Entertainment Ireland

Robbie Williams
Reality Killed the Video Star

After a three year-long hiatus of-sorts, the Crown Prince of Pop is back with a bang. His eighth studio album may well be one of the zeniths of his career.

It was hard to tell where Robbie Williams would go after 'Rudebox'. A hugely unfairly-maligned album - in fact, it was one of his strongest solo albums to date, in this writer's opinion - its reception drove the perennial cheeky-chappy underground (or to Los Angeles) and away from music for the guts of three years.

Now he's back, and with pop maestro Trevor Horn at the helm of an album with a big heart beating at its core. Williams' temporary disillusionment with the music business can be heard in the lyrics of some of these songs, but if they're tangled in a somewhat melancholy vibe, the sadness is offset by Horn's gleeful instrumentation and trademark euphoric pop crescendos. Horn's influence is palpable all the way through 'Reality Killed the Video Star', in fact, not least in its title (a not-so-subtle homage to his former band The Buggles) - see the sumptuous arrangements of 'Blasphemy' and 'Superblind', or even midpaced ballad 'Morning Sun', which strives for epic pop ballad territory.

There's certainly less of an electro bent on these songs than there was on 'Rudebox', which means that the lush orchestration is given full opportunity to flourish. Yet even still, the aptly-titled 'Last Days of Disco' pays tribute to several bands (Eurythmics, Human League, Pet Shop Boys) from the '80s electro-pop era that the singer so obviously loves. 'Do You Mind?' throws yet another stylistic curveball with its upbeat, guitar-heavy desert-pop-rock, while 'Won't Do That' is surely in line for release as a future single, treading the line between overblown pomp and pure pop catchiness with ease.

There's lots packed into this album; repeated listens will ensnare you further, particularly with tracks like the initially underwhelming 'Bodies'. Most importantly, it's a good, old-fashioned pop album that relies on instruments and individualism instead of machines and technical wizardry. Welcome back, Mr. Williams. You've been missed.

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