When Robbie Williams was kicked out of the wildly popular boy group Take That in 1995, few gave a penny for his career. But behold, seven years later the other members have fallen into obscurity and Robbie has become Europe's most popular pop star. Williams was smart enough to distance himself from his boy group past and seek a musical connection with the Britpop sound of Oasis and Blur. After
… forming a rock group around him, he won over the audience during the many performances with bravado and pure show-off. Robbie's qualities as a performer ensured that even the daring foray with songs from The Ratpack (Swing When You're Winning, 2001) was successful. With Escapology, Williams elaborates on the solid pop-rock sound of his previous successful albums. It is now a well-known formula, but as long as Robbie comes up with strong songs like Something Beautiful and Monsoon, he remains the undisputed ruler of the no man's land between boy band pop and Britpop. (MS)more
