Mocked by some for his bizarre X Factor antics, hailed by others as back to his best, Robbie returns, as neurotic and needy as ever. Produced by Trevor Horn (whose 1979 Buggles hit the title so clunkily references), Reality Killed... features the same grab bag of influences - the Beatles, electro-pop, lighters-aloft balladeering - and suffers from the same old Robbie problems: the sense that he is an impressionist, not an artist; dreadful puns purporting to be uniquely witty, insightful couplets; vocals that, because of Williams's manic Norman Wisdom gurning, self-deprecation and possibly even disdain for what he has re-enlisted for, convey ambivalence rather than passion; and tunes (Won't Do That, Morning Sun, Blasphemy) whose hook-filled adeptness cannot conceal the hollowness at their heart. Enough now.
EMI CDV3064