Despite his constant self-deprecation,
Robbie Williams is a shrewd artist, one who can tell when a change is in order. It's impossible to tell if he would have agreed to continue working with producer
Guy Chambers had
Chambers not been forced out of the chair by money matters, but
Williams lost little time in finding another creative partner.
Stephen Duffy may not be as fluent in the last 40 years of guitar pop as
Chambers is, but he immediately announces a changing of the guard on the first track, "Ghosts," with his ringing guitar and keyboards. And it works, briefly. The trailer single, "Tripping," is a warm, clubby single that slightly resembles "Rock DJ," but sounds like it could find a comfortable home on both adult alternative radio and the dancefloor.
Williams goes for the jugular on "Spread Your Wings," an ambitious portrait of a lover's reunion (based, he says, on an alternate view of
Human League's "Louise"). His lyrics, however, only sketch in the details, and
Duffy's arrangement is a pale shadow of a
Smiths song from 20 years earlier. It's possible that the partnership of
Duffy and
Williams can still bear fruit, but it will require not only better music from
Duffy but far better performances from
Williams. He rarely even sounds like himself, instead choosing to channel his '80s heroes --
Bono,
Morrissey,
George Michael, even
Tom Jones briefly. It's important to point out that since
Intensive Care represents a new direction and a new sound, it is much more interesting than the creatively bankrupt
Escapology. ~ John Bush