Your Jesus Really Died For Me

For the first time in a really long time, Robbie Williams has made me smile. His first album in three years--"Reality Killed the Video Star" (originally titled "El Protagonista" but later shafted because, you guessed it, it sounded too pretentious)--comes out November 9. It would be fair to say that, the odd song (such as "Advertising Space") apart, there hasn't been something like a good Robbie Williams song since the "Escapology" album six years previously. Given that RW formed almost a fifth of my musical taste at one point ("Sing When You're Winning" in 2000 was the first "Western music" album I ever purchased), this has been an incredibly long wait.

Once bitten, twice shy, unfortunately. My hopes were as high when 2006's "Intensive Care" came out, but that turned out to be a gigantic disappointment. The feeling that I got cheated out of my money only intensified with RW's next album "Rudebox", which he put out inside twelve months. Despite initial promotional hysteria, it has to certainly rank as his worst album ever and perhaps one of the worst to come out that year.

So I approach RKTVS with a significantly greater degree of caution. However, even if this album turns out to be crap, the first single off it--"Bodies"-- is fast assuming all-time RW favourite status. I have often been told how certain songs are Eashan Ghosh-type songs and though that's usually meant as a mildly deriding categorization, I'll happily go on record to say that "Bodies" is most certainly an Eashan Ghosh-type song!

It has all the elements of a classic Eashan Ghosh-type song: it begins with an (evidently post-"Rudebox") electronica/banjo hangover, builds a "deep" verse and culminates in an epic, expansive, slightly mournful chorus full of emotion (or, as DPS students would say, "meaning"). There's an extra-long bridge which makes no sense but, by then, it doesn't matter because you're usually sold. Full opera-style final chorus and the punch line/tune repeated ad infinitum till the finish.

Whatever you may think of this kind of song, you have to doff your hat to someone who comes up with "God save me rejection, from my reflection, I want perfection" to round out a chorus. The video is a classic piece of work as well, especially the last forty-five seconds or so--RW walks with a swagger, positions himself on an airplane wing, sits on his haunches and stares at the camera, air-violins, does a jig, sticks his arms out Jesus-the-saviour-style and generally looks like he owns the world.

You'd begun to wonder where the arrogance had gone. "As good as 'Angels', if not better", said one review. Let's see. He may be England's best-ever solo artist yet.