Like some pop star version of The Truman Show, we’ve watched Robbie Williams’ every move, monitored his relationships, and scrutinised each pitfall he’s stumbled over for the last decade.
Perhaps playing on this, Robbie has stretched his career far beyond the level even he could have expected, this being his seventh album in 10 years. The title alone intrigues. Now playing the tortured soul stranded within the grand mansion, Intensive Care is riddled by the emotions raised by the singer’s advancing years. ‘Ghosts’ takes a nostalgic look back at his first love, ‘Make Me Pure’ is a song to his maker, while ‘Spread Your Wings’, by his own admission, returns him to the sounds of Oran' Juice Jones and Jocelyn Brown. Mostly though, Williams wrestles with love, most explicitly on the stand-out track ‘The Trouble With Me’ (“I’m a basket case/I don’t think I can love, love, love”).
Musically, this all makes for a melancholic and much more interesting record than previous outings. Stephen Duffy has replaced Guy Chambers as Williams’ songwriting partner to fine effect, though ‘Sin Sin Sin’ and ‘Tripping’ suggest that Williams has always made a far greater contribution than we perhaps give him credit for. More than ever though, Intensive Care redefines the Stoke boy as downbeat, melancholic, glossed over at times by a production facade, but full of personality.