I love Robbie Williams, so obvious this is going to be a positive review of Escapology. However with this said, while it is an excellent album and more worthy of your money than most of what makes up the HMV stock, I must admit it is not the best Robbie album.

It is indeed he’s most mature work with very slick arrangements and the usual clever lyrics, but Escapology lacks a ‘magic’ track. There is no undoubtedly beautiful ‘Angels’ and no irresistible party song like ‘Rock DJ.’  It is tightly structured and well executed (as it should be, as it is a Guy Chambers’ production), highly enjoyable…and yet. Maybe it’s just greedy to wish for another perfect pop gem from the Williams/Chambers writing team, but as this is their last album together it would have been wonderful to have one last great number for a good-bye.

What material there is here does highlight Robbie’s skills: good pastiches, good vocals and lyrics filled with jokey self-reproach. Much of themes are familiar territory: the failings of celebrity, the size of Robbie’s ego, Robbie’s loneliness etc. etc. etc. However in a new turn, America dominants a large amount of this album. Is it because he is so desperate to break there or is just because that’s where he wrote it?  Either way we are treated with three tracks on the matter: ‘Song 3’ (a nod to the only Blur song to make it Stateside), ‘Hot Fudge’, and the baffling Vegas tale ‘Me and My Monkey.’  I don’t get ‘Me and My Monkey.’  Is it a real monkey?  Is it a metaphor?  Oh well, at least it is a new oeuvre in the grand tradition of pop songs about monkeys.

In a round up of the rest, the first single ‘Feel’ is a real stand-out with great piano. Sexed Up’ is an amazingly devastating break up song, during which Robbie announces to his lover: ‘Screw you, I didn’t like your taste/ Anyway, I chose you and that’s all gone to waste/ It’s Saturday, I’ll go out/ And find another you.’  It’s a harsh song, but I like ‘em that way. Cursed’ is a not so anonymous ode to Geri Halliwell, and ‘Nan’s Song’ is the first song written without the aid of Chambers (it’s not incredible but highly serviceable).

The crème de la crème is the album’s hidden track. It’s audacious, funny, and well worth the ten minutes of silence you have to get through first to hear it. In addition to condemning his current lover as a hopeless bore, Robbie addresses some of the most troubling questions (and I’m dead serious about this) of contemporary life including: ‘Does God ever get it wrong/ Where has Gary Barlow gone/ Why is Christmas day so long?’. Buy the CD to have this song at least.

In the end, Escapology leaves more questions than answers. It is a strong work, but it’s only a strong work when a brilliant work was required. With Robbie’s break with Chambers and his signing of an 80 million pound deal with EMI many doubts regarding Robbie’s worth have been batted around. A piece of pop genius would have silenced the critics, but I’m afraid their knives are still out. Maybe if he can break America it will all be laid to rest, but it is a big if.