed voices start belting out, “Jesus didn’t die for you” like a bad-news choir. I have a vision of American radio programmers contemplating how that message might go down with listeners. I suspect plans to conquer the US market will have to remain on hold a while longer.

Bodies has the air of an attention grabber, rather than a sure-fire hit. It’s a long way from Williams’s cheerleading plea to Let Me Entertain You. Even Williams has admitted to doubts, telling DJ Chris Moyles he was “a bit scared” about its reception and admitting: “I’m at a turning point in my career. This next record decides my path. There’s been a few great records here and there, along the way, but it’s all in the past.” So the big question is: does Robbie Williams still matter?

Two years is a long time in pop, and a lot has changed since Williams’s last single, She’s Madonna, failed even to dent the top 20 in March 2007. It was taken from his eccentric but poorly selling Rudebox album. Since then, EMI itself has practically gone into meltdown, with the record industry as a whole suffering a catastrophic loss of sales; plus, a new generation of younger, flamboyant performers, such as Lily Allen and Mika, have claimed our attention.

As Williams returned to rehab for addiction to prescription pills, grew a grey-flecked tramp’s beard, and pursued an obsession with UFOs, his former band, Take That, surged in popularity, leading to constant speculation about whether he might rejoin them. But that raised a parallel question: would they even have him?

Despite being spotted this week leaving a New York studio where Take That are recording, the truth is that the former band mates have long since rekindled their friendship, and Williams was in town for Mark Owen’s stag night. But, while all involved have indicated a reunion is under consideration, there remains obvious caution about how such a big beast used to a free forum for solo artistic expression could fit back into the demands of group democracy. As Take That’s Gary Barlow, tellingly said in April: “We’re a happy band right now.”

Besides, there is the serious business afoot of relaunching Williams’s solo career. Since falling out with songwriting partner and producer, Guy Chambers, during 2002’s Escapology, Williams has flitted between collaborators, as if uncertain of his own musical direction.

For his new album, Reality Killed the Video Star (out next month), he has opted for the proven skills of Trevor Horn, the man behind groundbreaking hits for Frankie Goes to Hollywood, ABC, Grace Jones and Seal (among others). The title recalls Horn’s classic 1979 hit with Buggles – Video Killed the Radio Star. The provocative implication is that Simon Cowell’s reality-TV formats may have done for Williams own brand of entertainment.

“After a few years of turbo-fame, the strain gets to anyone, but Robbie was ready to get back into it,” says Horn. Yet there is a telling couplet on the album’s epic, Beatle-esque opening track, Morning Sun: “Message to the troubadour – the world don’t love you any more.” Ambivalence and anxiety pervade the lyrics. “You always wanted more to life/But now you’ve lost your appetite,” he sings, while the production swells with Sgt Pepper horns and I Am the Walrus chants.

Songs like this only work if we believe the singer is worth listening to. Williams’s psychological complexity, the balancing act he operates between over confidence and self-doubt, has been a key element of his everyman appeal, and here he shows the sensitivity, bravery, wit and maturity to really express himself rather than playing to the gallery. The result is an album that may not be packed with novelty hits, but feels like a classy piece of work, more mature, reflexive and substantial.

Williams is growing up, but so are his fans. I’d warrant that his audience’s relationship with him is about to move on to a whole new level. Get ready for Robbie – the adult years.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopfeatures/6248017/Robbie-Williams-roars-back-with-Reality-Killed-the-Video-Star.html#

Quote :

Review of Reality Killed the Video Star by BBC Entertainment News 01Oct09

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Liam Allen
Entertainment reporter, BBC News

Robbie Williams says his new album Reality Killed The Video Star marks a "turning point" in his career.

Out on 9 November, it is his first record since 2006's poorly received electro experiment Rudebox - which nonetheless reached number one around the world.

The new record is an eclectic collection of songs which wears its influences on its sleeve.

Here is a track-by-track guide to the Trevor Horn-produced album.

1. MORNING SUN

The simple piano chords and lush strings that herald the return of Robbie immediately begin the job of wooing back the audience alienated by Rudebox.

Morning Sun starts out as an update of an Elton John ballad before late-period Beatles cellos propel the song forward, and it quickly becomes a full-on Sgt Pepper-style rock out - musically and lyrically - complete with full orchestra and choir. The lyrics were rewritten to pay tribute to Michael Jackson following his death.

A strong opening statement of intent.

Key lyric: "The morning brings the mystery, the evening makes it history, tell me how do you rate the morning sun?"

2. BODIES

The album's first single, Bodies, has been described by the singer's PR machine as an "apocalyptic conspiracy-laden" song. The epic Trevor Horn production certainly backs that statement up, and brings the familiar Williams sound firmly into 2009.

A false chorus of "bodies in the Bodhi Tree, bodies making chemistry" is replaced by the real thing - "all we've ever wanted, is to look good naked" - which slams in from nowhere.

The Gregorian chant-style elements narrowly manage to avoid sounding like muzak purveyors Enigma, while Horn brings back 1980s orchestral stabs to glorious effect.

Key lyric: "And if Jesus really died for me, then Jesus really tried for me."

3. YOU KNOW ME

If the older members of his across-the-board fanbase were tempted back by Morning Sun, this nod to 1950s doo-wop will have them boogie-ing alongside their grandchildren at one of the inevitable Williams tour dates.

The out-and-out retro kitsch of this nostalgic tale of lost love - complete with Stand By Me-style strings - is unlike anything he has recorded before. This song couldn't be further removed from the rapping and electro experimentation of Rudebox.

Key lyric: "Since you went away, my heart breaks every day, you don't know 'cos you're not there."

4. BLASPHEMY

Warm strings and piano again set the tone for this song, the melody and instrumentation of which could have come straight from a West End musical.

Lyrically, Williams tries very hard and, by and large, pulls it off: "What's so great about the Great Depression. Was it a blast for you because it's blasphemy."

Blasphemy sounds like a natural sibling to I Will Talk And Hollywood Will Listen - an underrated gem written by Williams and former writing partner Guy Chambers for 2001's Swing When You're Winning.

No coincidence, then, that Blasphemy was also co-written by Chambers.

Key lyric: "Our deaf and dumb dinners, there's gravy in the mud."

5. DO YOU MIND?

Robbie does Mick Jagger.

Throwaway filler.

Key lyric: "Do, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh you mind? If I, I-I, I, I, I-I, I touch you."

6. LAST DAYS OF DISCO

Last Days of Disco, with its Eurythmics synths and 808 snare drum, would have sat more comfortably on Rudebox than Reality Killed The Video Star and thus fails to move "Brand Williams" forward.

Self-confessed Pet Shop Boys fanatic Williams is clearly pleased as punch at working with their one-time collaborator Horn. As the track progresses, the veteran producer sprinkles his magic dust on it. He just about succeeds in making it sound like a passable Pet Shop Boys B-side.

Key lyric: "Don't call it a comeback, look what I invented here, I thought it was easy, they took it away from us, the last days of disco."

7. SOMEWHERE

A one minute orchestral aside which, again, would work well as a musical theatre recitative.

Key lyric: "You take your chance in life, go out and find a wife, don't get stuck in the state I'm in."

8. DECEPTACON

The opening filtered piano chords of Deceptacon break out into shimmering space-age harmonies and get the album right back on track.

Lyrically, there are again shades of the Beatles' imagery, while a Bowie Space Oddity influence can also be heard: "From all of us there to all of you, to all over here, we wish you all of the best, all of the year, she said 'well he's never been quite right'."

A real grower.

Key lyric: "And all over Britain, we wait for permission to form another queue."

9. STARSTRUCK

Since recording this track, Williams has admitted to being a huge fan of Big Brother, but that doesn't stop him taking a pop at "today's fame epidemic" through the medium of catchy mid-paced pop, underpinned by a gently throbbing bassline.

In the chorus, both the arrangement and Williams' vocal come over all George Michael - in a good way. The song, which is reminiscent of Rudebox's standout track Lovelight, could well be a single.

Key lyric: "Ready steady go, everybody famous, everyone you know, why'd it take you ages?"

10. DIFFICULT FOR WEIRDOS

Williams is a self-confessed Pet Shop Boys fanatic
A song about not fitting in, Difficult For Weirdos is another track on which Williams' influences can clearly be heard. Its initial synth strings are eerily reminiscent of Depeche Mode's Enjoy The Silence.

Not for the first time in his career, Williams does a Neil Tennant impression while a vocoder effect adds to the robotic feel of the track. The French horn-led orchestral breakdown is Trevor Horn's finest moment on the album and harks back to his work on Tennant and Chris Lowe's Left To My Own Devices.

This time, the producer's magic dust makes Difficult For Weirdos sound, in parts, like a Pet Shop Boys A-side.

Key lyric: "Psycho-evolution your pollution, makes it difficult for weirdos, just another humanoid reaction to the voices in this town."

11. SUPERBLIND

Superblind, co-written by Williams's tour bassist Fil Eisler, begins with a programmed drum beat, strummy acoustic guitar and some laidback electronic piano before a "proper" drum fill signals the arrival of the melodic chorus.

The crashing guitars and descending string lines are reminiscent of the likes of Millennium and the instrumental break on Angels. Unlike the other tracks on the album, however, Williams fails to reign in his much-maligned propensity for sounding self obsessed.

Key lyric: "I can't help thinking about me, put a thought in for me, I'm the genius behind me, maybe I shouldn't have said it. Here's to the next century, what will they think when they think about me?"

12. WON'T DO THAT TO YOU

Williams says this brass-led feelgood song with its Motown-style chorus is his "very first love song". Presumably written about his current girlfriend Ayda Field, it is bursting with vitality - and the energetic repetition of the title in the chorus has radio play written all over it.

It's the happiest-sounding Williams song since 2003's number one single Something Beautiful which, coincidentally, is sonically similar to Won't Do That To You. Lyrics such as "I don't mind when the boys look at you, if I were them I'd be doing it too" are even forgivable in the context of throwaway pop that really works.

Key lyric: "I won't do that to you, won't do that to yo-u, do that to you, I wouldn't do that to you."

13. MORNING SUN (REPRISE)

Proceedings are brought to a close by a brief restatement of the opening track. In summary, Reality Killed The Video Star begins with some of Williams's strongest songs for years, falters halfway through before reigniting with a handful of standout tracks, including Starstruck and Won't Do That To You.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8282576.stm

I'm getting awfully excited about this album now.

larajayne wrote:

I'm getting awfully excited about this album now.

me too

Interesting piece from freelancetheology.com

A theological challenge from Robbie Williams

In his new song ‘Bodies’ Robbie Williams sings about Jesus and that “Jesus didn’t die for you.” What should Christians make of the song?

The interplay between Christianity and music is always interesting, with Jesus himself being increasingly mentioned by popular recording artists, in addition to Christian imagery and language like ‘Hallelujah’. In many ways, ‘Bodies’ does appear to be just another song using Christian images in its lyrics, but what Robbie Williams is saying about Jesus is worth analysing as Christians could use his statements as an interesting starting point in discussions about faith.

For the benefit of readers not in the UK, Robbie Williams started his musical career as a member of British boy band Take That, who were very popular in the UK and Europe, but had little impact in America. Robbie left the band in 1995 and embarked on a very successful solo career – as a solo artist, he has sold more albums in the UK than any other British solo artist in history and has won more BRIT Awards than any other artist to date.

Robbie’s album sales stand at over 55 million worldwide. His World Tour in 2006 sold 1.6 million tickets in a single day – a Guinness World Record and in 2004, he was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame. ‘Bodies’, the song in question was released in September 2009, and marks his return to the UK music scene after a two-year absence. In the music video, Robbie cruises through the American desert, with no religious iconography to mirror the lyrics of the song.

A religious miscellany
The song lyrics reference several ‘new age’ beliefs and religions. For example, he sings “I got laid on a ley line” and makes a reference to divine ‘Qi’ energy:

“Wanna feed off the energy,
Love living like a deity.”

The first line of the chorus is “Bodies in the Bodhi tree” – a reference to a Buddhist sacred fig tree in India, allegedly at the site of the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama’s Enlightenment. Cuttings of the tree have been transported to various other Buddhist sites as it is regarded as sacred. How much the listener should draw from the reference is a matter of personal opinion. Lyrically, ‘Bodhi’ sounds like ‘Body’, so it fits into the song, and that may be the reason it’s mentioned.

The references to Jesus are slightly more contentious. In the ‘bridge’ section of the song, Robbie sings:

“And if Jesus really died for me
Then Jesus really tried for me”

But the idea that Jesus has died for anyone is firmly rejected at the end of the song – and it may be intentional that this is the only part of the song that Robbie actually sings in the video. Accompanied by a backing choir, he repeatedly sings: “Jesus didn’t die for you.”

A lack of hope
Robbie’s real religion, a narcissistic nihilism comes through in several other lines. The second half of the chorus runs:

“All we’ve ever wanted
Is to look good naked
Hope that someone can take it
God save me rejection
From my reflection,
I want perfection.”

When he claims to be “Praying for the rapture,” what it seems he’s really praying for is an end to everything. This lack of hope is seen in the first half of the chorus, which includes the following lines:

“Bodies in the Bodhi tree,
Bodies making chemistry
Bodies on my family,
Bodies in the way of me
Bodies in the cemetery,
And that’s the way it’s gonna be.”

So, basically, we’re all going to end up in the cemetary, and that’s where the story ends.

In conclusion
The mixed-up spirituality of ‘Bodies’ offers the listener a glimpse into the confused, and confusing, mind of one of the UK’s most successful musical performers of the last two decades. Robbie Williams seems to be desperately seeking something, but has not found an answer in religious faith. What he actually advocates is a materialistic nihilism that actively dismisses the possibility of salvation or redemption.

Some Christians may find these lyrics unsettling, but they could provide a very useful starting point in discussions with people who are looking for meaning and are examining the truth-claims of Christianity. While the decision to listen to this song is a matter of personal musical taste, it is worth bearing in mind the singer’s philosophy. This song offers an insight into the soul of contemporary culture and as such is valuable to Christians.

the last line in that article...

Good Grief

I know

Quote :

Robbie's much-anticipated new single, Bodies, is released digitally on the 11th October (with the CD format out on the 12th), but you can pre-order your copy right away!

The amazing forthcoming single is available on CD and digital download. The CD features the Bodies single version plus the barnstorming Body Double Remix, whilst, in addition to these two tracks, the digital download also includes the Fred Falke Remix too.

"Bodies sounds like Robbie and Trevor Horn bringing out the best in each other - in this case 'the best' equalling a big comeback single from Britain's best male popstar." Popjustice

Guarantee getting your copy as soon as it's available by pre-ordering Bodies below.

Links to order can be found here: http://www.robbiewilliams.com/news-blogs/pre-order-bodies-now

Quote :

Robbie Williams will quit music if new album is another flop

ROBBIE WILLIAMS will quit the music business if his new album isn't a success.

It's been two years since the critical panning of his last release, Rudebox, and the former Take That star is clearly worried about his comeback.

Bodies, his first single since he reached No16 in 2007 with She's Madonna, is released on October 12 with his eighth solo album Reality Killed The Video Star following on November 9. And Robbie reckons this is a huge turning point in his pop career.

He said: "This album will decide my future."

All his solo albums have gone to No1 but Rudebox was his worst-selling disc.

But Robbie revealed that he spent his two-year break from showbiz stressing about how he could get back to the top.

He said: "I found a girlfriend in the shape of Ayda Field, made love to her, wrote songs, travelled, played football and looked for UFOs.

"And I was worrying about my career."

He got fat, grew a beard and wore anoraks but is now back - slim and fuzz-free.

And those fans worrying about him quitting shouldn't be too concerned as Robbie thinks Reality Killed The Video Star is his best work ever.

He said: "I am looking forward to the reactions because it's a brilliant record.

"It means a lot to me as I love the songs and the lyrics.

"It's so old hat to say this but I think it is the best record I have ever done with the best production and the best lyrics."

Robbie is due to perform Bodies on The X Factor next Saturday but admitted the song has baffled fans because of its complicated lyrics.

But he explained: "That's because I talk rubbish."

There have also been rumours he is rejoining Take That after he was spotted at a recording studio in New York with the other four members - Gary Barlow, Jason Orange, Mark Owen and Howard Donald.

But he teased journalists, claiming they were just thinking of entering the next Winter Olympics as a bobsleigh team.

His former bandmates have however hinted that Rob could turn up on one of their tours in future as they are now on speaking terms after years of silence following his shock departure from the line-up in 1995.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/music/2009/10/03/robbie-williams-will-quit-music-if-new-album-is-another-flop-86908-21719187/