GQ magazine 2009…

 

 

Reality Killed The Video Star wears its influences on its sleeve: the opener, the lovely "Morning Sun", owes a debt to the Beatles; "Last Days Of Disco" evokes Pet Shop Boys; "Starstruck" nods to George Michael. Maybe it's the Horn connection, but I hear Frankie Goes To Hollywood's incendiary bluster in the adrenalised jolt of "Bodies", the first single, with its epic ambitions and its potentially controversial lyric, the phrase "Jesus didn't die for you" repeated like a secular incantation. "Deceptacon" is a spacey wonder; "Won't Do That" is a love song to Ayda; "Do You Mind" is instantly appealing, punch-the-air power-pop. As Rob's says, the album "ticks the boxes".

The songwriting credits include, for the first time since 2002, the name Guy Chambers – co-writer of many, even most, of Rob's signature chantalongs from the Imperial Phase: "Angels"; "Let Me Entertain You"; "Millennium"; "Rock DJ"; "Feel". This is something of a red herring: the ballad in question, "Blasphemy", was written years ago but slotted nicely into the new album, with Chambers' blessing. Instead, the bulk of Reality Killed The Video Starwas written with Kelvin Andrews and Danny Spencer, the songwriting duo known as Soul Mekanik, who co-wrote "Rudebox", as well as Richard Scott and Scott Ralph, all of whom are also originally from Stoke.

He won't tour Reality Killed The Video Star. He's not ready for that. Not yet. But he will be promoting it on The X Factor, on ITV, and performing at the BBC Electric Proms, at  London's Roundhouse on 20 October. He feels the album is "as good as anything I've done, if not better. I know I say that every time, but that's what I felt and this is what I feel again. It's ace. It's amazing." He pauses. "So then, all eyes on me." Another pause. "Scary."

 

 

For the most part, 'Reality Killed The Video Star' was written in Robbie's home studio in Los Angeles and recorded in London. Amongst those who have collaborated on the songwriting, in a variety of ways, are Kelvin Andrews & Danny Spencer, Brandon Christy, Richard Scott and Scott Ralph, Chaz Jankel, Guy Chambers and Fil Eisler. The album is produced by the legendary Trevor Horn. 

Its stylistic range is broad and exuberant, as Robbie Williams' albums have been from the very first. The songs’ tone and topics veer widely as well, from the apocalyptic conspiracy-laced first single 'Bodies' to a hymn for one fallen 'Morning Sun'; from today’s fame epidemic ('Starstruck') to 'Won’t Do That To You', the most traditional subject of all and his very first love song