Robbie Williams Greatest Hits v. The Best of Sixpence None The Richer

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Two recent compilations. Angels and Millenium vs. Kiss Me (English and Japanese versions?) and There She Goes.

― agw, Tuesday, 2 November 2004 21:52 (twenty-one years ago)

sixpence none the richer's self titled album rules

― reo, Tuesday, 2 November 2004 21:54 (twenty-one years ago)

robbie has some decent tunes, but none as good as "kiss me"

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 21:57 (twenty-one years ago)

full track listings

robbie: old before i die, lazy days, angels, let me entertain you, millenium, no regrets, strong, she's the one, rock dj, kids, supreme, let love be your energy, eternity, the road to mandalay, feel, come undone, sexed up, radio, misunderstood

sixpence: loser like me, us, too far gone, the ground you shook, kiss me, breathe your name, melody of you, dancing queen, don't dream it's over, there she goes, i need love, i just wan't made for these times, breathe, brighten my heart, angeltread, within a room somewhere, trust (reprise), kiss me (japanese version)

― agw, Tuesday, 2 November 2004 23:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Kiss Me is fifty times greater than every RW song put together. Robbie Williams only had two good songs, they are "Supreme" and "Road To Mandalay" and everything else is dreadful because the man is an empty shell who can only make that affecting in very tiny stretches. Someone else could really have sold "Feel", for instance, and the bombast can't hide the fact that "Let Me Entertain You" is a very dull pastiche. When was the last time anyone WANTED to listen to "Old Before I Die" or "Let Love Be Your Energy" anyway?

In addition, working with Stephen Duffy does not make your single worth listening to. Three words for you, or rather, one word repeated: ME. ME. ME. Case closed.

Also, SNTR's version of "Here She Goes" - there is NOTHING WRONG WITH IT AT ALL.

― edward o (edwardo), Wednesday, 3 November 2004 00:32 (twenty-one years ago)

"Kiss Me" is fucking ace.

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Wednesday, 3 November 2004 01:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Are you people deaf?

― maria b (maria b), Wednesday, 3 November 2004 04:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Robbie Williams, or The Fat Dancer as he is known, is totally without merit. He's an overblown karaoke singer in the same vein of THE most over rated performer ever - Elvis Presley.

― Moston (Moston), Wednesday, 3 November 2004 09:22 (twenty-one years ago)

finally! I thought I was alone in my love of this song

― lukey (Lukey G), Wednesday, 3 November 2004 09:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Rather a glorious fucked-up egomaniac halfway between Robert Kilroy-Silk and Freddie Starr than an album full of lame Sundays ripoffs!

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 3 November 2004 09:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Um, don't you have to have a bunch of hits before you can put out a greatest hits record?

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Wednesday, 3 November 2004 14:33 (twenty-one years ago)

robbie williams is proof that all the nods and winks and warmed-over popcult "irony" in the world can not redeem totally unmemorable music

he's huge in non-english-speaking countries, go figure

― amateur!!st, Wednesday, 3 November 2004 14:36 (twenty-one years ago)

"totally unmemorable"

Yes, I mean, no one ever sings Let Me Entertain You or Angels at karaoke do they?

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 3 November 2004 14:41 (twenty-one years ago)

i wouldn't know because (a) i haven't done karaoke in a long while; (b) no karaoke bar in america would bother with robbie willliams

as for the source of my observation: i don't remember any of his songs. at all.

― amateur!!st, Wednesday, 3 November 2004 14:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I was exercising my cultivated sense of popcult "irony."

Robbie Williams, like Tony Hancock, irony and socialism, does not translate well to American audiences.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 3 November 2004 14:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Robbie Williams, like Tony Hancock, irony and socialism, does not translate well to American audiences.

Being shit doesn't help his case much either, mind.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Wednesday, 3 November 2004 14:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I think I'm the only person in the world whose favourite Robbie Williams song is "Kids". He has more good songs than SNTR, but "Kiss Me" is better than all of them.

― The Lex (The Lex), Wednesday, 3 November 2004 15:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Although many connoisseurs preferred the follow-up "Icing On The Cake."

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 3 November 2004 15:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I would much rather see Robbie live than forced to see SNTR any time.
Same goes for the cd's.

― daarkbee (daarkbee), Wednesday, 3 November 2004 17:24 (twenty-one years ago)

KIDS IS GREAT. i'm no fan of Robbie OR kylie, but KIDS is SMASHING. Must get it played next club FT.

― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Wednesday, 3 November 2004 17:26 (twenty-one years ago)

No, can't stand "Kids," it's ploddy and just makes me think of Tom Jones and Jools Holland. "Proper" music yeucch.

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 4 November 2004 08:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Robbie wants to be proper music. That's why he writes "real" songs about "real emotions" like "Feel", because he's very real. His pain is also very real. And it has to be, because he's just being himself. Which is also real.

I can't see how that criticism applies particularly to "Kids", Marcello.

― edward o (edwardo), Thursday, 4 November 2004 09:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Robbie should be content with plasticity. The Oasis B-side rejects, the pub-rock backdrop of "Kids" ("I'm gonna give you all of my loving" puke), the brown-tongueing to a Cowell-approved past that was Swing When You're Winning (sitting there in shirtsleeves kowtowing to old footage of Sinatra - James Chance would have ripped the screen to shreds with sexy skronk) all confirm that he should avoid being "real."

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 4 November 2004 09:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, this is inarguable. I just don't see how that applies to "Kids" any more than it does to "Let Me Entertain You" or especially "Old Before I Die".

― edward o (edwardo), Thursday, 4 November 2004 09:34 (twenty-one years ago)

It plods along in the same way that the Scissor Sisters' "Take Your Mama Out" drags. It's an unsexy record which glues itself to the past rather than having the nerve to fly into the future. It might still mean a future for him in the Woolpackers rather than in LCD Soundsystem.

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 4 November 2004 09:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I do not get the Robbie hate. It's incredibly vitriolic when all the guy is is an old-fashioned warts-and-all popstar. Stylus piece up tomorrow, I gather.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Thursday, 4 November 2004 09:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Still doesn't answer my question, Marcello. What of his knee-jerk attempts at classicism? Are they really less revolting?

― edward o (edwardo), Thursday, 4 November 2004 09:49 (twenty-one years ago)

What Robbie hate?

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 4 November 2004 09:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Nick: Robbie Williams, or the idea of him, is very much someone who hates pop's idea of what a pop star should be being sold back to the public. He has too many ideas above his station, a paucity of songwriting talent and his charisma seems to have stemmed from some kind of bizarre experiment in communal reinforcement, wherein the fact that he's a great performer has been repeated ad infinitum until it is almost fact.

But it isn't, he isn't and his records are still dreadful.

(NB. Yes I am aware I am coming over all Proper Pop Brigade here, I'm sorry. I like having my buttons pushed by pop, really, I do, but Robbie pushes all the ones that trigger violent, hateful reactions.)

― edward o (edwardo), Thursday, 4 November 2004 09:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I was actually referring to your piece Marcello. How can you find them any less revolting when you claim the leeching onto the past is such a bad thing?

― edward o (edwardo), Thursday, 4 November 2004 09:53 (twenty-one years ago)

I didn't mention "Kids" at all. But just because the Human League are venerated doesn't mean we have to venerate the Boomtown Rats as well.

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 4 November 2004 10:01 (twenty-one years ago)

(Sigh. I am not being clear. Apologies.)

Your piece does not mention Kids, it is true. But you are clearly expressing a kind of affection for some of Robbie's songs, despite one particular reservation for "Kids" you have in this thread which apply just as validly to these other songs.

I suppose that "Kids" the song itself is so vapid and pointless and bereft of chemistry that whatever charm Robbie has people can detect is strangled, I'd certainly rate that as his worst single.

― edward o (edwardo), Thursday, 4 November 2004 10:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes I'd agree that last paragraph is a pretty fair summary. As for his worst single, though, it would have to be a toss-up between the two he left off the compilation - "Freedom" or "Something Stupid."

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 4 November 2004 10:09 (twenty-one years ago)

"Freedom", the original version, is my favourite pop single of all time. I'd repressed memories of his cover.

Still. It came early enough in his career to taint my impression of him, which was hardly damaged as a result of Take That as TT's UK-mania didn't really extend overseas so it was only the glorious "Back For Good" that I'd heard over and over.

To me, Robbie's every action smacked of catering and rubbing up key demographics of pop fans - girls, gays, electro-kids, those who like their pop music to sound a bit like rock music, people who are a bit suspicious about pop as an art form to begin with etc, etc, and as a member of some of those groups, I just wanted him to write a decent tune to go with the base-covering.

― edward o (edwardo), Thursday, 4 November 2004 10:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Robbie's a character in search of an author.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Thursday, 4 November 2004 11:17 (twenty-one years ago)

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