new introductory bit here.

This is a reviews page based on my own collection, which just keeps growing despite itself. If it isn't listed here, it's because I don't own it yet, or I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Also, bother your local "new rock" radio station and make sure they are playing "new rock" and not "Rock the Casbah," which is not new.

note: entries in red text indicate my pick for the artist's best available album. A gold numeral indicates the POPocalypse winner of the year's best album; second- and third-place winners are in blue. Green lettering indicates an obviously exploitative record company compilation without apparent artist input.

Take That was an English boy band of the early-mid '90s who racked up dozens of hits in that country. When they split, few would have predicted that Robbie Williams, the chubby, loutish, heavy drinking one, would be the most successful of the five. Certainly nobody predicted just what a superstar he'd become.

Robbie started a solo career in 1996 with a cover of George Michael's "Freedom," which rocketed to #2. "Old Before I Die" followed it a year later. Teamed with co-writer Guy Chambers, Williams instantly perfected an over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek pop style which easily adapted to enormous ballads like the mammoth hit "Angels" or rock anthems like "Let Me Entertain You," which were contained on his debut Life Thru a Lens. Williams had no fears of oddball photo shoots or expensive videos, most of which he participated in with three or four lagers and a permanently raised eyebrow. The following year's I've Been Expecting You was a huge #1 success, containing the remarakable singalong anthems "Millenium" and "No Regrets." The former, in particular, is a song to hang a career on, lush with strings and with a powerful delivery.

These two albums were licensed to Capitol in the USA, who did the same stunt they had pulled thirty-odd years before with the Beatles and made a new album for the American market, compiling six songs from Life Thru a Lens and eight from I've Been Expecting You. Robbie supported the album with some shows and appearances and managed some minor success, but the album was by no means a hit, so he continued concentrating his career in Europe and Japan, where he could be assured of sellout stadiums and #1 hits.

Along with his musical celebrity came remarkable public notoreity for his bad boy image. At the time dating All Saints singer Nicole Appelton, and drinking lager in mass quantities, Williams embarked firstly on a remarkable feud with his former Take That colleague Gary Barlow, attacking him in the Expecting song "Karma Killer" with such bon mots as "I hope you choke on your Bacardi and Coke." Then there was the Liam Gallagher feud, which started in 1999 and is probably still going, and has involved each of them threatening to beat or pummel the other.

This all worked wonders for publicizing his third album Sing When You're Winning, which was preceded by the single "Rock DJ." While not as mammoth a hit as some of its predecessors, "DJ" is notable for its remarkable video, in which Robbie, desperate to gain the attention of disinterested girls roller-skating in circles around him, first strips nude and then removes his skin in layers, finally getting their approval when only a skeleton remains. As for the album, there is little that is new or untested, but it is a very entertaining, cheeky and bombastic listen, including a great duet with Kylie Minogue on "Kids." It does, however, beg the question of how long Williams intended to milk the formula.

Changing gears in mid-charge, Williams hopped onto the craze for big band swing music with Swing When You're Winning, featuring old standards like "The Lady is a Tramp" and other Rat Pack favorites. How in the world he pulled off something so audacious is a mystery, but the album, featuring the #1 duet with Nicole Kidman "Somethin' Stupid," was another massive hit. Sadly, as its predecessor had missed the US top 100, and our swing revival happened three years before the Brits had to put up with it, Capitol passed on the US distribution. A sold-out support show at the Royal Albert Hall was filmed for TV and home video. (7/02)