Out of all the members of Take That,
Robbie Williams never really seemed to fit in. Roguishly handsome where his
bandmates were merely cute, Williams was tougher and sexier than the rest,
which made him more distinctive. He also fought regularly with the other
members and their management, primarily because he was occasionally adverse
to being so heavily packaged. So it didn't come as a surprise that he was
the first to leave the band, departing early in the summer of 1995 to pursue
a solo career (by some accounts, he was fired from the group). Although he
was the first out of the gate, it took Williams awhile to get started. For
most of 1995, he attempted to boost his credibility by tagging along with
Oasis, hoping that Noel Gallagher would give him a couple of songs. He never
did, but all of his time with Oasis launched Williams into a world of heavy
partying, drinking, and drugging. Over the course of 1996, he was only heard
from in gossip columns, and every published picture indicated he had put on
considerable weight. Occasionally, he was quoted as saying his new music
would abandon lightweight dance-pop for traditional Brit-pop, but his first
single was a cover of George Michael's "Freedom '90." Released late in 1996,
the single was a disaster, but his second single, 1997's "Old Before I Die,"
was more in the vein of his early pronouncements, featuring a distinct Oasis
influence.
Williams finally released his first solo album, Life Thru a Lens, in 1997.
The album became a big hit in Britain, prompting his second, I've Been
Expecting You, in 1998. (The Ego Has Landed, a U.S.-only compilation
designed for breaking Williams to American audiences, was released stateside
in the spring of 1999.) Sing When You're Winning followed in late 2000,
gaining success with the video hit "Rock DJ," while a big-band album of
standards (Swing When You're Winning) appeared a year later. During 2002,
Williams celebrated an enormous new contract with EMI (rumored to be upwards
of $80 million dollars), but suffered the loss of his longtime production
partner, Guy Chambers. Escapology, the fifth Robbie Williams album (and the
last including Chambers' input), sold millions of copies in Europe, though
it failed to persuade American audiences. As a result, the 2003 concert
record Live at Knebworth wasn't released in the States. He introduced a new
musical partner, Stephen Duffy, with a pair of songs from his compilation
Greatest Hits, then reappeared in 2005 with Intensive Care. Although the
album topped charts in Europe and Williams set an impressive concert record
-- his 2006 world tour sold over 1.5 million tickets in one day -- a certain
creative atrophy was setting in, despite the new input of Duffy. Within a
year, he had recorded and released Rudebox, a dance album recorded with half
a dozen outside producers, some featured guests, and several covers instead
of self-penned material. Rudebox hit number one across Europe soon after
release.
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music
Guide
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