Robbie Williams - Radio

Radio
Northern Town
Radio (Sam La More Jumpin' Radio Mix)
Video footage

Well, I can safely say I never thought I'd be reviewing a Robbie Williams single on this site. 'The Robster', as he is sometimes known in his native UK, was a member of seminal boyband Take That and left them to (eventually) see his solo career go into orbit as the premier UK solo artist. Mostly his output consists of cod-rock or slushly ballads, and his success was partly put down to his prolific song-writing partnership with Guy Chambers. The two split a while back and many wondered if Williams' career would slip into freefall due to this. Unperturbed, Robbie Williams has written the two tracks on here with Stephen 'TinTin' Duffy (and someone called A.Strange) and harkens back to a New Wave-era sound.

Radio is a very catchy slice of New Wave synthpop. This track mixes swiring guitar with insistent synth melodies. The vocals remind me of someone from the era he is trying to emulate, but knock me down with a feather if I can work out who. It's very different to anything he has previously released and is, in my opinion, also easily the best.

Northern Town is a bit of a strange b-side, feeling more like a recored jamming session than a proper song. Flamenco drums and guitar start this off, before another nice blend of guitar and synth take over a track that just seems to meander along to it's climax without really going anywhere. There is no discernable chorus, just some repeated lyrics and some foreign language vocals (maybe Japanese) quite prominent in the background.

Pounding funky bass and handclaps with some odd synth effects back the original vocal track on the remix presented here. I was kind of wondering how effective this was going to be for a while, but then thicker drums and synths come in at the chorus and stay there. Whilst this is quite good, I'm not really sure where the appeal of this remix truly lies. I don't think it's aimed at the dance floor enough to be that effective in clubs, which is where I guess most modern remixes aspire to. It's also quite short and lacks the potency of the radio edit.

One of the reasons I bought this version of the single was due to the video. Most UK singles these days have one where they carry the promo vid. Not this one. In a move that I suspect will leave people feeling short-changed, the video footage is behind the scenes snippet from the video shoot. Not that impressive, and a missed opportunity.

From recent things I've read, the song-writing work with Stephen Duffy has been pretty prolific and they are currently working on his new album together. I just hope that they keep this style as it suits him and will be a high-profile artist bringing synthpop (of sorts) back into the public eye. This is already a UK number 1 hit and will undoubtedly do well across Europe as well.

Added:  Saturday, October 30, 2004
Reviewer:  Si Wooldridge
Score:
Related web link:  www.robbiewilliams.com
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