Tricky thing to ride, the nostalgia wave. Trading on your old reputation and banging out the hits is one thing, but venturing back into the studio to resurrect your career as recording artists? Surely that way lies madness.
In the case of Take That however, maybe not. The absurd level of interest in their live dates proved that they still had an audience. More tellingly, they finished their career on a creative high, having moved from being an ironic pop pleasure to the genuine class of ‘Back For Good’ and ‘Never Forget’. ‘Patience’ certainly suggested that they might be able to pick up where they left off.
Beautiful World more than emphasises the point. Quite sensibly, Take That have opted not to try and recreate their younger, leather chap-wearing selves but have made an album to suit their own advancing years. The writing credits have now been spread evenly throughout band, but there's no doubt that the hand of Gary Barlow still dominates, and after all this time he still knows his way around a good tune. In fact, this album is wall-to-wall with them, all dressed in sweeping arrangements and a grand, polished production. In fact, if Beautiful World proves anything it’s that pop music may be wasted on the young. Compare any of these tracks with the dross that clogs up the charts these days and you’ll see that there’s no comparison.
The fear may have been that Take That were coming back to embarrass both themselves and their memory, but in fact they’ve produced a record more entertaining and complete than anything that Westlife, Blue, Boyzone and, yes, Robbie himself, have ever come close to.